Page 118 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

197 ● (BLACK PANTHERS.) DAVIS, ANGELA. Wanted by the FBI. Interstate
Flight, Murder, Kidnapping. Large black and white official “wanted poster” 153⁄
4 x 101⁄2
inches, issued by the FBI. Washington, 1970 [400/600]
On August 7, 1970 Jonathan Jackson, a heavily armed, 17-year-old African American high
school student, gained control over a courtroom in Marin County, California. Once in the
courtroom, Jackson armed the black defendants and took Judge Harold Haley, the prosecutor,
and three female jurors as hostages. As Jackson transported the hostages and two black convicts
away from the courtroom, the police began shooting at the vehicle. The judge, one of the jurors,
the prosecutor, and the three black men were killed in the melee. Angela Davis had purchased
the firearms used in the attack, including the shotgun used to kill Haley, which had been pur-
chased two days prior and sawed off. She had also written numerous letters found in the prison
cell of one of the murderers. California considers “all persons concerned in the commission of a
crime, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense… principals in any crime so
committed.” Thus San Marin County Superior Judge Peter Allen Smith charged Davis with
aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley and issued
a warrant for her arrest. Hours after the judge issued the warrant on August 14, 1970 a mas-
sive attempt to arrest Angela Davis began. On August 18, 1970, four days after the initial
warrant was issued, the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover made Angela Davis the third woman
and the 309th person to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List.
198 ● (BLACK PANTHERS.) DAVIS, ANGELA. Frame Up. We have freed her,
now let’s help the Others. silk screen poster depicting Davis behind bars, 283⁄4 x 221⁄2
inches; short closed tear to the left margin. Np, nd, circa 1971 [400/600]
199 ● (BLACK PANTHERS.) DAVIS, ANGELA. Elections ‘72 Hear Angela Davis
. . . Meet Communist Party Candidates. Pictorial poster, 221⁄8 x 141⁄
8 inches; very small
discoloration at the left blank edge, not affecting image or lettering.
Philadelphia: Temple University, 1972 [400/600]
An unusual lineup consisting of Angela Davis, Black Panther radical and Gus Hall,
Communist candidate for President of the United States. It’s almost the kind of evening that
an F.B.I. “Agitprop” operative might arrange to discredit one or both speakers.
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