so afternoon, so good to see

everybody today. we're continuing our conversation in of the underground press with two publications is called la raza and the black panther newspaper. and the book that we've been reading our text for this class. john, the smoking type writer, he has suggested that the outgrowth of these public actions that we've been studying from the sixties, these student radical outsider publications, grew out of an active us group called students for democrat society and their work was defined by the 1962 port huron statement. right. and its humanistic values, social interdependence and participatory democracy. so we've spent the last month kind of mapping all of that east

west, north, south, trying to get a sense of whole network. right? that is underground press. but today, want to start trying to complicate that narrative, right? to think of who is inclu ted in that particular historical scholarship on the underground press. so talking about two contemporaneous publications there from the sixties, we'll talk about la raza today. and i hope to get to a little bit of the black panther tomorrow. and then we'll continue our conversation of them both on thursday. and i want to start with them, because they are two publications that were definitely inspired by different manifestos than the port huron. right. i asked you guys to read a plan to aztlan to give you a sense of the chicano movement and la raza and the manifesto that inspired it as well as. the black panther party and the black panther newspapers ten

point program platform as the manifesto. inspired it. so today what i hope will do is like kind of consider the differences among those three statements and then look at visual esthetics, right i'm going to argue that macmillan has basically been arguing that what we've seen before is of a kind of a verbal esthetic in a print culture. but these two publications are helping thinking about visual photojournalism and graphics. so that's what we'll that's my plan for today. that sound. okay. all right. here we go. so mcmillan. right, thanks. the 1962 port huron statement defined thunderground press, but i'm introducing two others to you. and he says that they they that those presses had this verbal esthetic meaning that one, there was a belief in the power of

words to make. we talked about that a lot. this idea of the mimeograph machine being the founder of the underground in the ways that they were able to create of these publications and get them distributed. it's important, i think, even to remember that the port huron statement itself was almost 25,000 words, happily did not ask you to read all of those 25,000 words, but there is this huge belief, that words matter, right? and words can make an impact and inspire people move, people to to work for change, kind of progressive change. but the thing that mcmillan argues and we've been talking about this entire time was that the way those papers were structuredight from their titles, their taglines to their layout were all about promoting is of participatory democracy, right? this idea that everybody should be able to come into some kind open forum on matters of the day

and, give their opinion, and be a of the decision making around issues. right. and so that of that all of those elements of the paper were about promoting that particular idea. rit. that that particular theory of change, of political change, but also sometimes like in the case of the rag promoting ideas around the counterculture in psychedelia so just from the ones that we talked i think about the free press is called free because it's an open right. it washe paper that most promoted that idea of participate democracy and mang an open forum for people to join a social movement the rag out of utah austin was the paper that had the scattered layout the most, the craziest, the mos hallucinatory graphics as a way to get to this idea of what psychedelic could do for you. write altered states, hopefully reaching some kind of higher right. so just way the papers were laid

out mike mills and says is this verbal esthetic and we want talent not not necessarily talents we want to complement we want to add on to that. so first, let's think about let's think about the differences real quick between those. the port huron statement has really fabulous opening, very line. it says, we are people of this generation bread and at least modest comfort housed in universities looking to the world we inherit and i thought your posts were really good in identifying that one thing that we see from those students is that they are coming into some kind of awareness of their situation. they're coming into awareness not only of being comfort in, comfort at a university, right in their lifestyle, but also the paradoxes that are going on

american society. right? they're thinking the civil rights movement that's happening at that time. they're thinking about the cold. right. and the threat of the bomb, trying to think of some other things. but these the thinking about, the war, the end to the vietnam had not started here in the us it's they're starting to consider that issue as well and that is making them begin to see that there are these inequities happening in their in society that. they don't necessarily experience themselves and they find a contradiction to all of our ideals right that's that's why we see them up this statement how did you find it different? if you found a different, how did you find it different from the two other manifestos? i ask you read. yeah, yeah. i feel like very much like ideological. it was like a concept about like new meeting place of ideas where like the ten point platform, for example, very much like a physical call to it was a

response to oppression by people who were directly oppressed. so they were ready for like physical real change. so people who have actually experienced the inequities that those in the port huron statement were talking about, that is. mary carroll. yes. like to the point of how the port huron statement was kind of them like gaining awareness about like the situation in world they were living on, living in. you can tell like in the ten point platform like there aware of the world they're living like they're not just like kind of coming their awareness like they've been experiencing this oppression for a long time and they're like finally and like at the point of like, we need to do something it and we're going to lay out this plan of what we want to do about it. nice your point. carroll makes me think of the idea that with the port huron statement, the students are very much thinking about trying make the university a site of activism. right. it's like they are trying to create a community. there. but with the ten point program

and with a plan to as at land these people who are talking about communities that they already in, like communities they're trying to create, this is where they are from. and this is important because as we talk more about some of the underground and press publications going forward, i want us to make a distinction between reporting about a community, which is what some the early underground press publications were doing. i will say the rag is a little different because after while those, especially the women writers of the rag got very much involved in the social movements of the day way right? women's issues. but for the most part, there's an ideological about what participatory should look like, but with some these other publications we see something more on the ground, which is i people are within a community and are themselves affected by the inequities that they're thinking about that's one any other thoughts aidan

almost want to pick on you because your post was so good. do you remember your post? yeah, well, i sort of i think that the ones that we just read that the program in the plan that i think they both sort took on more substance than the port huron statement. i think that's a function of like the urgency with which they felt the things needed to be addressed because they actually are this community. and while the people who wrote the port huron statement can sort of pontificate about these things and take time thinking about them, i think the groups that wrote the manifestos couldn't and kind of reminded me of the the march on selma piece in that like it out that sometimes they just sort of view these problems and participate to the extent it's comfortable for them to participate and then sometimes withdraw. whereas like these communities don't have that luxury. so i thought that the manifestos we read sort of reflected that. yeah, a deep urgency, right? of what people were doing.

excellent. so just right now, just in terms of thinking about what the differences, i think that lays it out. well, did miss any but did anybody else to have a comment about that particular point, the differences or similarities. okay. and i'm sure everyone read it, but just the other kind of point that i want to make know, we've talked about this, the awareness, privilege and paradoxes, paradoxes, the concern about the civil rights movement and the cold war a little bit about the environment. they're kind of theories of change, ideologies. and this university is a site of active activism in a planned day as it like we have in that overview is spiritual spiritual kind of a statement about we'll call it tokenism all right. which is like chicano

nationalism. um, the idea that we are deeply, we're to be deeply focused on own communities. they say this the plan presented we it is in the spirit a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage it but of the invasion. our territories. we reclaim the land of our birth, consecrating the the determination of our people, and declared the call of our blood is our power our responsibility and our inevitable destiny. so there's a sense of nationalism kind of focused on a separate community, community looking in on itself and trying to responsibility for for its that same kind of nationalism. we call it black nationalism or cultural nationalism. we also saw with the ten point program. so that's important to. think about whereas i think the point here on statement was a bit more outward facing, right

in thinking about what's happening in the world, the programs of our plan and of temporary ten point program are very similar and that you know they're talking about the nitty gritty survival issues of day to day life. right. they're talking having housing and education and good jobs and. right. in terms of being free of overpolicing, free from overincarceration, like of those are issues that are stated. these are very just kind of hard, gritty day to day issues that people are expressing saying so that's the difference in terms of their ideologies. but in terms of their esthetic right. today, i want us to think about. the esthetic of la raza and know i ask you to to listen to a document re for thursday i'm going to ask you to look at first issue so you can begin to see for yourself some of the

images now also ask you to look at the first issue of the black panther. but today i want to just kind of lay out what some of the esthetics were and i'd have that help you guide you in your reading for thursday. so one thing that i thought was really interesting about the the documentary that i you to think about was the yeah, the focus on photography. right. that, that was the kind of the distinction that raza brought. it's a publication that was that originated in 1967, in september of 1967, it founded in the basement a church in los angeles by people ruth robinson rasco. i forget the first time alesia briscoe and the reverend john lewis resco was a cuban refugee. robert ruth robinson was a

graduate from stanford, and john lewis was an episcopalian reverend. the two young people had actually worked in the united farmers workers movement with cesar chavez and with dolores huerta. and when working chavez and where they were thinking about, you know, food issues for farmers. but this got risks and robinson thinking about urban chicanos in in los angeles and the help that they might need which is one reason they collaborate with john lewis and thought of la raza as a paper that could be a movement organ we have to remember they're also los angeles they are reading freep and as wonderful the freep was in terms of trying to be a counter public sphere to the mainstream media, which we saw beautifully that it was like when we studied the way they covered what's not enough of

mainstream publications or even the alternative publications were covering the chicano movement. right. i notice from many of your post many of you had never even heard of the chicano. and one reason why we even have it so much of it still in our history books is because of the work of la raza. so they they're trying to find a way to cover the chicano community that has been excluded from coverage mainstream publications. they to give voice and representation to this. and they are also trying to found an outlet express their new sensibilities as mexican americans. right this new sense of pride that they have and that has have in themselves. so they're covering issues like we talked about before, police brutality, education, anti-racism protests, immigration, the school walkouts, which is a big thing.

the chicano, which is a kind of anti-war vietnam protest, which we'll read about for thursday. and they were using their cameras for the most part to to capture this movement when they started out in 1967. it's still more print even though they're they're doing a lot of photojournalism. it's in 1970 when they become a magazine that photojournalism rises to the forefront and get this very distinctive kind of style that they are using. or let's see here. so there are a couple of things that i wanted to mention that they were doing some ways, even though el plan de aztlan is drafted in 1969.

so of three years after la raza, that plan was trying to solidify and codify a consciousness that was throughout the social movement. so part of. what they're doing here in la raza is to communicate the idea of chicano nationalism right? chicano to cheek chica nismo. excuse me. thank you. and in the process they articulated a visual of daily and concerns and struggles of the mexican american in southern california. so what was their distinctive style. is this of trying to mirror their community on the page this is why i like this particular slide from the documentary that i asked you asked you to read for today.

it's like how to approach a subject who has actually been from photography, right? how do you bring that subject into the public sphere? right and how do you make an image of a community from the community? it's like an image of the community, from the community for. the community, right? in terms. countering the stereotypes that were out there about mexican-americans as as lazy, as criminal like we can imagine imagine all the different ones we know so many so some the elements of their distinctive style the idea creati portraits in public we kind of ve this idea. creating a sense of intimacy. in the image the in the in the documentary narrator was talking about the ways in which was

often of kids these these of kids in public and the way you would see their faces up as you could tell they were looking at someone they knew you tell they were looking at someone from their and you begin see them as the sweet little childre they are right. you see you begin to see humanity in a particular way. so many of their and you'll see this on thursday when, you read that first issue. many of their photographs were of children. and these portraits of them being involved, often being involved in, a protest, which also them being involved in, supporting their community, but also being supported by their community, being nurtured and being nurtured by the adults in their community, but also. that interdependence of them both. right. they are they are a part of community and part of a, people who are working counter to the

way we normally see them represented in publications. so portraits in public were huge. the other thing that i loved was this idea of just day to day life, right looking a interactions between people and the that they have. you see, ty're at some kind. i think they're at that at the walkout at roosevelt high school. t the the placard the sign for the prott is actually not the focus. right. the protest is not the focus. these people and their interaction. i think they're flirting. not quite sure what i think, but interaction what's important here and i love that because it reminds me it was one of the things that reminds me of the rag again. and gentle thursday protest. protest. remember talking about that, the idea of a b in and that having joy and interaction with others and connectivity with others is just as important as what the march might be, whatever the

demonstration might be. so particular ethos, i think is very similar, but so many of the photographs are about just capturing day to day life. i think we can imagine why right to humanize communities that have been marginalized. right. humanize people who have been stereotyped and oppressed. but they are also, you know, covering demonstrations right there, covering the walkouts they're covering the antiwar ts and was a one photographer in the documentary talked about how it always for her to get a poric of the everybody. right. the panoramic of the and that would often get up on a bridge. so she could look down or she'd t on someone's ers or she'd get up on a lamp post so she could get that panoramic shot. so i'm going to throw it out to

you for a minute. why the crowd, why import, why, why? important to get everybody in shot. we go from these intimate portraits of these children to this kind of expansive shot of protests. jack, i see something happening not necessarily with the crowd, but sort of with regard to that, i think showing the intimate like day to day shots and then also showing these it prevents people who might be in the community from being turned off from pictures like this, who might oh, these people are being radical. if they just saw a picture like this. but see that next to a picture of those kids or of two people just having a conversation and it makes them seem like maybe like less radical. and oh, if i'm in the movement, i can relate to them a little. so the dialectic of the crowd showing protest, but then those intimate portraits giving us individual people making say, this is who's here. okay, that's lovely. jessica. it's about that solidarity, but

also by showing the crowd and they say that they wanted to invite in as many people as they could into this, even though it's from their own perspective. so i think it's about just and like in the black panther paper where they say, like, we recognize our solidarity with the people who are suffering in vietnam even before they were supposed to be drafted there. i think it's it's about showing that it's from their identity, but it's about the movement that brings other people in. so in showing the crowd almost like an invitation, like saying you can be a part of this, you are a part of this, okay, lovely. anybody else? yeah. meghan, i was hoping that it could just be not purely evocative. like, largely meant evoke. i just was just saying, like, say it again, marching much larger, like. like evocative. just like she was just saying, if if those smaller and more intimate moments meant to, you know, humanize the people behind the movement like that, surely just to show this movement, just

like the size of it, the enormity it the seriousness of it, just so there's there's both sides like it's so is just mind of the like the cause to show the cause to show their power as a people and their numbers right. that's lovely. anybody else to think about like why? why the crowd is important. yes. mary karen. well well one of the photographers like in the documentary mentioned how that like when she was shooting a crowd she like to shoot like when the crowd's backs were facing her because like that perspective of that shot made, it look like the person viewing that photo later was like also in the crowd and was also part of it. and i think it about like kind of to that point of like inviting people into the movement and like seeing these photos from a perspective where you're like kind of part of it is like a good way do that we're i'm going to find that particular shot you're talking like having the crowd from behind right? and the narrator talked about it as a way of creating empathy for the viewer, cause now we we're

looking at them from behind, but we're basically now a part of that crowd right as we and we are seeing what seeing from their particular perspective. right so inviting people into this moment, i think that's great. did i miss anybody do jessica can i pick on you one more time about your your great post because you referred to our guest speaker last week goldstein and the way he said he always focused on the crowd. yeah well he said he would go to these concerts and focus on the crowd. and he's and that's really apparent in the janis joplin piece. i think it's really evocative that like this is happening now like can show all the pictures of the everyday moments and things that happen routinely but sort of pressure rising moment of the crowd being there and asking to join them is so much more powerful. and i love that that you wereing your post.

jessica and connecting la raza to the counterculture right? we have been studying through the rag and through richard goldstein's music. this idea of getting into the special space of the now, right? the special place where everyone feels connected and a part of this movement and feels a certain kind of urgency because as we're even as we're distinctions between these these publications, what we've read so far, there's still idea of there's a sense of urgency and trying to bring people into the now into this present. right. such that some kind of change can be made. right. in terms of student activism. so fantastic the other thing they talked about, which i thought was really interesting is that they're often narrow tive action shots they talked about for the of la raza idea

wasn't to have beautiful although i think their photography is beautiful but it had a very utilitarian function what happened what's the story and can we that's what we're to te through these pictus. and so the narrator was often talking that it was many of the pictures people were in motion right? something was happening. ey were moving a movement cause they're often trying to they're nottanding there posed. right. they're. trying to tell you something that's happened in the moment. and i love this picture here because. they're just there at a protest togethernd giving you that sense of being in the crowd, being in motion. so narrative action, snapshots are important, empathetic perspective, which we just discussed and is also, i think, similar, a similar point about an empathetic perspective here.

the crowd we're kind of i, i almost feel like a mingling in the crowd right i feel like i'm among the protests the protesters as i as i view this so again in that sense of trying to photograph that try to invite the viewer into the space in some kind of way. that's that i missed any thoughts or questions so far about photography in la raza? okay. so the other paper that be talking about or reading for thursday is the black panther newspaper. we'll read the first issue. the black panthers were founded in 1966. so right during the time of these other publications that have come to the fore, they were founded byuenewton and bobby

in oakland, california. so we were just north of la raza, down in east l.a. d 's a moment during the civil rights movement when we' moving froth philosophy of nonviolence that was epitomized by dr. king to idea of armed self-defense was supported by malcolm x and the nation. islam. they are founded because of a a case of police brutality where young man had been killed. his name was denzel. i'm trying to think of a denzel howell as a black teenager. so when we think of even that that issue even at the time wasn't a new issue, young, black, unarmed menei killed by police officers was a that was ne then, of course, we know it's not a new one today, buthey were founded in 16 and they

had two major ideas this armed self-defense, which was a kind of a trope of being an outlaw of being a cowboy, an avenger of the west. and the second one s eir social programs. they're very well known for their. their breakfast program. it's this scholar i want to get to this point here the scholarly race offered she she's athe university of california at berkeley and she's done a lot of study of photography in black freedom struggles how been used and her here for the panthers that they weren't actually interested in being a neighborhood police force they were more concerned visual representation. the idea of showing what it would look like right showing giving a mythology of power so

whereas say la raza, i'm thinking about la raza in this idea of being evocative, all those the the crowds of people to give a sense the power of those people the power of the black panthers was often shown through their style of dress right through their clothing, through their leather jackets and their berets and of course, thugthe guns that they carried which were seeing this anressive and certainly i think even alarming today with our issues with gun violencen the cntry. but there their philosophy was actually in line with the nra at the time and the nra today. it was very, very threatening to see the black panthers with these guns, this visual representation of creating this mythic, heroic in the community who were avenging avenging police, overpolicing, who were avenging other forms of

oppression. they recruit into the black panther party. it's important to think about what we call the lumpen right, the working class and poor, whereas the civil rights mome was more of a middle cls, a class movement thinking about voting rights. so this is the blackanther party and emory douglas, who was the graphic. and we're going to think about the black panther party through his work was the minister culture of the black panther party. actually, i thie this particular graphic my on the syllabus for this class so was an he studied artt e city college of san he was a graphic designer political cartoonist and he make theseake these posters on the back page of the black panther newspaper. and he was trying we're going to

argue with these posters to create the same kind of mythology, this visual representation of a powerful figure, and to help arm black folk in psychologically with the idea of their their own sense of power in the world. just kind of think about the esthetic for a minute, the lines dark and bold, and i'll show you some more in a minute. he usual some ki of. two typography to go with it, like, so there's those words, so the image and words are g together in a way that. e might call propagandistic propaganda. but there's a lot of there's a combination of text and image in his work, which is actually

kind o techniques of commercial artist. but he's bringing it into the newspaper are striking drawings of black people a lot of of color. so all power to the is one of the slogans of the black panthers so i'm going to show you just some imagery from. to show you this particular because i want you to think about it for your rdi. one phase of his work and trying to create a representaf everyday black heroic figures right to givehero them the sense of an idea of their own particular power. this is we've gone too far. hold on one second. the lump in an arm struggle. okay. so he's it's part of an effort.

get poorest of the poor involved the black panther party. they are often in combat poses their arm. they're taking control of their lives, participating in armed. and he tries to a and the different kinds of back pages like you know these these posters are at the very back page of the black panther party. so it's ou know they're reporting on all the things that at the very end, there is aity picture of someone looks like everyday people who are inspired by what they've read and who. metaphor cli right metaphorically joining in revolution right kind of revolutionary activity. they see themselves as revolutionaries and he is trying make revolutionary seem possible revolution seem possible and a

reasonable response to to the conditions and he's also creating and i think this is ally important a visual mythology of power for people who feel victimized and powerless very, very from the civil rights movement in terms audiences are trying to convince people for jobs. and here, you know, jobs, jobs is like this. what this march on washington was about. but here it is the lumpen are in movement metaphorically for their for their economic rights. the civil rights movement. this is important, i think important the civil rights movement is like kind of talking to a larger audience, right. it's convincing the nation to join that particular struggle. and we'll a little bit about the pros and cons of this. the black panther newspapers is often talking to black

communities and very inward facing facing the photography of the civil rights movement showed people who have been to great effect. i know many of you probably know the story. emmett till, right? and story of jet magazine carrying that particular photo of his brutalized body. it was mobilizing. it was absolutely mobilizing for civil rights movement. it was the spark for that particular movement. but the black panther party and trying to have a different esthetic like was like we don't want to show bodies. brutalized right. we want to show them seemingly looking as if they are in power looking as if they are heroic. so trying to imagine what future might be like, what is what is in fact possible. so joshua bennett, he's a scholar. he was prince. i'm not sure where he is now, but he calls this graork of emory

douglas a chrono political act, a chrono act in which he is visualizing situations that did eventual. right to encourage an very s, very similar show, african-american icons in solidarity with peopled the world. so 's actually really important distinction between. the black panther newspaper as we, distinction with la raza. they are actually thinking more about international issues, whereas the other publications that we've talked about really focused on localities right, the local news. and then finally there are these survival programs, survival, painting, revolution. emory is most known for those

mythical heroic figures, but he did a lot of graphic artistry that was pictures of children. right thinking about what a future might look like pictures that talked about their free breakfast programs. right. and the survival of the pictures that talked about the need foroting. these two gentlemen are on their wa vote. this woster in support shirley chisholm, when she was g for preside this is also about voting and supporting blackiness says it's interesting to me is a tambourine.n with her right. so it's like an image that le know it's an every day invoking the culture in a political way in terms of people get involved. so that was kind of the last way in, which emoryas.

and this is actually my my my favorite in the sense th t lines are so as ts by is is this particular baby is soft. okay. all right so for thursday we're early before thursday what want you to do is read volume one issue one of la raza, the first volume of their magazine. in that for hold on in that first volume one issue one there's an editorial only only read the editorial and read this very famous poem your soy chicken. then read the edition of the magazine in the first issue of black newspaper. what i want you to do is to think about the obviously the visual esthetics. the chicken is small. the black nationalism.

and. see how those images reflect those particular ideas. all right, devin any questions about for thursday's reading? all right. that. thank