Black Panther: Emory Douglas and the Art of Revolution at Urbis until March 2009

An extraordinary exhibition explores the iconography of the Black Panther movement through the work of its minister for culture, Emory Douglas.

When Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a Black Power salute on the podium at the 1968 Olympic games, they took the civil rights movement in America onto the global stage. This iconic image has become the emblem for a period of struggle graphically displayed through the work of Emory Douglas, the Minister for Culture of the Black Panthers.

Douglas’ work was years ahead of its time. He produced the Black Community News Service, a tabloid dedicated to the fight for black rights which displayed artworks showing police as pigs and politicians as rats for the very first time. He created a visual identity for the whole movement, documenting growing civil unrest through posters, cartoons and campaign pamphlets.

This is the first time this exhibition of Douglas’ work has shown in the UK and as Barak Obama’s bid for the White House draws to a close, there has never been a better time to consider how far the fight for equality has come.