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The Black Panthers Newspaper

When Emory Douglas joined the Black Panther Party, he quickly gained momentum in creating their newspapers. The “first issue was simple in layout and design, leading Douglas to offer his expertise in print production, understanding the power that strong visuals could lend to political action. ” [1] Douglas began to understand “the power that strong visuals could lend to political action” and as a result the black panther party wrote at least “537 newspapers. [2]

Douglas was renowned for the large number of different issues relating he created the newspaper front covers. For example: he created a front cover outlining how the US should be focusing more on the war at home between race rather than focusing on the Vietnam war and another image of both a white and black man raising their fists in the hope of peace which “represented all the turmoil of what was going on back home [for Black soldiers in Vietnam.” {quote}

As Douglas studied graphic design at San Francisco College, it allowed him to “enjoy the simple tools like markers, rub-off type, and prefabricated texture materials to create his visually impactful designs.” [2] He “also learned the fundamentals of figure drawing, lettering, prepress operations, design, and filmmaking.” [4]

Douglas was best known for his work for the free Huey campaign: This campaign was about Huey Newton who “was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of a police office. He was imprisoned and as a result it created major problems in the black panther party which resulted in a “popular rallying cry “Free Huey.” As a result, “his conviction was overturned in 1970, and was released from prison.” [2] This was a turning point for the Black Panther Party as it was an act of defiance which created Emory Douglas to be the centre figure of exposure in the party which allowed his voice to be reached to the masses

"The artwork that Emory Douglas encompassed multiple artistic mediums: painting, printmaking, cartoons, and collage” to combat the Afro-American societal oppression, this can be seen with issue 4 number one as he has put a picture of a black soldier with the quotation “"the issue is political prisoners of America. And people as one to stand for the release of all political prisoners.” This quotation implies the struggle for black people during this time as Emory Douglas exclaims how there is an issue with political prisoners which gives the impression that the people in charge scapegoat and find problems with the black minorities to punch them away. [3]

Douglas’s work was significant as he brought out how the Afro-American population felt and through the many different themes, he allowed his voices to be connected through symbolic imagery. For example, in “The Black Panther Newspaper, vol. 3, no. 22 (Our fight is not in Vietnam)” he portrays an image of a black soldier crying with his helmet filled with people being picked on by white people. This suggests that he feels that the American society should care about what is going on at home rather than something going on in the world.