ABSTRACT
The Black Panther Party had been taking shape during the seven months before the portrait of Huey P. Newton was constructed. As Newton’s brace of weaponry indicates, the Black Panther Party adhered staunchly to the second amendment right to bear arms. By January 1967, Newton and Seale had pooled their modest salaries from working at the Anti-Poverty Center to rent for $150 a small storefront at 5622 Grove Street in North Oakland. The photograph of Newton seated with assorted warrior attributes was created for that post-Sacramento The Black Panther issue of May 15, 1967. The seated portrait of Newton was already an iconic signifier of the Black Panther Party, regularly reproduced in The Black Panther with the Ten-Point Platform. Since the October 28, 1967 shootings, from his cell Newton had been the gifted theorist issuing executive pronouncements to the vanguard group and dropping gems of wisdom lapped up by a thirsty media.
