The Black Panthers, an original product of Berkeley and Oakland, were masters of the image. They dressed and posed for maximum effect. The covers of their newspaper were stunning, both in shocking content and graphics. Their posters evoked rage and determination.
Although only a few of the original Panthers made it this far, the party and individual Panthers are celebrated in murals.
We have two murals in Berkeley that allude to the Black Panthers, the People’s History of Telegraph Avenue at Haste and Telegraph and Live Without Borders at San Pablo and Addison. They pale in comparison to these murals elsewhere:
“To Protect And Serve,” mural depicting the Black Panther Party by Nona Olabisi at Jefferson & 11th Avenue, Los Angeles.
Third Avenue and 122nd Street, East Harlem
Chiswick, UK
The Angola Three are three prison inmates – Robert King , Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace – who were put in solitary confinement in the Louisiana State Prison at Angola after the 1972 killing of a prison guard. Robert King spent 29 years in solitary confinement before his conviction was overturned and he was released. Wallace, before being released October 1, 2013, and Woodfox spent 40 years of solitary confinement as of 2013.
Los Angeles
Ella Baker Center, 40th Street, Oakland
Chiswick, UK
“The Essence of Huey P. Newton,” by Darrel Anderson, Denver
Uncommissioned, Douglas and Bay, Victoria, British Columbia]
By Brandan Odums, part of Project Be, New Orleans
By Brandan Odums, part of Project Be, New Orleans
By Brandan Odums, part of Project Be, New Orleans
West Oakland, photo from tiaballantine.org (a great Oakland blog)
Shepard Fairey mural in Boston
By Brandan Odums, part of Project Be
Mural by 13th St. and Main, Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnat
California and Madison, Chicago
By Calvin Jones
Stephen Shames, Wall Mural of Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Roxbury, Boston, 1971
My friend mused about the killings of so many Panthers. He put on some music that he thought fit the situation.
And then he commented on the Panther murals:
