Source: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty
Beyoncé has ruffled a lot of feathers with her Super Bowl 50 performance. Beyonce’s back-up dancers wore Black Panther-style berets and afro puffs symbolizing the revolutionary black nationalist & civil rights organization founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in the late 1960’s. Did you know Bey isn’t the first singer to rep for the Panthers?
Meet Yvette Marie Stevens, better known as Chaka Khan.
From Biography.com
In 1969, soul singer Chaka Khan became active in the black power movement, joining the Black Panther Party and working on the organization’s free breakfast program for children. Around this time, she took on a new name: Chaka Adunne Aduffe Yemoja Hodarhi Karifi. She also said good-bye to her formal education, dropping out from high school.
In the 70’s Khan would go on to join the R&B/Funk band “Rufus.” After a string of successful albums the band was renamed “Rufus featuring Chaka Khan.”
If you didn’t know, now you know.
