Sale 2503 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 28, 2019

EARLY APPEARANCE OF THE BLACK PANTHER LOGO 137 c   (BLACK PANTHERS.) Us Colored People. [12] illustrated pages. 4to, 3 folded staple-bound folding Xeroxed sheets; minor wear,“Lownedes Co.”[sic] inscribed in ink on first page. Np, circa 1966 [1,500/2,500] This pamphlet was produced for the Lowndes County Freedom Organiza- tion, probably with the involvement of Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It makes the argument for black voter participation in comic-book form,follow- ing the protagonist Mr. Blackman as he wonders “Us colored people been using our mouths to do two things, talking, eating, and saying yes suh. It’s time we said NO.” He is rejected at the courthouse but eventually bringing hundreds until “Soon we had the majority of voters in the county.” In the final panel, he’s greeted by a young man saying “Good morning Sheriff Blackman,” and he responds “Yes son, it’s a new day!” It features two very early appearances of the famous black panther logo before it was adopted by the Black Panther Party. The panther appears in the midst of a map of Lowndes County, and then later on an Election Day ballot for Mr. Blackman and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization over the slogan “One Man, One Vote.” 2 examples in OCLC, and only one traced at auction (Swann sale, 27 February 2007, lot 144).