Jane Rhodes

Hear the words "black panther" and chances are that, even for those born after that phase of the black power movement, the raised fist, the lunging cat, and the black beret will come to mind. Even today, almost 10 years after Eldridge Cleaver's death and more than 40 years after the height of the movement that he led, the images of the Black Panthers are seared onto the American psyche. In part, says Jane Rhodes in Framing the Black Panthers, that's because the Black Panthers staged a mass media campaign so effective that even the U.S. government felt threatened by it and used the media in an equally effective anti-Panther campaign. Rhodes uses evidence from contemporary popular culture to artfully illustrate the long-lasting effects of the Black Panthers and to tell their history, making them once again relevant.
Tue., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m., 2007