Synopses & Reviews
The Sixties may be over, but the Black Panthers—the ultimate symbol of black power, radical inspiration, and the excesses of the decade—live on. Books on the Panthers continue to be written, hip-hop artists continue to draw inspiration from them, and so many films are made about the Panthers that there is now an annual Black Panther film festival.
In Framing the Black Panthers, cultural historian Jane Rhodes examines the extraordinary staying power of the Panthers in the American imagination by probing their relationship to the media. Rhodes argues that once the media and pop culture latched onto the small, militant group, the Panthers became adept at exploiting and manipulating this coverage—through pamphlets, buttons, posters, ubiquitous press appearances, and photo ops—pioneering a sophisticated version of mass media activism. Paradoxically, the news media participated in the government campaign to eradicate the Panthers while simultaneously elevating them to a celebrity status that remains long after their demise.
Lucidly written and featuring many never-before-published photographs, Framing the Black Panthers is a breakthrough reconsideration of a fascinating phenomenon that is sure to receive wide attention.
Review
"An extraordinary and richly contextualized biography." —
Journal of American History"Jane Rhodes’s sensitive and insightful portrait of Cary will change the way we understand American intellectual history and the history of the black press." —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"An insightful and moving portrait of a determined and resourceful black woman who put all she had into ending slavery and securing full human rights for her people." —Darlene Clark Hine, past president, Organization of American Historians
Synopsis
When Eldridge Cleaver, former Black Panther Minister of Information, died in 1998, he received more press attention than many heads of state. Recently released Panther Geronimo Pratt is being courted by Hollywood; a PBS documentary series on the Panthers airs soon. The sixties are over, but the Panthers--the ultimate image of Black Power, radical inspiration, and the excesses of the decade-live on. Rather than a history of the party, Rhodes provides a startling and original examination of the Panthers' spectacular media life, and an inquiry into the mediated nature of politics in contemporary America. As media and pop culture latched onto the small, militant community group, the Panthers became adept at exploiting and manipulating this coverage--through pamphlets, buttons, posters, ubiquitous press appearances, and photo ops-pioneering a sophisticated version of mass media activism. Ultimately, the news media participated in the government campaign to eradicate the Panthers, while simultaneously elevating them to a celebrity status that remains long after their demise. Framing the Black Panthers, written in lucid prose and featuring never-before-published photographs, is a breakthrough reconsideration of a fascinating phenomenon that is sure to receive wide attention.
About the Author
Jane Rhodes is Dean for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and chair of the American studies department at Macalester College. She is the author of
Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.