American Historical Ephemera and Photography, Featuring African Americana

"You and I have not benefited from American Democracy, We've only suffered from American Hypocrisy." Ca 1970s. 17 1/2 x 22 1/2 in. silk-screen poster (light toning to margins, some creasing, including a series of creases to top right corner). An anti-war poster believed to have been produced during the Vietnam era, featuring a young Black soldier in fatigues, with a quote from Malcolm X at bottom.

[With:] Stop Genocide. Support the Hampton/Clark Trial. December 4th Committee. Chicago, IL: Salsedo Press, n.d., ca early 1970s. 24 1/2 x 20 in. poster (heavy wear, creasing throughout, edge tears incl. 5 in. tear extending from bottom edge, loss to top left corner, few punctures/tears near center, few staple holes). Featuring portraits of slain Civil Rights activists, including George Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Mark Clark, and Fred Hampton, with one of Hampton's quotes.

Fred Hampton (1948-1969) was a prominent young Civil Rights activist in the 1960s. Joining the Black Panther Party in 1968, Hampton quickly found success in leadership roles there as well, forming a "rainbow coalition" of diverse groups, and even publicly brokering a nonviolence pact between two of the most violent street gangs in Chicago. Hampton took charge of the BPP's Chicago Chapter, organizing rallies, teaching political education classes, and promoting community surveillance of the police. Hampton's efforts eventually led to him becoming the BPP chairman of the entire state of Illinois, thrusting him to leadership at the national level. Hampton met his untimely death when, in an early morning police raid of the Black Panther Party headquarters on 4 December 1969, he and fellow BPP activist Mark Clark were shot and killed by police officers. Over five thousand people attended his funeral, and many in the activist community saw Hampton's death as unjust, and a group of nine plaintiffs won 1.85 million dollars in a civil lawsuit, which was paid out by the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government. December 4th was commemorated as Fred Hampton Day by the Chicago City Council in 2004, as a way to remember and honor the fallen activist.

[Also with:] "We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary." - Malcolm X. Indianapolis, IN: The Family of Malcolm X by CMG Worldwide Inc., 1999. Published by Pyramid, Leicester, UK. 24 x 33 3/4 in. poster (some creasing, edge and corner wear, pinholes at each corner).

Together, 3 posters.