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Get in Formation - From Beyoncé’s 50th anniversary tribute at the Super Bowl to the PBS premiere of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, the group has been the topic of much conversation this month. Here, some of the women who helped drive the movement. By Kenrya Rankin(Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

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Angela Davis - While Davis is perhaps one of the best-known members of the Black Panther Party (BPP) (and the Black Liberation Movement at large), she was only a member of the BPP for a short time. She actually left because the organization marginalized the voices of women. She went on to work with the Che-Lumumba Club, a Los Angeles-based Black faction of the Communist Party. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

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Chaka Khan - The singer joined the Chicago chapter of the BPP in 1969 and devoted much of her energy to the free breakfast program. It was during her time with the organization that she changed her name from Yvette Marie Stevens.(Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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Assata Shakur - The activist joined the party while she was living in Oakland, Calif., and continued her organizing work when she moved to Harlem. She helped create the free breakfast program and worked to establish a free community clinic. She was a target of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program, and currently lives in exile in Cuba.(Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS)

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Kathleen Cleaver - She left the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to serve as the BPP’s national communications secretary — the spokesperson — for the party. That appointment made her the first woman on the organization’s central committee. She also led the campaign to free Huey Newton from jail.(Photo: New York Times Co./Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: New York Times Co./Getty Images

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Elaine Brown - She joined the party in 1968 and quickly took over as the Los Angeles chapter’s minister of information. By 1974, she was second in command for the entire organization, serving as chairperson behind co-founder Huey P. Newton (seated next to her). In that role, she expanded the party’s programming to include electoral politics, education and civic engagement, while also working to move more women up the ranks in the organization. She left in 1977.(Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS)

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Fredrika Newton - She joined as a youth member in 1969 and married party founder Huey Newton in 1981. She was a key leader of the party and later created the Huey P. Newton Foundation to carry on the legacy.(Photo: Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images

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Charlotte Hill O’Neal - Known affectionately as “Mama C,” O’Neal was a leader in the Kansas City chapter, which was chaired by her husband, Pete O’Neal. They fled to Tanzania when Pete was accused of illegal gun transport. There, they launched the United Africa Alliance Community Center.(Photo: Charlotte Hill O'Neal via Facebook)