On September 29, 1968 in Oakland, CA, USA, the poster of Huey P. Newton in a rattan chair with bulletholes on the window of the Black Panther Party National Headquarters was photographed by Stephen Shames.
The window of Black Panther Party National Headquarters at Grove and Forty-fifth Streets in Oakland after shots are fired by police following Huey Newton’s murder trial verdict, September 29, 1968.
Photo downloaded from: http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/explore/civil-rights-movement-photography/stephen-shames/
“On Sunday night September 8, 1968, Newton was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of Officer Frey and sentenced to two to fifteen years in prison. He was acquitted of wounding the other officer. Many Panthers and their supporters were disappointed that their efforts had not saved Huey. Newton’s lawyer, Charles Garry, promised to appeal the decision. According to the New York Times, many police saw the sentence differently and wanted Newton executed for the killing of Frey. About thirty hours after Newton’s conviction, at 1:30 in the morning on September 10, two white on-duty uniformed police officers shot up the windows and office of the Black Panther headquarters at 4421 Grove Street in Oakland.
Residents of the area awoke to the sound of gunfire. Witnesses who saw the shooting said that the police shot at the office from inside their parked car, across four lanes of Grove Street. According to police sources, the officers fired more than a dozen bullets. The pattern of the bullet holes left by the shooting suggested that the officers were aiming at a poster of Newton in the wicker throne in the office front window.” (Bloom 2016, 199)
