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"Centralized Symbol of the Leadership of Black People in the Community"
A young man seated in a large wicker chair, sometimes called a peacock chair, grips the long nose of a shotgun with one hand, while from his other a decisive spear pierces into air above the woven, fan-back mandala. Zebra skin below and ancient-looking African shields to each side complete the exotic attributes, with contemporary militancy fastidiously modeled in beret and black leather by the African-American subject (Figure 1).
This photographic poster, fulsome with signifies ranging from high art to popular culture summons to mind the late 1960s as perhaps no other. Here was Huey P. Newton, a founder of the Black Panther Party, issuing the call to arms and appealing for support. His direct gaze and forward posture, although challenging, were sincere, hinting vulnerability even. Reminiscent of European artistic traditions for authoritative portrayals of deities and rulers-Christ in majesty, or Napoleon enthroned, the misé-en-scène also flirts with mythology of the nonwest-tinsel town meets National Geographic. The image was and remains among the most iconic in American culture, inspiring reverence and evoking nostalgia, embodying the ideology of Black Power and self-determination with a compelling immediacy.
Bobby Seale, cofounder with Newton of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, once called the photograph a "centralized symbol of the leadership of black people in the community" (Seize the Time 181). More than just an astute composition of figure and symbols, here was a performed embodiment of dogmatic beliefs, usurping the apparatus of authority to reveal and confront it. As a "symbol of.. .leadership," the image gained potency through provenance. Why was it made? Where was it exhibited? How was it regarded, and by whom? More recently Nikhil Pal Singh describes Black Panther self-presentation as "an insurgent form of visibility, a literalminded and deadly serious guerrilla theater in which militant sloganeering, bodily display and spectacular actions simultaneously signified their possession and real lack of power" (83).
This intriguing poster was one of several photographic portraits of Newton, Seale, and later Eldridge Cleaver, Erica Huggins, Elaine Brown, and other Panthers used often in public relations campaigns. Much can be learned about this group and these individuals by querying how they envisioned themselves. By analyzing Black Panther portraits for...