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Power to the people: the branding of the Black Panther party in pictures | Art and design

Power to the people: the branding of the Black Panther party – in pictures

As the civil rights movement grew, the Black Panthers become an influential and innovative activist group, focused on redressing systemic oppression. At a new exhibition at Poster House in New York, some of their most powerful posters and newspaper advertisements show a specific graphic language that helped spread their message to the people

Main image: Power to the People, 1969. Designer Unknown. Photograph: Poster House

Mon 20 Mar 2023 11.06 EDT Last modified on Mon 20 Mar 2023 11.14 EDT

  • Cleaver for President, 1968 Designer Unknown

    In early 1968, Eldrige Cleaver ran for president on the Peace and Freedom party ticket. He was nominated over Richard ‘Dick’ C Gregory, a popular Black comedian and far-left activist. At the time of the election, Cleaver was not yet 35 years old and therefore did not meet the criteria for running for president in the United States. However, because the constitution does not specify if the elected official must be 35 years old before or after Inauguration Day, he was allowed to appear on the ballot in select states

  • Is He Protecting You?, c 1963 Danny Lyon

    Law enforcement in all of its iterations often operated in Black communities chiefly to terrorize and criminalize Black people. There was no guaranteed protection for its residents, setting the tone for the ongoing distrust between the two groups. This poster features a photograph by Danny Lyon, staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Lyon’s images established sympathy for the civil rights movement by humanizing SNCC members against the backdrop of racial violence. Much of his work also emphasized police aggression

  • Bobby Must Be Set Free!, 1970 Reginald ‘Malik’ Edwards

    Before joining the Black Panther party in 1970, Reginald ‘Malik’ Edwards had fought in the Vietnam war as a marine. He was deeply affected by his wartime experience of racism, and, after he left the marine corps, he joined the Black Panther party. Edwards ran the Washington DC chapter of the BPP, and was asked to come to Oakland because he was an artist. This image depicts a young boy, perhaps Bobby Seale’s son, also named Malik (after Malcolm X), crying in front of a poster demanding Seale’s freedom

  • Power to the People, 1969 Designer Unknown

    This poster is designed in the psychedelic style, visually referencing the drug-fueled counterculture movement of the time. The triumphant figure’s raised fist is thrust between repeated silhouettes of the Chrysler Building in New York, an identifiable icon of the city affected by the case of the Panther 21

  • An Attack Against One Is an Attack Against All, 1968 Designer Unknown

    The history of the logo can be traced back to designer Ruth Howard, a member of the Atlanta branch of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee where she learned how visuals could galvanize a community. In 1966, SNCC organizers in Lowndes county approached her to create the symbol. Howard originally designed a dove to express power and autonomy but it wasn’t well received. She eventually based it on the school mascot of Clark College, a local HBCU. Dorothy Zeller, a white Jewish woman, added whiskers and the black color

  • Angela Davis Urges – Declare Your Independence, 1976 Designer Unknown

    This was produced for the 1976 presidential campaign of Gus Hall, the Communist Party USA candidate, and running mate, Jarvis Tyner. A modified image of the Declaration of Independence is in the background, a reference to the bicentennial of the US and two centuries of injustice in the continuing fight for equality. Angela Davis’s image is featured despite the fact that she was not running, showing how she was an influential radical figure eight years after her initial termination from UCLA for her affiliation with communism

  • Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere, 1970 Illustrator: Floyd Sowell Designer: Dorothy E. Hayes

    This brutal image highlights the gross mistreatment Bobby Seale suffered during the trial of the Chicago Eight in 1970. It is supported by the final line from Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail

  • Free the Panthers, 1969 Designer Unknown

    In 1969, 21 Black Panthers were accused of planning the bombings of three locations: the Bronx 44th precinct, the Manhattan 24th precinct, and the Queens board of education office. After an eight-month trial, all Panthers were acquitted in May 1971. This poster incorporates a photograph of a Panther being escorted in handcuffs by white plainclothes officers. It’s framed by the doorway of the court building, inscribed with the phrase ‘The Place of Justice is a Hallowed Place’, an ironic juxtaposition highlighting the hypocrisy of the US judicial system

  • The Black Panther, 1970

    The Black Panther was distributed internationally from San Francisco. Every Panther was required to read the latest edition before selling it. Although the Black Panther had a number of editors, Emory Douglas was the most notable. With limited resources, Douglas added depth and texture to each design, propagating the party’s brand through eye-catching images showing Panthers in arms accompanied by radical slogans and statements

  • Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Front of Black Panther Headquarters, c 1968 Designer Unknown

    This poster features the iconic photo of Bobby Seale and Huey Newton at the storefront of the BPP headquarters in Oakland, California. Newton appears on the right with a rifle and ammunition while Seale is on the left. The text suggests that police violence will be met with violent defensive action from Panthers. The same phrase would appear on posters throughout Black neighborhoods both as a warning to officers who patrolled the area and as encouragement to residents who wanted to protect communities

  • What Do the Panthers Stand For, 1970

    The Committee to Defend the Panther 21 was composed of communist and other leftwing activists. This broadside, distributed by the committee, includes a list of the socialist principles that guided the Black Panther party, emphasizing the communal goals of its activism as well as serving to humanize the Panthers in the light of their alleged violence
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