16.
The Black Panther Black Community News Service Volume II, #5 (Oakland, CA: September 7, 1968).
Tabloid format newspaper, published bi-weekly. 16pp. (incl. cover).
Front cover photograph depicts three ‘Free Huey’ flag-bearing Panthers standing on the front steps of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland with the caption “Free Huey… Or The Sky’s The Limit!” (‘Free Huey’ was adopted as the rallying cry for the campaign to support Huey P. Newton, who was convicted in September 1968 of the voluntary manslaughter of an Oakland PD officer; over the two year course of his trial and two appeals, the campaign continued to offer its support until the charges were overturned and Newton was released on August 5, 1970). An article by Frank B. Jones titled “Huey and History” provides background to Newton’s “fight against injustice”, and the centrespread prints numerous photographs from ‘Free Huey’ protests in various locations.
Page 6 reports on “Three L.A. Panthers Murdered by Pigs”, the following page announces the BPP’s free breakfast programme for children in Oakland (usually thought to have commenced in January 1969), and page 14 prints the original Ten-Point Black Panther Party Platform and Program, as it was written in October 1966 (printed in every issue of the Panthers’ newspaper, it was updated and modified as the party’s positions evolved). In addition, artwork by Emory Douglas features on pages 2, 3, 5, 6, 12 and 13, and the back cover prints a full-page mail order advertisement for his ‘Revolutionary Posters’ (the drawings were the first of his works to be mass-produced as posters and were sold at various events and rallies to fundraise for the Black Panther Party).
Old central horizontal fold; newsprint paper lightly age-toned; o/w Very Good plus.