Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers

“The first time I saw Bobby Seale and Huey Newton was on April 15, 1967, during the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. My eye caught Bobby and Huey in their leather jackets selling Mao’s Red Book. Their charisma and confidence captivated me. I started hanging out with the Panthers. Bobby Seale became my mentor and friend. Over the next seven years I documented these young men and women, who were the vanguard of the revolution that was sweeping America.”

Stephen Shames brings his unique experience as a photojournalist who covered the Black Panthers in the late 1960s and 1970s to offer a first-hand view on how his photography revealed a different side of Black Panther organizing that radically humanized the movement and captured them in rarely-seen moments handing out groceries or escorting senior citizens around town. Shames’s photography reveal how images shape public memory and representation.