This latest series, in a long series of portraits of activists, focuses on The Black Panther Magazine, the impact that it had on keeping the black community informed, and the Black activists (Assata Shakur, Kathleen Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Fred Hampton) that kept the narrative going for the black movement during the 60s and 70s.

       

        The Black Panther Party was an American political organization founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California. Six months later, they created The Black Panther News Service to inform the black community. They would keep us informed about the co-founder of the Panthers, Bobby Seale, one of the eight people charged by the US federal government with conspiracy charges related to anti-Vietnam War protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. They would keep us informed about Assata Shakur, an American political activist, revolutionary, and fugitive, and her 1977 trial for being accused of killing a cop. They kept us informed about Kathleen Cleaver, an American law professor and activist, and all her efforts to keep the Panthers in the News, organize rallies and demonstrations, and design posters. And, tragically, they kept us informed about the assassination of Fred Hampton, a 21 year old American political activist.

​

        A play on The Artist Oliver James' previous series, Oppression Fighters and Letters From Auntie, this series is steeped in Black American history and aims to educate the community on what once was before it was destroyed and attempted to be erased from the history books.​​

​

        Using acrylic paint 48" x 36" on plywood, this series of Black, single-layer portraits are painted on a beige background with quotes and the design layout of The Black Panther News Letter to inform the black community in a similar way that the subjects themselves informed about black empowerment. 

​

Design: The Artist Oliver James 

Photography/Videography: Oliver James