today i have the privilege to talk with black panther leader erica huggins. we are meeting at the oakland museum to celebrate the 50th anniversary. there is even a movie being made about them. oops, did i get that wrong? they're not going to talk about things the black panthers did actually changed laws and policies. >> yes. >> one of those famous and talked about moments with the black panthers is when you all arrived at the state capital using your right to bear arms. >> uh-huh, i wasn't there but i remember seeing the footage over and over again. it was remarkable. >> yeah. >> we were a wake up call. ♪ >> i thought it was kind of the theater of the streets that, oh, did you really mean california is an open carry state? [ laughter ] >> one of the things that drew me was the concept of self-defense, defending your community. no, you can't come and just stomp us, jail us for no reason. we were americans. but we weren't seen that way because, as it was said, we didn't know our place. >> the panthers were putting together like the idea, are guns and self-def

the instant of john huggin huggins -- they were paid to orchestrate an event that ucla 1969. that would end in their deaths. >> erika's husband, john, was the leader of black panthers. he and fellow members were both ucla students when they were shot by at black activist organization. many like me and everybody i know believed that he was killed by an fbi program called co and tell pro. they did not have a name. we knew there were something happening. we were pretty brave. >> yeah. >> here we are. violent in a systematic level is still the same. a lot of it has to do with the power. will it change in my lifetime? i used to think that it would. we have a slogan reserve aleutian in my lifetime. that's what i meant by naive. >> is there a more compassionate way? can we talk and love? >> yeah. >> can we do that? >> thank you for talking to me. i appreciate it. >> thank you for talking to me. >> i did wear my black leather jacket, i did not get the much.tt, i thought it was too >> yeah, that's a lot. [ laughter ] >>on't i dnow if i can pull that off. let's see how qukly you can re