These drawings are the only known visual record of the 1970-1971
trial of New Haven, Conn., Black Panther Party members for the murder of
fellow Panther Alex Rackley. Suspecting that Rackley was a police
informant, Panthers shot and killed him in 1969. Those who pulled the
trigger admitted their guilt. The question at stake in the trial was
whether Panther leaders Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale were involved.
Robert Templeton,
a sketch artist and painter, received a commission from CBS News to
document the trial. The courtroom was technically closed to artists and
photographers, so he had to hide his work. Templeton executed his drawings in two stages,
first sketching initial impressions in pastel, and then making larger,
more complete images on helicopter rides from New Haven to CBS
headquarters in New York. CBS showed the finished products on the
evening news.
The network went to such lengths to procure courtroom images because
the story was a media circus that lasted for more than a year. On May 1,
1970, a crowd of 15,000 out-of-town Panther Party members, Yale
students, and other supporters gathered on the New Haven Green to
protest the trial, which they believed was a baseless attempt to
disempower and discredit the Panthers. Yale’s president, Kingman
Brewster, publicly supported the protesters; Benjamin Spock spoke at the
rally. (This excellent slideshow from the New Haven Register tells the story of the trial and the protests in photos.)
Read on...
Read on...
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