The National Park Service decided to withdraw $98,000 in funding for a UC Berkeley professor's approved documentary project surrounding the Black Panther Party, according to the East Bay Times. The decision came after the Fraternal Order of Police and conservative news pushed back.
The NPS said the "Black Panther Party Research, Interpretation & Memory Project," and was to "memorialize a history that brought meaning to lives far beyond the San Francisco Bay Area." The documentary was supposed to run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 30. The original proposal for the project stated that the purpose of the documentary was to exhibit "how the BPP impacted the visual arts, music, dance and styles of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s and underscore the vastness of its impact on American culture.”
On Oct. 19, however, the FOP sent a letter to President Donald Trump and NPS quickly backtracked on the project, stating that funds for the documentary were never finalized.
“At present, I can confirm that the project in question will not receive funding from the National Park Service,” Park Service spokesman Craig Dalby said.
In the letter sent to Trump, national FOP president Chuck Canterbury wrote that U.S. Park Ranger Kenneth Patrick – who was shot in August 1973 – was killed by Black Panther Party affiliate Veronza Leon Curtis Bowers Jr. Although the Black Panther Party fought against police brutality and fed breakfast to children in black and underprivileged communities, Canterbury said in his letter that the Black Panther Party was “a violent and repugnant organization” that “Ranger Patrick’s own agency now proposes to partner with.”
The East Bay Times reports that there is currently no word on the status of the project.