Black Panther Party Posters, 3 Pcs, Featuring Nearly 4 Ft Tall Malcolm X!

Three vintage posters related to the Black Power Movement and Black Panther Party, featuring Malcolm X (1925-1965) and Huey P. Newton (1942-1989). The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 underscores how little has changed in American society since the late 1960s. The Black Panthers' call for "an end to police brutality," for example, is still evoked by social justice reformers today.

The lot is comprised of:

1. An enormous vintage black and white poster of Malcolm X gesturing while speaking at a podium at a 1963 Unity Rally in Harlem. The poster is numbered 306, and was copyrighted by the Personality Posters Mfg. Co. Inc., ca. 1967. Expected wear including wrinkled and chipped edges and corners and gently curling ends. Verso, there are isolated adhesive mounting traces and uneven toning at top. Isolated stains and minor loss to the upper right corner, else near fine. 29.5" x 42.5."

Malcolm X was a generation older than Huey P. Newton, the controversial co-founder of the Black Panther Party. Both men advocated for black empowerment as a means to combat societal racism; both were assassinated.

2. A vintage black and white serigraph print from Boston, ca. 1970, proclaiming "Six / More / Brothers / Killed / in Augusta, Georgia. / Rally May 14 4 pm / Commonwealth Armory." Pen inscribed "May 13 1st" verso, perhaps indicating when the poster should be exhibited, i.e. the day before the rally. The poster has a distinctive inky smell and its paint traces and partial fingerprints testify to the small-scale, home-made nature of the printing.
Gentle folds and scuffs, with a few isolated paper abrasions and closed tears. Mounting traces, one discolored recto, are found verso. Else near fine. 21.75" x 28.75."

3. A vintage poster/tabloid handout from the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention Plenary Session held in Philadelphia in September 1970. The front and back covers, incorporating photography and art design by Emory Douglas, feature images of principal convention speaker Huey P. Newton. The inner pages reproduce an address Newton delivered in the gymnasium of Temple University on September 5, 1970. With gentle folds, minor chipped edges and closed tears, and toning. Else near fine. Measures 22.75" x 16.5" laid flat.

The Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention hosted by the Black Panther Party was held between September 4-7, 1970. The event attracted thousands of attendees (official counts range from 6,000 to 15,000) from historically marginalized groups, among them African American, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Women's Liberation, and Gay Liberation protestors. Huey P. Newton had just been released from prison one month earlier, on August 5, 1970, when his 1968 conviction of voluntary manslaughter (of California police officer John Frey) was overturned.

Huey's address provides a perfect and pithy encapsulation of the main tenets of the Black Panther Party. Using a Socialist framework, and rejecting what they viewed as the failures of the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers proposed nothing less radical than rewriting the U.S. Constitution. Newton states in the address: "Black people and oppressed people in general have lost faith in the leaders of America, and in the very structure of American government--that is the Constitution, its legal foundation…For this reason we assemble a Constitutional Convention to consider rational and positive alternatives." Historically mistreated and discriminated against by the very society self-proclaiming the inalienability of civil rights, Newton rejects the entire paradigm in an attempt to right old wrongs. The follow-up Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention conference scheduled for November 27-29, 1970 in Washington, D.C. was stymied by scheduling difficulties.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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