As black people, we want our story to be this constant ascendance from slavery. But it's not like that. You push and it goes up. Then there's a backlash, and if folks stop pushing, it goes down. Let's face it, it's a lot more complicated.

One of the most important parts of the civil rights movement that people don't talk about was these mass meetings. It's like "Movement Church." It's a combination of the music of the movement and the church. Those mass meetings are where people got the energy to go on to the next day.

Race is always tossed into the mix. The unspoken idea is always that white people have a right to carry guns and bear arms.

Cameras have really made people question the police. People, especially white people, are saying, 'Oh my God, we had no idea.'

As black people, we want our story to be this constant ascendance from slavery. But it's not like that. You push and it goes up. Then there's a backlash, and if folks stop pushing, it goes down. Let's face it, it's a lot more complicated.

People also don't understand how young the Panthers were - basically teenagers. And that they were over 50 percent women.

I want to be able to tell black people something they don't know, something about our own lives.