#asra2017

Each spring semester the University Library System, in collaboration with Pitt’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), award ten students with the Archival Scholars Research Award (ASRA). This semester, seven of those students are working in Special Collections. Each month, we ask the scholars to submit blog posts on the discoveries they are making. This week we will feature their last  installments.

The cover of The Black Panther , June 10, 1972.

The leadership body of the Black Panther Party was originally entirely male, and remained so for well over a year, until Kathleen Cleaver was appointed to the role of communications secretary. As the years passed, however, the influence that women had within the Party grew. Most notably, Huey P. Newton’s 1974 flight to Cuba left a vacancy in the leadership body that was assumed by Elaine Brown. She had previously been the Minister of Information, assuming the role after Eldridge Cleaver’s departure. During this time, she directed national Party activities and initiatives, traveling around the United States to give talks and conduct programs. She remained in this position until 1977, when she left the Party to raise her daughter.

Ericka Huggins, another Party leader, had been highly publicized since her 1970 arrest as part of the New Haven Panther Trials. The slogan, “Free Ericka!” had been emblazoned on buttons and posters, and was featured with great frequency on the pages of The Black Panther . After her acquittal, Huggins became involved in local institutional politics, elected to the Oakland City School Board.

Angela Davis was also an important figure in the Party, though she was not an official member. As a prominent CPUSA member, she worked closely with the Panthers on many campaigns, and the Panthers vocally supported her movements, often calling for her acquittal from various charges. Largely considered a terrorist, Davis spent many months as a fugitive, avoiding arrest for her role in the death of Judge Harold Haley; this led to J. Edgar Hoover putting her on the F.B.I.’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, making her the third woman ever to be designated so.

Though the Panthers had historically been opposed to working from within the system to reform, Brown’s leadership ushered in a new wave of comparative moderation. She, too, ran for city office, and though not elected, The Black Panther continued to chronicle this ideological shift. Extensive coverage was given concerning education, focusing particularly on the barriers that black children faced in learning and publicizing the curriculum of the Panther-run Oakland City School. They also began giving ad space to local black businesses, the owners of which had previously been identified as complicit in the subjugation of the black lower class, and included new sections pertaining to sports and entertainment. The newspaper did, however, remain staunchly anti-federal government: there was ample coverage of U.S. lack of involvement in South Africa, COINTELPRO investigations of civil rights leaders, and accusations government conspiracies relating to the Jonestown Massacre.

Every spring semester the University Library System, in collaboration with Pitt’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), award ten students with the Archival Scholars Research Award (ASRA). This semester, seven of those students are working in Special Collections. Each month, we ask the scholars to submit blog posts demonstrating the discoveries they are making. Enjoy! 

The Black Panther Black Community News Service was hardly a static publication. Its design changed throughout its issuance, not unlike the changes undertaken by the Party itself.

Their most visual iteration is in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. This period was marked, in particular, by the colorful multimedia collages and photomanipulations often seen on the front cover, and corresponding artwork on the back covers. Minister of Culture Emory Douglas was most frequently responsible for the original artwork on the back covers, and his work was also frequently seen on the inner pages of The Black Panther.

Left: The front cover of The Black Panther (4/3/1971). Right: The back cover of The Black Panther (6/18/1972)

Other artists in the Party contributed many of the smaller pieces on the innermost pages, and the paper often ran comics from more widely-known professional cartoonists, such as the following:

Left: From The Black Panther (10/4/1969), a reprint of a cartoon by Harlem Renaissance political artist Oliver Harrington Right: From The Black Panther (12/26/1970), a drawing by Brad Brewer about the trial of the New York 21.

As the years progressed, the paper included fewer and fewer pieces in its inner pages. There continued to be photographs accompanying many pieces, though fewer of the earlier multimedia collages. When there was additional artwork, it was almost always an Emory Douglas contribution, but even he was seen less frequently: by 1977, the back covers that were once devoted to his work were more often than not spaces that featured photographs of community events or advertised official Panthers merchandise.

The content itself also pivoted. The early days of The Black Panther focused on housing themes, police brutality, and the exposure of legal and social injustices. These issues continued to be covered, but as the 1970’s progressed, there was a notable shift in tone, and the paper contained more along the lines of community uplift. There was frequent coverage of the programs the Party facilitated, including the children’s breakfast programs, as well as free clinics for sickle cell anemia testing, the Oakland Community School, and conferences. By 1976, each publication included a section entitled ‘This Week In Black History,’ which documented significant events such as Union victories, Civil Rights Protests, and the births and deaths of black leaders and artists. Additionally, while continuing to advertise official Panthers merchandise, the paper regularly featured small black-owned businesses and products.

Left: An advertisement for the Oakland Community School, printed on August 7, 1976. Right: From 2-7-1976, an advertisement for Elaine Brown’s album and a black history film series.

Every spring semester the University Library System (ULS), in collaboration with Pitt’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), award ten students with the Archival Scholars Research Award (ASRA). This semester, seven of those students are working in Special Collections. Each month, we ask the scholars to submit blog posts demonstrating the discoveries they are making. Enjoy! 

The cover of the 4/27/1969 publication of The Black Panther

The activism of the Black Panther Party (BPP) is commonly viewed as innately violent and antagonistic, but they had a number of social programs and fundraisers that were aimed at uplifting the most vulnerable of their community. One of their most popular programs served breakfast to children before school, many of whom would have otherwise gone without food due to social or economic factors. The BPP were staunch believers in education as a necessary component of liberation, and ensuring that the children were able to focus and engage in their studies was of critical importance.

Photographs taken at one of the breakfast programs, as included in the 4/27/1969 edition of The Black Panther.

The Black Panther newspapers often mention these breakfast programs, noting how many were served or who was responsible for the food preparation, and occasionally publicizing that one had been subject to a police raid. They were events that allowed the community to unify for a singular purpose, and though peaceful and meaningful, local police departments often stormed the buildings that hosted the programs in an attempt to find something incriminating.

Every spring semester the University Library System, in collaboration with Pitt’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), award ten students with the Archival Scholars Research Award (ASRA). This semester, seven of those students are working in Special Collections. Each month, we ask the scholars to submit blog posts to highlight their discoveries. Enjoy!

Fairy tales are just for children, right? Wrong. Given the sudden resurgence and reframing of the fairy tale in the 21st century to catch the attention of adults as well as children—with new and “improved” adaptations of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast—you would think the idea of an adult-friendly fairy-tale is fairly new. But if we trace these fairy-tales, along with other children’s fantasy stories, like Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, back through history, to the time they were first published in the 19th and 20th centuries, there is an apparent underlying moralizing tone in all of these stories that never changes. The evolution of these stories from the 19th to the 20th centuries takes place in the specific language used to maintain and give over the morals of the stories, cloaking them in starkly contrasting words and images. 

It’s a classic case of prescription versus description; 19th century stories used highly didactic language and characters to tie their fantastical ideas back to God and respecting religion, without allowing for any expansion on the ideals they taught. In these stories, magic and fairy-tale creatures are shown as sources of misery and doom, because they go directly against the dictates of religion that say we must always trust in God to help us. To illustrate this point, I have pulled some images from Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies, a story of Tom, a young chimney-sweep, who drowns after refusing to obey orders, who then becomes a water-baby and learns the error of his ways. Published in 1863, this book contains much of the didactic, strict language common to children’s stories; each chapter begins with a few stanzas pulled from 19th century poets such as Longfellow and Wordsworth, each speaking of the beauty of forgiveness in Nature and the grace of God. These preludes seek to prepare and provide a frame of reference for children as they read through the lessons that Tom must learn before his ultimate atonement. In addition, this book uses images that could potentially frighten children, and on-the-nose names like Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. If these characters aren’t didactic references to the common moral of treating others as you would be treated, then I don’t know what is.

Every spring semester the University Library System, in collaboration with Pitt’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), award ten students with the Archival Scholars Research Award (ASRA). This semester, seven of those students are working in Special Collections. Each month, we ask the scholars to submit blog posts demonstrating the discoveries they are making. Enjoy! 

The Black Panther Party was a Black Nationalist organization based in Oakland, California, and active from 1966 – 1983. One of the most interesting facets of the organization was their relationship with China.

The Black Panthers believed in what Minister of Defense Huey Newton called, “revolutionary intercommunalism,” or solidarity with other oppressed peoples in world. In 1949, Mao and his forces defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s army and brought the country under Communist rule. As part of the Cold War, the United States government backed Chiang Kai-shek because he was anti-communist. Nevertheless, Mao’s Red Army still won. The Black Panthers often showed their solidarity by publishing articles in their newspaper, like these two front covers: one on March 16, 1969, that features Mao-Tse-Tung, head of Communist China and one from October 3, 1970 that features Kim Il Sung (Head of North Korea), Ho Chi Minh (former head of North Vietnam), and Mao Tse-Tung.

During the height of the Black Panther Party, from 1968-1972, they had diplomatic relations with China, while the United States government did not. China believed in the Black Panthers’ cause because their common enemy: The United States. The Black Panther newspaper published many articles expressing solidarity with China from 1968 – 1971. But, when President Nixon officially recognized China in 1972, China’s relationship with the Black Panthers dissolved, and so did the prevalence of China articles in their newspaper.