Rowan University Art Gallery: former Black Panther Party artists preserve history

A current exhibition at the Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum, 301 E. High Street in Glassboro, features a wide-ranging collection of works by artists formerly associated with The Black Panther Party.

Founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, Calif., the party was part of the Black Power movement whose ideology broke from the nonviolent protest tactics embraced by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the same time, the party promoted basic social programs, some of which exist in various forms today.

Scheduled as part of Black History Month celebrations at Rowan, the exhibition includes works by four former members of the organization, artists who helped illustrate the nationally distributed Black Panther Newspaper.

Featuring works by Gayle Asali Dickson, Emory Douglas, Malik Edwards and Akinsanya Kambon, the exhibition was curated by Colette Gaiter, professor emerita from the University of Delaware who taught Africana Studies and Art & Design.

Gaiter said though in popular culture The Black Panther Party is often depicted as an extreme      organization, many of its goals were benevolent, including the organization of basic human services like providing school meals to children who might otherwise go hungry.    

“The Civil Rights Movement was a big part of my young life,” she said. “When I was in high school, my sister brought home a copy of The Black Panther, the official party newspaper, from Howard University. The stories were all told from the point of view of Black people, many of which depicted conditions (from) the 1960s that were pretty terrible.”

The stories called out slumlords and policies that kept people in poverty, she said, while embracing other policies such as a free breakfast program. And the paper was popular, selling more than 100,000 copies per week at its height, Gaiter said.

More enduring than the group’s radical reputation, Gaiter said, were some of the social programs it endorsed and supported. Dubbed “survival programs,” they included efforts to get doctors to volunteer time and resources in underserved communities and they encouraged supermarkets to donate wholesome food.

“Some of these programs started in Oakland and spread across the country,” Gaiter said.

Promotional copy for the exhibition notes that, “these four artists were teenagers and young adults when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal segregation and discrimination in the United States. They grew up in the Jim Crow era, restricted by laws and practices that affected every aspect of their lives and severely limited opportunities to pursue their dreams. Through talent, perseverance and serendipity, they became and remain artists.”

Running through March 15, the show includes a range of more than 50 pieces. Admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public.

A panel discussion with the artists on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. is full but there will be a free reception at 4 p.m. Reservations are required.