Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon

The Black Panthers’ rise to prominence and notoriety

A potent symbol of black power and radical inspiration, the Black Panthers still evoke strong emotions. Even as scholars unwrap the Panther mystique, a generation of hip-hop performers, filmmakers, and other artists name-check the group and employ its images.

Jane Rhodes’s acclaimed study examines the extraordinary staying power of the Black Panthers in the American imagination. Probing the group’s longtime relationship to the media, Rhodes traces how the Panthers articulated their message through symbols and tactics the mass media could not resist. By exploiting press coverage through everything from posters to public appearances to photo ops, the Panthers created a linguistic and symbolic universe as salient today as during the group’s heyday. They also pioneered a sophisticated version of mass media activism that powers contemporary African American protest, from the work of Black Lives Matter to Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl performance.

Featuring a timely new preface by the author, Framing the Black Panthers is a breakthrough reconsideration of a fascinating phenomenon.