"Power to the People - George"

"Power to the People - George"

Black Panther Party

George Jackson was imprisoned for armed robbery in 1961 and placed in San Quentin Prison before being transferred to Soledad Prison. While incarcerated, Jackson became radicalized and formed a Maoist-Marxist group, the Black Guerrilla Family. He was also a member of the Black Panther Party. In 1970, he and two other inmates were charged with the murder of prison guard, John Vincent Mills, following a fight. They became known as the Soledad Brothers and were seen by many radicals as political prisoners. Jackson was also an author and published the influential, "Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George L. Jackson." Jackson was killed by guards at San Quentin during an escape attempt in 1971. Many activists believed he was murdered as retaliation for his activism. “To the slave," Jackson wrote, "revolution is an imperative, a love-inspired, conscious act of desperation. It’s aggressive. It isn’t 'cool’ or cautious. It’s bold, audacious, violent, an expression of icy, disdainful hatred!”

This 1971 poster from Cuba's OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America) marks Jackson's murder and shows his body laying contorted on the ground with star-spangled blood pooling around him. OSPAAA was the main publisher of international solidarity posters in Cuba. Notably, these colorful propaganda posters were not designed to be posted on walls within Cuba, as others were. Instead, they were folded and stapled inside the magazine, Tri-Continental, where they were then distributed internationally.

Rafael Morante

Roz Payne

Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

ca. 1971

print

poster

drawing