You Can Jail a Revolutionary, but You Can't Jail a Revolution: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This poster depicts an image of Fred Hampton gesticulating against a larger than life portrait of his head, against a blue and black stripe background. The monumental image wears a dark cap and is shown from the neck up. Radiating from this monumental head are thick blue and black stripes. Two of the black stripes have blue text. The top reads "You can jail a revolutionary / but you can't jail the / revolution. You can run a / freedom fighter around the / country but you can't run freedom / fighting around the country. You / can murder a liberator, / but you can't murder / liberation." The second quote reads "Fred Hampton Deputy / Chairman Illinois Chapter / Black Panther Party / Born August 30, 1948 / Murdered by Fascist Pigs / Dec. 4, 1969." In the bottom right corner is an image of Fred Hampton shown from the chest up. Standing in front of a microphone, he wears an open coat and has his right arm raised in a pointing gesture. In the margin below the image in the bottom right corner is a black panther between two blocks of text with the address and the phone number for the Black Panther Party in Chicago. The back of the post is blank.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1969-1970
• Designed by: Emory Douglas, American, born 1943
• Subject of: Black Panther Party, American, 1966 - 1982
• Subject of: Fred Hampton, American, 1948 - 1969
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 21 9/16 × 16 5/8 in. (54.8 × 42.2 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 23 1/16 × 17 1/2 in. (58.5 × 44.4 cm)
• Place made: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Black power
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Graphic design
• Topic: Justice
• Topic: Resistance
• Object number: 2019.28.18
• 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 underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.