In Lewis’ depictions of both male and female revolutionaries, the revolutionary apperas as a strong and fierce paramilitary figure standing alone among the ruins of a decaying urban landscape. Often, Farmer points out, these images were accompanied by captions that emphasized combating power structures such as police brutality, while thinking about specific ways to improve daily life in the black community. The images emphasized the ongoing black struggle and the need for armed self-defence and control of urban spaces – rather than simply the ultimate fate of the revolution.
Lewis’ images also contain a compelling message about gender, according to Farmer. By depicting both men and women independently as revolutionaries, Lewis made room for women to appear as heroes and leaders. Additionally, the portrayal of women as female warriors challenged the traditional female roles of caregiver and homemaker, expanding the ways in which women could contribute to the organization.
As the Black Panther Party grew in size and popularity, the FBI in 1968 declared it to be one of the greatest threats to the country. The Bureau killed or incarcerated many male leaders of the party. But the FBI failed to take into account that by the early 1970s, women made up two-thirds of the organization’s membership, leaving a base from which the Panthers could continue to organize.
The remaining women Panthers turned toward local-level activism, providing food, housing, and health care in local black communities. Farmer traces this political shift through the work of another female artist, Gayle Dickson, whose drawings appeared in The Black Panther by the early 1970s.
The remaining women Panthers turned toward local-level activism, providing food, housing, and health care in local black communities.
In her sketches, Dickson often depicted older African-American women. For example, one image shows an elderly woman smiling and holding a grocery bag filled with food from the Panthers’ Free Food Program. The woman also wears a pin stating vote for survival and holds campaign propaganda supporting candidates endorsed by the Black Panther Party.
Dickson’s revolutionary images underscore the change in the Panther political message, according to Farmer. Unlike Lewis’ images of confrontational and menacing revolutionary figures, Dickson portrayed women with softer expressions that reflected a more inviting and concerned Black Panther Party committed to rebuilding the black community.
Farmer’s research exposes how women in the Black Panther Party diversified the image of the male revolutionary ideal. Farmer contends that these artists also made a direct impact in real women’s lives by paving the way for more equal gender relations. For example, the Panthers held political education classes designed to end gender bias in the black community.
Understanding how women of color have historically incorporated gender into movements around racial and economic disparity is, for Farmer, the first step in rethinking how to approach the place of gender in socially complex settings today. In particular, Farmer’s research resonates in twenty-first-century America, where minorities are set to become the largest segment of the population.
‘A more nuanced understanding of minority women’s previous quests for gender equality can inform contemporary discussions of gender equality, and ensure these efforts represent the increasingly diverse population of America,’ says Farmer. Nicole Martin, ‘A Woman’s Place is in the Struggle’, cited Bust online & Feminism
Where cultural representations do not reach out beyond themselves, there is the danger that they will function as the surrogates for activism, that they will constitute both the beginning and the end of political practice. Angela Davis, Black Nationalism: The Sixties and the Nineties
A new movement is emerging on the streets of Britain to fight climate chance. Thousands of people are protesting for the first time. Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance to Save the World? BBC 2019
Scientists say we only have eleven years left to act, so can the movement save the world? ibid.
Dani had organised a huge schools’ strike across the UK with thousands of students taking part. ibid.
On Monday July 13th [2015: at 8:58 am jailers went to cell 95 and observed Miss Bland hanging from the privacy partition in her cell. Say Her Name: The Life & Death of Sandra Bland ***** HBO/Sky Documentaries 2020
Sandra Bland Rest In Power. Arrested for Traffic Violation: Killed in Police Custody. ibid. protest banner
‘You just slammed me head into the ground. Don’t you even care about that?’ ibid. Bland arrest filmed after rozzers’ assault
Cell 95: ‘Where she was didn’t have cameras … You have a thirty-gallon trash can in the inmates’ cell that gives her access to a plastic bag. If she was in as much pain as she said she was in, I just don’t see how she could have tied that perfect – very perfect – noose.’ ibid. family
‘Step out or I will remove you … I’m gonna yank you outta here … You are under arrest … I’m gonna drag you outta there.’ ibid.
‘That man [arresting rozzer] slapped her. You can hear it.’ ibid. lawyer
‘You are about to break my wrist! Can you stop?’ ibid. on arrest
‘The destruction of evidence on this family when they [rozzers] know they [family] were about to bury her. You don’t release a body if there’s more tests that you need on that body.’ ibid. lawyer
‘I don’t think there’s ever been an issue like this.’ ibid. mother
‘There are uneducated people who are hell-bent on self-extermination. I am not one of them. I am into building up my kings and queens. So for me, Black Lives Matter.’ ibid. Sandra’s activism
‘I am here to change history.’ ibid.
‘Say Her Name!’ ibid.
‘She had scrapes on her upper right side of her back.’ ibid. autopsy
‘Here is a guy who should clearly have been charge with assault. Battery … ’ ibid.
Trooper Encinia is fired. The Grand Jury begins to investigate the Walter Country Jail. ibid. caption
‘Evidence of deep bruising … someone has put their knee into her back.’ ibid. autopsy
‘We know that someone’s spirit can be broken.’ ibid. autopsy
‘Everyone was acquitted of wrong doing.’ ibid. television news
‘The jail were filled out in a way that should not have been filled out. They were turned in with false information.’ ibid. rozzer’s apologist’s admission
‘She was hung from a trash-bag. Well, the problem with that trash-bag is is that it didn’t have her finger-prints on it … In fact it didn’t have her DNA on it.’ ibid. lawyer
The family settles for $1.9 million and a prison of jail reform and police de-escalation training. ibid. caption
Police officers around the country you need to hear my voice – Tell the Fricking’ Truth. ibid. Charles Witherspoon, ex-rozzer
‘No, we didn’t go back there and tie a bag around her neck, but it is our responsibility to take care of her.’ ibid. R G Smith, sheriff
The Sandra Black Act is now law in Texas, mandating state-wide reforms to increase prison inmate safety. Police de-escalation training was removed from the bill. ibid. caption
Poverty is a problem. It destroys families; it creates a harsh reality for one to live in. So I’d like to say that knowing the odds are against you, Use this rage for motivation. Only then will we be able to break the vicious cycle of racism, and the modern-day slavery which is dressed up as the Justice System. Storyville: Roger Ross Williams ***** Jailed in America, inmate Massachusetts
That’s not a chip on my shoulder. That’s your foot on my neck. Fighting the Power: Britain After George Floyd, Malcolm X, BBC 2020
This is the story of an extraordinary few weeks over the summer when Britain erupted once again in protest for racial equality. And a new generation of activists hoped for an equal future. ibid. caption
Organised by a group of young women calling themselves justice for black lives. Justice for Black Lives are preparing to join the biggest protest yet in Parliament Square. ibid.
Tottenham: ‘They walked into his home and tasered a 62 year old man.’ ibid.
Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I feel lucky and blessed that I’m serving in the Congress but there are forces today trying to take us back to another time and another dark period. John Lewis: Good Trouble, Lewis, Sky Documentaries 2020
His voice and his example are probably needed now as much as they’ve ever been. ibid. Hillary Clinton
Arrest us if we’re wrong, don’t beat us. ibid. Selma protester
As we crossed the bridge we saw a sea of blue – Alabama state troopers. ibid. Lewis
I hated this system telling people you cannot be seated at a lunch counter, you cannot go into a restaurant simply because of the colour of your skin. ibid.
We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. ibid. Martin Luther King, essay Loving Your Enemies