In May 1970, in New Haven, CT (USA), the poster of Huey P. Newton in a rattan chair on the wall of the New Haven Panther office that is lined with sandbags was photographed by Stephen Shames.
“Sandbags line the walls of the New Haven Panther office to protect against a suspected police raid during the Bobby Seale trial, New Haven, May 1970.” (Shames 2016, 216-217)
“The Panthers were at war, and the Panther National Central Committee placed Geronimo Pratt in charge of the Southern California chapter. Pratt proceeded to fortify the L.A. offices. He assigned Panthers to dig tunnels in the basement and use the dirt to fill sandbags. Pratt recalled, “We stuffed sandbags in the panels behind our walls, below our ceilings, up under our roof. We put up tons of dirt. It was all defensive structure. No bullet was gonna penetrate three-foot walls.”” (On the thread of raids by police in fall and winter of 1969 in Bloom 2016, 222)
