Once your leaders get corrupted one way or another, it's hard to stop the organization from being corrupted.

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.

Once your leaders get corrupted one way or another, it's hard to stop the organization from being corrupted.

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

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

You can't imagine hip-hop without the Black Panthers. Today, hopefully, the movement can be an inspiration to people. These were people who made mistakes but they were trying to change things.

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.