“The Black Panther: All Power to the People,” 1969, Emory Douglas. Lithograph on paper, 57.1 x 38 cm. The Merrill C. Berman collection of posters relating to United States twentieth-century social movements. Getty Research Institute, 2023.M.58. © Emory Douglas
Speakers: Dr. LeRonn P. Brooks, curator, Getty Research Institute, and Dr. Steven Zucker, Smarthistory
The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 to challenge racism and oppression with militant defense and community focus, and an education program that centered human and civil rights. The artist Emory Douglas (American, b. 1943) was one of the early members of the Panthers and served as the group’s Minister of Culture. Originally trained as a commercial artist, Douglas wanted to use the visual tools of advertising for Black liberation and radical revolution, seeing his community in Oakland, CA as an important space to share revolutionary ideals through graphic media. His print of a young boy holding up the Black Panthers’ newspaper, which had a circulation of hundreds of thousands of readers at its height, emblematizes the bold visuals and mass communication tactics used to spread the party’s political message to the public. Though the boy has a rifle slung on his shoulder, it’s the newspaper that is the real weapon.
This video was made possible by the GRI Council.
This program is associated with the Getty Research Institute’s African American Art History Initiative, which focuses on the history, practices, and cultural legacies of artists of African American and African diasporic heritage. The initiative aims to provide a more robust and accurate account of American art through Black history.
Links
African American Art History Initiative
https://www.getty.edu/projects/african-american-art-history-initiative/
Merrill C. Berman collection at the Getty Research Institute:
http://primo.getty.edu/GRI:GETTY_ALMA21239080840001551
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