Emory Douglas: All Power to the People Essay -- Artists

Gun-slinging, militant-looking, irate adolescent African American men, women, and children: an incessant image employed by the revolutionary artist Emory Douglas. Douglas is perhaps one of the most iconic artists’ of the 20th century and has created thousands of influential protest images that remain unforgettable to this day. Through the use of compelling images Emory Douglas aided in defining the distinct visual aesthetic of the Black Panther Party’s newspapers, pamphlets, and posters. It was through such mediums that Douglas had the ability to enlighten and provoke a predominately illiterate and uneducated community via visual communication, illustrating that art can evolve into an overpowering device to precipitate social and political change. Emory Douglas was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until 1951 when he and his mother relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. At the time San Francisco was the hub of African American organizations that arranged events aimed at overthrowing the social injustices within the Bay Area’s black communities. As a minor immersed within the community Douglas became captivated by Charles Wilbert White, an African American social realist artist whom created various monochrome sketches and paintings, â€Å"transforming American scenes into iconic modernist narratives.† Not long after, Douglas was incarcerated at the Youth Training School in Ontario, California where he spent countless hours working in the penitentiary’s printery. It was not until the mid-1960’s when Douglas registered in the City College of San Francisco, majoring in commercial art and graphic design. Soon after, Douglas went to a Black Panthers rally, where he encountered Bob by Seale and Huey Newton; during ... ...ion. Tucson, AZ: John Brown Party, 1971, 1-2 Gaiter, Colette. â€Å"VISUALIZING A REVOLUTION: EMORY DOUGLAS AND THE BLACK PANTHER NEWSPAPER.† AIGA. 8 June 2005. http://www.aiga.org/visualizing-a-revolution-emory-dou... (accessed Mar. 9, 2012). Moyer, Carrie. â€Å"Minister of Culture: the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas.† Modern Painters 19, no.9 (2007): Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (Apr. 11, 2012). Ross, Alice. â€Å"Emory Douglas - Interview.† Digital Arts. 26 Jan. 2009. http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/?FeatureID... (accessed Mar. 8, 2012), 2 Stewart, Sean. On the Ground: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S.. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2011, 28 Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., s.v. â€Å"Emory Douglas.† http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Douglas (accessed March. 7, 2012).