[CIVIL RIGHTS]. A pair of flyers denouncing Philadelphia Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo.

4 1/4 x 9 1/8 in. printed handbill on yellow paper (creasing, soiling, toning). Let's Have a Black Christmas. Boycott All Merchants...Rizzo Must Go. [Philadelphia, PA]: n.p., [1967].
Flyer calls for a boycott of "All Merchants," urging: "Don't Spend Your Green Power with White Power Until They Respect Black Power / Rizzo Must Go."

8 1/2 x 11 in. printed flyer (spotting, creasing, soiling). Cisco-Kidd Pig Rizzo Oinks Again! [Philadelphia]: [Black Panther Party], ca 1970. Recto features a statement from Rizzo upholding the actions of Philadelphia policemen in the shooting of a Black man by the name of Harold Brown, along with typewritten assertions that "Rizzo and his maniacs must be brought to justice!!" Verso features photocopied news article about the death of James Hamilton. The Black Panther logo and photocopied handwriting asserting that Hamilton was murdered and the press is untruthful fill in the right margin.

Francis "Frank" Rizzo (1920-1991) was appointed commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department in 1967. In November of that same year, Black public high school students staged a walk out to protest racial inequalities in their schools. Rizzo's aggressive response to that protest (sending in police officers who brutalized students, sending many to the hospital and others to jail) provoked the "Black Christmas Boycott" promoted by the first flyer featured here. The second flyer was produced following the deaths of Harold Brown and James Hamilton, two Black men killed by Philadelphia police officers.

Amidst multiple demonstrations and calls for Rizzo's dismissal, he not only kept his position as commissioner, but was also elected mayor of the city, serving from 1972-1980.