Black Panthers Book

In 1968, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover vilified the Black Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States." That same year photographers Pirkle Jones and wife, Ruth-Marion Baruch, documented the Black Panthers for an exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. Their hope was to expose the public to the Panthers as they saw them--symbols of pride and strength--rather than the way they were being portrayed in the media. Jones and Baruch were given unprecedented access to the inner circle of the Black Panther Party. At intimate meetings, family gatherings and public demonstrations, we witness, through these incredibly moving photographs, a unique crusade for dignity and self-definition. Black Panthers is a historic documentation of this fascinating movement, so challenging and controversial to our culture that it was virtually erased from established texts and American history books. We photographed the Black Panthers intensively form July into October of 1968, during the peak of a historic period and in the Bay Area, where the Black Panther National Headquarters is located. We couldn't possibly photograph all the aspects of this virile, rapid growing and deep rooted movement, but we can show you: This is what we saw, this is what we felt, these are the people. --Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch By Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch. Introduction by Kathleen Neal Cleaver. Clothbound, 9.5 x 12 in., 152 pages, 112 duotonesRead More