Page 116 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

193 ● (BLACK PANTHERS.) RAP
BROWN, STOKELY CARMICHAEL
AND MUHAMMAD ALI. Three pho-
tographic posters. uniform 18 x 14
inches.
Philadelphia: House of Shabazz,
circa 1968-1970 [400/600]
193
THE ORIGIN OF THE PANTHER
194 ● (BLACK PANTHERS.) CARMICHAEL, STOKELY. Black Panther ‘67.
Original Black Panther cloth banner from Lowndes County, Alabama, 33 x 24 inches;
green and white stenciled linen with a black panther made of felt sewn on; the date “67”
stenciled at the bottom. Together with a group of three contemporary periodicals and a
pamphlet dealing with the nascent Black Panther movement in Alabama.
Lowndes County, 1967. [2,500/3,500]
A VERY RARE RELIC OF THE ORIGINS OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FROM IT ORIGIN
IN LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA. The Lowndes County Freedom Organization, or Black
Panther Party, was a short-lived political party that formed in 1966 to represent African
Americans in the central Alabama Black Belt counties. Though the organization failed to win
any election, its influence was felt far beyond Alabama by providing the foundation for the bet-
ter-known Black Panther Party for Self-Defense that arose in Oakland, California. Known for
years as “Bloody Lowndes,” the county had a well-deserved reputation for brutality and
entrenched racism. Although the population was roughly 80 percent African American, no
black resident had successfully registered to vote in more than 60 years, as the county was con-
trolled by 86 white families who owned 90 percent of the land. Very little evidence remains of
the Panther Party’s presence in Alabama from this period. What was not destroyed by the local
Klan types at the time, was soon erased after Carmichael and other organizers left.
195 (BLACK PANTHERS.) CLEAVER, ELDRIDGE. Wanted Leroy Eldridge
Cleaver. Classic FBI wanted poster, dated December 13, 1968.
Washington, D.C., 1968 [350/500]
Cleaver, who at this time was 33 years old, was wanted for “Interstate Flight-Assault with
intent to commit murder.” A reformed serial rapist and racist, Cleaver wrote in Soul on Ice, “If
a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former
Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.” In later
years, Cleaver, like a number of others from the left, took a sharp right turn, becoming a mem-
ber of the Latter Day Saints —and a Republican—that’s a real conversion.