Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A poster of Huey Newton sitting in a rattan throne chair wearing a beret and a black leather jacket while holding a shotgun in his right hand and a spear in his left hand. Leaning against the wall on either side of the chair is a leaf-shaped, Zulu style shield with designs of horizontal line markings across the front. Beneath the chair is a zebra print rug. Along the bottom of the print is the text [The racist dog policemen must withdraw immediately from our communities, cease their wanton murder and brutality and torture of black people, or face the wrath of the armed people]. The poster is lined with a sheet of linen backed paper.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1968
• Created by: Black Panther Party, American, 1966 - 1982
• Photograph by: Blair Stapp
• Subject of: Dr. Huey P. Newton, American, 1942 - 1989
• Type: portraits
• Type: posters
• Medium: lithographic ink on paper with linen backing
• Dimensions: H x W (w/ mat border): 34 3/4 × 23 1/2 in. (88.3 × 59.7 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (w/out mat border): 34 5/8 × 23 3/8 in. (87.9 × 59.4 cm)
• Place made: Emeryville, Alameda County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Black power
• Topic: Justice
• Topic: Politics
• Topic: Resistance
• Object number: 2011.58
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.