BLACK AND WHITE LOOK AT BLACK PANTHERS
The Press Democrat, February 2, 2003
by Debra D. Bass
A series of black and white images from rallies and protests opens a small window on a period in history that was anything but black and white.
The photo exhibition, titled ``We Want Freedom'' for the first three words of the Black Panther Party's controversial platform and program of 1966, casts a flashbulb on the racial and political battles in the late 1960s that sparked unrest in the Bay Area.
It begins with photographs taken in Oakland just a few days after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn. The Bay Area march and rally, with a crowd estimated at between 2,000 and 5,000 in published reports, was held as a memorial for the Black Panther Party's first recruit, Lil' Bobby Hutton.
He was 16 years old when he joined the party in 1966 and became the group's treasurer. Hutton was killed after a shootout with Oakland Police.
In various reports, police said the Panthers had planned an ambush, Panthers said they were unfairly being raided, witnesses said Hutton was shot walking from the building with his arms raised and police said a gun was recognized. No gun was found on Hutton, but the house was filled with assault weapons.
His name became a battle cry of sorts. Photos of the rally at Oakland's Lake Merritt Park held in Hutton's honor show crowds listening to the Panthers' leaders, including Bobby Seale. The Panthers even attracted actor Marlon Brando to speak in their favor.
The exhibit features the work of Bay Area photojournalist Ilka Hartmann, who was a graduate student at UC Berkeley during the period. Many of the photographs are being shown for the first time. A small number of the documentary images have been published in the Encyclopedia Britannica and the German publication Der Spiegel.
Composed mostly of black and white photographs in black mats, the exhibit is stark and sterile. There are no images that offer a behind-the-scenes look at the Panthers, although one photo of three members outside the group's headquarters shows them smiling in stylish, new black leather jackets donated by Newsweek for a photo shoot. The other images are snap shots from rallies and press conferences.
The entire text of the 10-point platform fills a wall in the exhibit. It is telling, if not persuasive, when taken so far out of context. The platform calls for freedom, full employment, decent housing and an end to police brutality, among hyperbolic statements, such as ``an end to robbery by the white man of the black community.''
This was a period in which the draft was being criticized for targeting poorer ethnic communities, corporations were drawing lawsuits for unethical hiring practices and strong policing tactics in black communities were sparking retaliation.
Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton, who was imprisoned on various charges over the years, is the subject of the last half of the small exhibition. The ``Free Huey'' protests and legal maneuvers lasted more than a decade.
Newton's 1968 outlandish credo, ``In defense of self-defense,'' features the infamous image of him seated in the Panther uniform including black beret, black leather jacket. He is seated with a weapon in each hand, a spear and an assault rifle. And the text that follows speaks of the need to cultivate guerrilla warfare tactics against the police.
Other documents outline the creation of the Panthers' newspaper and the establishment of liberation schools and list free programs like medical clinics, busing to prisons, ambulance services, clothing and plumbing services.
Hartmann began her study of the Panthers in 1965 and continued until 1971. The exhibit includes images from 1968-1970.
Originally from Germany, Hartmann says she has been ``documenting the life of those outside the mainstream'' for more than 30 years. She addressed topics such as the birds killed by the San Francisco Bay oil spill in January 1971, the United Farm Workers from 1971 to the present, including the funeral of Cesar Chavez, and demonstrations and riots against President Ronald Reagan during a visit to Berlin in 1982.
Her largest body of work focuses on the life of American Indians, beginning with the occupation of Alcatraz. These images have been published in many books and documentary films. The exhibit includes photographs, original newspapers, documentary film footage and an audio clip of Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party.