‘I was one of the few people able to document it': shooting the Black Panthers

The Guardian

23-06-2025

'They understood the media and culture,' says Stephen Shames of the Black Panthers, who he photographed in the 1960s and 70s. 'Black leather jackets and berets like the French Resistance – they commanded attention and projected strength and hope with their 'hip' clothes and discipline.' This image shows Angela Davis speaking in Defermery park at a Free Huey rally. This photo is Angela Davis's portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC. Black Panthers and Revolution is at Amar Gallery, London, until 6 July
Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale speaks at the first national United Front Against Fascism conference. About 4,000 delegates, most of them white, came from all over the nation. Seale announced that control of police would be the Front's first project. The Black Panther Party was one of the most influential responses to racism and inequality in American history. The Panthers advocated armed self-defence to counter police brutality, and initiated a programme of patrolling the police with guns and law books
On 28 October 1967, Oakland police officer John Frey was shot to death in an altercation with Huey P Newton during a traffic stop. In the stop, Newton and backup officer Herbert Heanes also suffered gunshot wounds. Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter at trial, but the conviction was later overturned
Black Panthers founder Huey P Newton claimed that he had been falsely accused, leading to the 'Free Huey' campaign, which then developed alliances with numerous individuals, students and anti-war activists, 'advancing an anti-imperialist political ideology that linked the oppression of antiwar protesters to the oppression of blacks and Vietnamese'. This incident gained the party even wider recognition by the radical American left. Newton was released after three years, when his conviction was reversed on appeal
Bobby Seale was taken off the street as he left his wedding ceremony on 19 August 1969. He was charged with starting the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention. Shames writes: 'James Baldwin came to visit Bobby when he was in the San Francisco county jail before being sent to Chicago for the Chicago Eight trial, where Bobby was bound and gagged by Judge Hoffman. I was honoured to be able to witness these two giants in conversation. They became lifelong friends, meeting together often'
Black Panther founders Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton stand in front of their national headquarters. Seale believed that 'no kid should be running around hungry in school', a simple credo that lead FBI director J Edgar Hoover to call the breakfast programme, 'the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralise the BPP and destroy what it stands for'
White supporters hold Free Huey signs at a rally in front of the Alameda county courthouse where Black Panther minister of defence, Huey P Newton, was on trial for killing an Oakland policeman
Davis smokes a cigarette as she relaxes in the backyard of a supporter's house during her trial. 'This is a private moment,' says Shames. 'The Panthers introduced me to Angela and she allowed me to be present during private moments like this with her family and support team. Photographs like this are what make this exhibit at the Amar Gallery so special - the behind the scenes moments that I was one of the few people to be able to document'
A child at the Intercommunal Youth Institute, and the Oakland Community School. In 1970, in Oakland, David Hilliard created the idea for the first full-time liberation day school. This school, and its attendant dormitories in Oakland and Berkeley, was simply called the Children's House. This school concept, directed by Majeda Smith and a team of BPP members became the way in which sons and daughters of BPP members were educated
Black Panthers carry George Jackson's coffin into St Augustine's church. In 1961, Jackson was convicted of armed robbery (as a teenager stealing $70 at gunpoint) and sentenced to one year to life in prison. During his first years at San Quentin state prison, Jackson became involved in revolutionary activity, as well as assaults on guards and fellow inmates. This behaviour was used to justify his continued incarceration on an indeterminate sentence. Jackson was killed on 21 August 1971 while in the maximum security prison
Martin Luther King Jr speaks at the University of California at Berkeley. The speech about the Vietnam war drew thousands of students
George Murray, minister of education for the Black Panther Party, speaks at a Free Huey rally in Defermery Park, which the Panthers re-named Bobby Hutton Park, in honour of their slain 17-year-old comrade. Murray was a leader of the San Francisco State student strike, which was put down by governor Ronald Reagan. Far left is Kathleen Cleaver, communications secretary and the first female member of the party's decision-making Central Committee