Decade of Dissent Democracy in Action 1965-1975
Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975 1965-1975—years that span the U.S. war in Viet Nam*—was a watershed decade for California and the country as a whole. Through legislation and demonstrations, democracy was both advanced and challenged at the ballot box, in the classroom and in the streets. U.S. democracy embraces free speech, yet California’s students fought for the right to engage in free speech in high schools and college campuses. Our democracy ensures freedom of assembly, yet the police often attacked peaceful demonstrators. The Constitution protects civil liberties and civil rights regardless of race, gender, class or ethnicity, yet African Americans, Asians, Latinos, women, lesbians, gays and others fought—and continue to fight—for their equality. Whenever people organize and protest, artists are in the forefront of the struggles for greater democracy and justice. This exhibition documents the importance of poster art for developing and promoting the ideas and ideals of democracy in California during a very turbulent decade—not unlike the present. The posters forcefully and graphically demonstrate that democracy includes the obligation to speak-out and struggle for justice. Dissent is patriotic. The exhibition also shows the power of art to recall historical events and views of the world that can create a deeper context for understanding contemporary society. Carol A. Wells Founder and Executive Director Center for the Study of Political Graphics * The Vietnamese language is monosyllabic, and the divided spelling Viet Nam is the transliteration used by the Vietnamese. The single word Vietnam was utilized by the French, and thus connotes colonial status, not sovereignty. Vietnamese posters use the divided spelling; U.S. posters use both forms. Unless quoting printed materials, the divided spelling of Viet Nam is used in this exhibition.
Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975 Funded in part by
Make Love Not War Weisser Tarot Press Offset, 1967 Los Angeles, California
The slogan Make Love Not War was first used to oppose the Viet Nam War, but is still invoked in other anti-war contexts. Gershon Legman (1917 – 1999), a cultural critic and folklorist, claimed to be the inventor of the phrase, probably circa 19641965 when he was a writer in residence at the University of California at San Diego. Radical activists Penelope and Franklin Rosemont were the first to print the slogan when they produced thousands of "Make Love, Not War" buttons at the Solidarity Bookshop in Chicago, Illinois, distributing them at the Mother's Day Peace March in 1965. In April 1965, at an anti-Viet Nam War demonstration in Eugene, Oregon, Diane Newell Meyer, a senior at the University of Oregon, pinned a handwritten “Let's make love, not war” on her sweater. A picture of her was printed in the Eugene Register-Guard and then a related article appeared in the New York Times on May 9, 1965. That was the beginning of the popularity of this phrase.
Bring Them Home Alive! Stop the War Now! Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam Offset, 1967 Los Angeles, California
On June 23, 1967, 15,000 anti-Viet Nam War demonstrators marched to the Century Plaza Hotel where President Lyndon B. Johnson was speaking. It was the largest anti-war gathering in L.A. history up to that time. The peaceful march, made up primarily of students and middle class protesters, including children and babies in carriages, was attacked and forcibly dispersed by hundreds of nightstickwielding police on motorcycles. The poster on the left was circulated to promote the demonstration. The poster on the right denounced the brutal attack on the demonstrators by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In 1997, on the 30th anniversary of the demonstration, the LA Times reported that “the bloody, panicked clash (that ensued between the LAPD and primarily middle class protesters) left an indelible mark on politics, protests and police relations. It marked a turning point for Los Angeles, a city not known for drawing demonstrators to marches in sizable numbers… Johnson rarely campaigned in public again, except for appearances at safe places like military bases. Within nine months, opposition to the war grew so strong that he shelved his reelection campaign.”
June 23, 1967 Artist Unknown Offset, 1967 Los Angeles, California
Produced immediately after the LAPD attacked the anti-Viet Nam War protest march at Century City, the poster features a police officer on a motorcycle. June 27, 1967, the date of the event, is depicted on his helmet. The officer’s body and motorcycle are filled with words such as “Hate,” “Kill,” and “Smash” while he rides over “Peace” and “Love.”
Hell No We Won't Go Gilbert Offset, circa 1967 Los Angeles, California
Resist Jerry Palmer The Resistance Vietnam Day Committee Silkscreen, 1967 Los Angeles, California
In 1967, Jerry Palmer—a physics graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an antiwar activist—set out to meet the communications needs of two important radical organizations of the day: the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and The Resistance, a national organization focusing on resisting the draft. He designed and silkscreened this poster, using his own hand, for The Resistance draft card turn-in on October 16, 1967. After experimenting with commercial printers who often refused to print anti-war material, and silkscreening posters on the floor of The Resistance office in Westwood, California, Palmer finally invested $250 in a box of offset printing press parts which he reassembled. This rebuilt AB Dick 320 press was the beginning of Peace Press, an “alternate everything” L.A. printing collective, that would go on to produce thousands of fliers, posters, ephemera, and other materials for both progressive and commercial clients throughout Southern California and the country.
10 Days of Resistance Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Offset, 1968 Los Angeles, California
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a student activist movement that was one of the main representations of the New Left in the U.S. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969. A faction of SDS formed the Weather Underground, identified by the FBI as a "domestic terrorist group." In the spring of 1968, National SDS activists led an effort on college campuses called "Ten Days of Resistance" and local chapters cooperated with the Student Mobilization Committee in rallies, marches, sit-ins and teach-ins, which culminated in a one-day strike on April 26. About a million students stayed away from classes that day, the largest student strike in the history of the U.S. SDS in San Francisco played a major role in the Third World Student Strike at San Francisco State College. This strike, the longest student strike in U.S. history, led to the creation of Black and other ethnic studies programs on campuses across the country. Membership in SDS chapters around the United States increased dramatically during the 1968-69 academic year. SDS has been an important influence on student organizing in the decades since its collapse. Participatory democracy, direct action, radicalism, student power, shoestring budgets, and its organizational structure are all present in varying degrees in current American grassroots and student activist groups, including the current Occupy Movement.
Bank of Amerika Isle Vista Branch Metamorphosis (Daryl Rush and others) Offset, 1970 Goleta, California
In February 1970, a rally was held at the stadium of the University of California in Santa Barbara to respond to national and local issues including the firing of several radical faculty, police harassment of black student activists, and the ongoing Viet Nam War. Police harassment of students leaving the rally, including the arrests of several demonstrators, escalated into a struggle for control of the college community of Isla Vista, during which the Bank of America was burned down. The Bank of America was the largest bank in California, had a number of branches in Viet Nam, and was a symbol of corporate support of the war. Two months later the temporary Bank of America structure was also burned down, and a student defending the bank structure was killed by a police sharpshooter who claimed his gun went off accidentally.
Daryl Rush was raised in Bakersfield, and attended Catholic school from K-12.When he transferred to the University of California at Santa Barbara as a junior, he described himself as a “John Bircher in process of becoming human,” a process that was supported by the anti-war activities going on at the time. After graduating from UCSB, Rush became business manager for the Associated Students and he ran the campus print shop. The day after the bank burned, we all met at the print shop, trying to decide what to do. It was almost as if everyone had just one brain and we decided to print the scenic checks. The university had fancy equipment. We took a real check, blew it up, and added the photo. Amerika was the German/Nazi spelling, we wanted to make that connection. I misspelled Isla Vista by mistake. That might have been the first scenic check. A friend came back from the Soviet Union with a lot of great posters. He had them printed in LA and told us where to go. At the university, 11 x 17 was the largest we could make, and we did different versions of the burning B of A before the final one. After doing the Scenic Check, we didn’t do small ones anymore. Everyone was coming in and doing posters on the school’s equipment. We did 3 printings, totaling 100,000 posters. They went all over the world. At least 8 people claimed it was their photo, so everyone who claimed it was theirs, got a stack of posters. They wanted money, but got posters instead. And it was another way of getting them out there. The name Metamorphosis on the poster refers to the metamorphosis of becoming a human being, a political person, we were all liberating ourselves. It was a metaphor for liberating ourselves. That’s why metamorphosis fit so well, nobody knew who we were. We didn’t know who we were. Those were amazing times. I believe that the new Occupy awakens a lot of the same things in people. It is really, really exciting. I think that the Occupy movement gives us some hope.
In April 1970, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, a neutral country during the Viet Nam War, college campuses throughout the U.S. erupted in protest, and one third of them shut down. At Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed by national guardsmen deployed to repress the protests. Two days later, two students were killed by police at Jackson State College in Mississippi. Outraged by the escalating violence abroad and at home, these three posters were produced by striking students at the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.
And Crown Thy Good with Brotherhood from Sea to Shining Sea Metamorphosis (Daryl Rush and others) Offset, 1970 Goleta, California
Made following the 1970 invasion of Cambodia and the killing of students at Kent State and JacksonState, this poster also evokes the 1968 My Lai Massacre which had only been recently revealed to the American public.
Amerika Is Devouring Its Children Jay Belloli Silkscreen, 1970 Berkeley, California Based on: Saturn Devouring One of His Sons Francisco Goya
When striking UC Berkeley students walked out of their classes, many took over the art department and silkscreened over 100 designs such as this onto reams of used computer paper. Belloli, an art history student, transformed the Goya into an anti-Viet Nam War statement.
Asians are also Dying in Vietnam Group Graphics Silkscreen, 1970 Los Angeles, California
UCLA art and design students founded Group Graphics following the invasion of Cambodia. While printing at the Dickson Art Center, Angela Davis walked in and remarked how the US antiwar movement was focusing on the deaths of American soldiers, but that countless Asians were also dying. This poster was produced in response to her comment.
Asians are also Dying in Vietnam Group Graphics Silkscreen, 1970 Los Angeles, California
But I was not wrong to hope that exposing secrets five presidents had withheld and the lies they told might have benefits for our democracy that were worthy of the risks. Wouldn't you go to jail to help end the war? – Daniel Ellsberg, Political analyst, Anti nuclear activist 1931 Originally commissioned in 1971 by Clergy and Laymen Concerned, this poster celebrates the courage of Daniel Ellsberg, a former U.S. military analyst who worked at the Pentagon and the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. In 1967, Ellsberg contributed to a top-secret study of classified documents regarding the conduct of the Viet Nam War that had been commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. In late 1969—with the assistance of his former RAND Corporation colleague Anthony Russo and the staff of Senator Edward Kennedy—Ellsberg secretly made several sets of photocopies of the classified documents to which he had access; these later became known as the Pentagon Papers. They revealed that the government had knowledge, early on, that the war could most likely not be won, and that continuing the war would lead to many times more casualties than was ever admitted publicly. Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the top secret Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and other newspapers. An editor of the The New York Times was to write much later, these documents "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance."
ROTC Must Go! Los Angeles, California Committee to Abolish ROTC Peace Press Offset, 1970 Los Angeles, California
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) is a college-based officer commissioning program. ROTC produces officers for all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces except the U.S. Coast Guard. ROTC students are offered college scholarships in exchange for extended periods of active military service. During the Viet Nam War, Committees Against ROTC formed on campuses throughout California and the nation. Protesting students pushed ROTC programs out of many colleges and universities. Some ROTC buildings, including StanfordUniversity and Kent State University, were torched. Banning ROTC became illegal in 1994, under the Solomon Amendment, which denied federal funding to any university that prevented the military from “maintaining, establishing or operating” ROTC on its campus.
¡Fuera de Indochina! Rupert García Silkscreen, 1970 Oakland, California
After reading about the first National Chicano Moratorium called for August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, Rupert García, Bay area artist and Viet Nam War veteran, silkscreened approximately 50 copies of ¡Fuera de Indochina! and sent them to Los Angeles to be distributed for the Chicano Moratorium. García based his design on a widely distributed but anonymous photograph of a triumphant Vietnamese soldier holding a rifle in his upraised fist. Poster makers throughout the U.S., Europe and Cuba incorporated this photo into antiwar posters. Every poster, except García’s, includes the gun.
After reading about the first National Chicano Moratorium called for August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, Rupert García, Bay area artist and Viet Nam War veteran, silkscreened approximately 50 copies of ¡Fuera de Indochina! and sent them to Los Angeles to be distributed for the Chicano Moratorium. García based his design on a widely distributed but anonymous photograph of a triumphant Vietnamese soldier holding a rifle in his upraised fist. Poster makers throughout the U.S., Europe and Cuba incorporated this photo into anti-war posters. Every poster, except García’s, includes the gun. García describes the process in a recent unpublished interview, where he begins by relating his avoidance of guns to his tour of duty in Viet Nam: Well, when I was [in the U.S. army] for four years, I was always armed, always armed. And so I don’t need to have a gun [in my art]; …The war was about guns, bombs, jets, so why do you need to be redundant… And so that’s also one reason why I didn’t use guns. … But I see this picture of this North Vietnamese army guy shouting—in a helmet, with his hand up and a gun in his hand—…and it just grabbed me…And then I heard about the development of the National Anti-War March in East L.A., and then I saw in a magazine that came out in Los Angeles…a photograph of a march. And one of the banners had these words. And I wasn’t interested in what the words said. I was interested in how the words looked—the alphabet. So I took the alphabet and I had to make some new letters but using the shape of these letters for the “Fuera de Indochina” at the bottom…. And so it’s a combination of photo reference and handmade stuff. And then, I’m almost like collaging a composition. And then when I find it, and I trace it, and then from the trace I hand-cut a stencil. Each color is its own stencil, so I think I hand cut three or four stencils, and proceeded to print them.
Chicano Moratorium Ramses Noriega Silkscreen, 1970 Los Angeles, California
The Chicano Moratorium, formally known as the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, was a movement of Chicano anti war activists that built a broad based but fragile coalition of Mexican American groups to organize opposition to the Viet Nam War. Led by activists from local colleges and members of the Brown Berets, a group with roots in the high school student movement that staged walkouts in 1968, the coalition peaked with the first National Chicano Moratorium on August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles that drew an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 demonstrators. A police riot following the peaceful march resulted in many injuries, more than 150 arrests and four deaths, including Gustav Montag, Lyn Ward, José Diaz, and award-winning journalist Rubén Salazar, news director of the local Spanish television station and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Many continue to insist that Salazar was intentionally murdered because of his ongoing examination of rampant racism and police abuse within the LAPD and LA County Sheriff’s Department. The artist was a founder of the Chicano Moratorium, and the poster features Rosalío Muñoz, the first Chicano student body president of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1969, Muñoz refused induction and burned his draft card in protest over Chicano casualties in Viet Nam. In 1970, he was co chair of the Chicano Moratorium.
Viet Nam Aztlan Malaquías Montoya Chicano Vietnam Project Offset, 1973 Berkeley, California
Malaquías Montoya describes the creation of Viet Nam Aztlan: This poster came about by the suggestion of two activist friends of mine, Ernesto Colosi and Jose Luis Flores. Although I had done posters earlier about the Vietnam War and the August 29th Moratorium, their proposal was very attractive because they intended to fund an off-set production of the piece and proposed a widespread distribution. The other silkscreen prints that I had produced were by hand and limited to 500 to 1,000 prints. Because of the escalating nature of the war and the high number of Chicano/Latino youths being lost in the war, it was necessary to try to reach as many as possible to oppose it. I especially linked it to the struggle of the Chicana/o people in this country. I felt that it was more important for our young men to be here fighting in their communities for justice. I felt at that time, that we had more in common with the Vietnamese people than with those that were sending us to die in a foreign country, hence the images of the two cultures -- their hands connecting and symbolizing solidarity. This poster traveled internationally, including to Vietnam. It continues to be a very popular image today and has been published numerous times.
Huelga! Andrew (Andy) Zermeño United Farm Workers Organizing Committee Offset, 1965 Los Angeles, California
Andy Zermeño met César Chávez while working with Saul Alinsky in the Community Service Organization (CSO). When Chávez left the CSO to start organizing farm workers, he asked Zermeño to come with him. Zermeño worked with the United Farm Workers for 14 years. This is the first poster Zermeño did for Chávez. He describes the background: We want a huelga (strike) poster. So this became a huelga poster. And they used it however they wanted —as a poster, in a magazine, or whatever…It’s just trying to show the spirit of the [farm workers]. They were attacking the status quo, basically, and…they were eager to do something for themselves.That’s what impressed me. That’s what I wanted to show in that one… I just did what I felt was right. Nobody told me anything. They waited for me to make the graphic statement…I did a lot of work for them in El Malcriado, the [farm workers' underground] newspaper. For that newspaper, they wanted cartoons and comic strips… because fifty percent of our people cannot read or write and so we had to draw it for them.
Boycott Grapes Xavier Viramontes Offset, 1973 San Francisco, California
Leave Gallo for The Rats Méchicano Art Center Silkscreen, 1973 Los Angeles, California
From 1973-1979, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), led by Cesar Chávez and Dolores Huerta, called for a boycott of E.& J. Gallo Winery, claiming the winery exploited its vineyard workers in Sonoma County, provided low wages, and no benefits. The boycott against Gallo was part of a campaign that included lettuce and field grapes. That boycott ended in 1978, after the UFW won a string of union elections held under California's then-new Agricultural Labor Relations Act. In 2005, the boycott was resumed when Gallo refused to provide health coverage for its workers. This boycott ended in 2011.
Vote for United Farm Workers Méchicano Art Center United Farm Workers of America Offset, mid 1970s Los Angeles, California
The slogan, “For all these rights we’ve just begun to fight” comes from Ben Shahn's 1946 "Register Vote" poster made for the CIO. It also features flags with diverse demands, but in Shahn’s there is only one worker visible among the sea of flags, while the UFW consciously includes a Mexican American, African American, and white workers showing their mutual solidarity by holding the banners together.
Boycott Lettuce Emory Douglas Black Panther Party Offset, 1972 Oakland, California
BLACK PANTHER PARTY The Black Panther Party (BPP) was very supportive of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers’ movement and their boycott of grapes, lettuce, Gallo wine, Safeway markets, etc. All of this was extensively promoted in The Black Panther, the BPP newspaper. The BPP also helped publicize agricultural pesticide dangers for farm workers and consumers. In July 1973, the BPP launched a major boycott against six Oakland Safeway supermarkets. In addition to publishing many articles on the UFW and the boycott, The Black Panther frequently carried a UFW fundraising coupon to send support directly to the UFW. The BPP supported the Chicano movement in many other ways, such as in funding the publication of the Chicano newspaper, Basta Ya!, and in defending Chicano political prisoners, including Los Siete (The Latino Seven).
To All Gangs Manuel Gomez Cruz Méchicano Art Center Silkscreen, 1974 Los Angeles, California
Chicano Defense Fund Méchicano Art Center Silkscreen, late 1960s-early 1970s Los Angeles, California
The Chicano Defense Fund was formed in response to numerous arrests of Chicano activists. Incidents of protester arrest included the Chicano student walk-outs (1968), Catolicos Por La Raza (1969), and the Chicano Moratorium (1970).
Hasta La Victoria Siempre Carlos Callejo Silkscreen, 1970 Los Angeles, California
Free the Latino Seven Emory Douglas Black Panther Party Offset, 1969 Oakland, California
The Latino Seven, also known as Los Siete de la Raza, refers to seven young Latinos who were approached by two plainclothes police officers on May 1, 1969 at around 10:30 a.m. They were moving a stereo or TV into a house in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. Most of the seven were community activists. The ensuing altercation resulted in one officer dead from a gunshot wound from the other officer’s gun. After a trial that lasted a year and a half, the seven defendants were acquitted. This mass arrest and trial became a seminal event in the awakening of consciousness for Latinos in the San Francisco area. The Los Siete Defense Committee raised support for the seven youths and was assisted by the Black Panther Party which helped solicit funds for Los Siete’s legal defense and co-published Basta Ya! (Enough!), the newspaper for Los Siete. The Panther newspaper had a national distribution and contributed postage and printing for Basta Ya! The back cover of The Panther was the upside down front cover of Basta Ya! thus both papers were contained within a single tabloid. Because Los Siete were not nationalists, had no money and were associated with the Panthers, many older Latino organizations would not support them.
Black is Beautiful Operation Black Venice Library Silkscreen, 1968 Venice, California
Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that began in the U.S. in the 1960s by African American activists to challenge the prevailing idea that European or “white” features were more attractive or desirable than African or “black” features.
All Power to the People Emory Douglas Black Panther Party Offset, 1969 Oakland, California Back cover of Black Panther newspaper, March 9, 1969
All Power to the People was the motto and slogan of the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense. It symbolized their basic belief that every community has the right to determine its own destiny through the control of its institutions, determining its own laws, governing its own land, and creating its own cultural values. As Marxists/Maoists, they wanted an end to imperialism, a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth, and political representation in decision making worldwide. All Power to the People is an inclusive slogan, in contrast to the demand for Black Power associated with black-nationalist groups such as the Nation of Islam and the Los Angeles based Us Organization. As the Panthers became more focused on socialism without racial exclusivity, they condemned black-nationalism as “black racism.”
Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter David Mosley Offset, 1969 Los Angeles, California
Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, a former leader of the powerful Los Angeles street gang The Slausons, was introduced to the Black Panther Party by Eldridge Cleaver, a friend and mentor he met while in prison. After joining the L.A. chapter of the BPP, he became Deputy Minister of Defense. A Muslim and a poet, Bunchy was known among the Panthers for a sense of style and individuality. At the time, there were conflicts over the control of prominent positions for African Americans in Los Angeles, among them the leadership of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Black Student Union and a job in the University’s Black Studies program. Ron Karenga, head of the Us Organization, a black-nationalist group, wanted to become head of the BSU and to appoint one of his affiliates to the Black Studies program, but students opposed his involvement. Bunchy Carter and another Panther, John Huggins, attended meetings at UCLA surrounding the debate. When the leadership of the organization became vacant, the two gained popularity with the students by urging them to choose their own leader, rather than letting the Us Organization make the selection. The tension between Us and the Panthers culminated in Huggins and Carter being murdered at UCLA on January 17, 1969, by members of Us.
A Call To The People! Black Panther Party Silkscreen, 1969 Los Angeles, California
At 5:30 am on December 8, 1969, the Los Angeles headquarters of the Black Panther Party, at 41st and Central, was the target of a massive assault by the Los Angeles Police Department. It was the debut operation of Special Weapons and Tactics—aka SWAT—a previously untested paramilitary unit of the LAPD Metro Squad, championed by then inspector and future LAPD chief Daryl Gates. After three hours of shooting, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition had been exchanged. Despite this massive scale, only four Panthers were shot, four SWAT officers seriously injured, and no one died. The attack was part of a coordinated nationwide effort to destroy the Panthers—just four days earlier, December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, was shot to death at point-blank range while he was sleeping, during a raid by the Chicago Police Department. Six months after the shootout, a jury of both blacks and whites delivered verdicts of not guilty on all charges. It was a short-lived victory, as only a few months after the verdict the L.A. Panthers had all but collapsed under the weight of vicious infighting and continued police pressure. This poster was produced right after the attack.
Dan Berrigan, Catonsville 9 Bob Fitch Offset, circa 1968 Oakland, California
On May 17, 1968, Father Philip Berrigan (a Josephine priest and WWII veteran) and his brother, Father Daniel Berrigan (a Jesuit priest) along with seven other people went into a draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland, removed 378 draft files, dumped them in the parking lot, poured homemade napalm over them, and set them on fire in the presence of reporters and onlookers. They were arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison. They became known as the "Catonsville Nine." Daniel addressed the action in a "meditation": Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlour of the charnel house...The time is past when good men can remain silent, when obedience can segregate men from public risk, when the poor can die without defense.
Save Our Sister Day Based on a Rupert García silkscreen L.A. Committee to Free Angela Peace Press, Offset, 1972 Los Angeles, California
Angela Davis (b. 1944) is an activist, author, scholar, and teacher. She emerged as a nationally prominent activist in the 1960s, when she was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Panther Party. In 1969 she became acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at UCLA but was fired in 1970 for her political views. She is now Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Davis was a well-known dissident in the 1960s, but after being placed on the “FBI Most Wanted List,” and spending 18 months in jail on charges of being an accomplice to conspiracy, kidnapping and homicide, she became a cause célèbre. During her incarceration and trial, Free Angela Davis posters were produced throughout the U.S. and internationally, including Amsterdam, London, Paris, Havana and Moscow. She was tried and subsequently acquitted of all charges. In 1971, Rupert García produced a colorful silkscreen poster, featuring Angela Davis’ iconic Afro hair style. Her face was so familiar at the time, that her name didn’t even appear, only the words, in Spanish, Libertad Para Los Prisoneros Politicas (Freedom for Political Prisoners). Without asking García’s permission, the L.A. Committee to Free Angela incorporated his rendering of Davis into this black and white poster. García recalls driving in L.A. and was surprised to see the black and white version. I was down in L.A., and I’m driving around…I was the passenger, I don’t drive—and…we’re going through this neighborhood, and I see [my Angela Davis poster]…And we go back and it’s black [and white]... Now, I didn’t do any black and white. So we stop and we look at this thing and it’s definitely my Angela Davis, but there’s a lot of text... I knew the way the text was handled was definitely not mine... But I wasn’t angry, I wasn’t upset, because…the issue of Angela [was] symbolically referring [to] the various civil rights movements. My design and the other one supported it...So it was okay…
Free Richard Mohawk and Paul Skyhorse Dave "Buffalo" Greene Peace Press Offset, circa 1975 Los Angeles, California
In 1974, cabdriver George Aird was murdered in Ventura County, California. Acting on an anonymous tip, the FBI arrested Paul Skyhorse and Richard Mohawk, two organizers with the American Indian Movement (AIM), and charged them with first‑degree murder. On May 24, 1978, after four years of incarceration, Skyhorse and Mohawk were found not guilty. However, the apparent frame-up had succeeded; the Southern California AIM was financially devastated by the trial and fractured beyond repair. It is believed that the FBI, through its Domestic Counter Intelligence Programs (COINTELPRO), framed Skyhorse and Mohawk as part of the effort to discredit and destroy AIM. COINTELPROs were covert and often illegal operations designed to infiltrate, destabilize, and destroy organizations that law enforcement and government officials deemed as threats to national security. In the 1940s and 1950s, COINTELPROs were directed almost exclusively at the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party, USA. During the late 1960s the vast majority of COINTELPRO operations were directed against black organizations, for the purpose of causing internal dissent and conflicts with other black organizations. They were also directed against the American Indian Movement, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and almost all groups protesting the Viet Nam War.
Save the Soledad Brothers from Legal Lynching Group Graphics Silkscreen, circa 1970 Los Angeles, California
The Soledad Brothers were three African American inmates—George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette—charged with the murder of a white prison guard at California's Soledad Prison on January 16, 1970. The Soledad Brothers Defense Committee was formed to assist in publicizing the case and raising funds to defend them. A wide variety of celebrities, writers, and political activists supported the SBDC and their cause, including Julian Bond, Kay Boyle, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsburg, Tom Hayden, William Kunstler, Jessica Mitford, Linus Pauling, Pete Seeger, Benjamin Spock, and Angela Davis. On August 21, 1971, days before his trial in the guard's killing, Jackson was killed by a San Quentin prison guard.On March 27, 1972, the two surviving Soledad Brothers—Clutchette and Drumgo—were acquitted by a San Francisco jury of the original charges of murdering the prison guard.
Christopher St. West Derosa Peace Press Offset, 1971 Los Angeles, California
The first-ever Gay Pride Parade was held in Los Angeles on June 28, 1970. It commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the U.S. and around the world. The Stonewall Inn was a Mafia-owned heterosexual nightclub on Christopher Street in New York City. In 1966, the owners reopened it as a gay bar. The age range of the clientele was between the upper teens and early thirties, and the racial mix was evenly distributed among white, black, and Hispanic. Despite weekly police payoffs, police raids were frequent. But the early morning raid of June 28, 1969 was different. People fought back. The Stonewall riots took place over three days and are generally credited with being the first instance in the U.S. that gays and lesbians fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities.
The Christopher St. West parade was started by a number of Los Angeles gay activists, prominent among them Morris Kight, Reverend Troy Perry, and Bob Humphries. Although one of several gay pride parades that took place that day around the United States, this was the only "street closing" gay pride parade held in 1970—something emulated by the other parades the following year. After several troubled years (no parade was held in 1973), the CSW parade returned in 1974, and originated yet another feature of the modern gay pride movement by adding a festival to its annual event. There was always a tense relationship between CSW, the businesses on Hollywood Boulevard and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), so in 1979 the parade and festival were moved to the more friendly environs of Santa Monica Boulevard, in the soon-to-be-incorporated (1984) City of West Hollywood. CSW is now celebrated every June in West Hollywood, and involves an all-weekend festival. This poster was for the second Christopher Street West Parade held in Los Angeles. No offset print shop was willing to print this poster until organizers contacted Peace Press. A workers' collective founded by anti-Viet Nam War activists in 1967, Peace Press not only printed this poster, but were also enthusiastic about printing pamphlets about gay rights, what gays should do when arrested, drafted, etc.
Gay‑In Bruce Reifel Gay Liberation Front Silkscreen, 1970 Los Angeles, California
The first of three annual Griffith Park Gay-Ins was held on May 30, 1968. It was a precursor to gay pride festivals that took place in major cities following the Stonewall riots of 1969. The Gay-In festivals suffered constant police harassment. Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. The Los Angeles chapter of the GLF was created in December 1969. One of the GLF's first acts was to organize a march in response to Stonewall, and to demand an end to the persecution of homosexuals. The GLF had a broad political platform, denouncing racism and declaring support for various Third World struggles and the Black Panther Party—some of whom would return the gesture of solidarity. They took an anti-capitalist stance, and attacked the nuclear family and traditional gender roles.
It's a Gay, Gay, World Tony DeRosa Christopher Street West Offset, 1975 Los Angeles, California
Title is a parody on the last lyric from Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World.”
Women in Design Conference Sheila Levrant de Bretteville Women's Community Press; Women’s Building Diazo print (Blueprint), 1975 Los Angeles
This poster advertising the Women in Design conference held in 1975 at the Woman’s Building features Sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s signature eyebolt. According to De Bretteville the eyebolt was a symbol for “strength without a fist.” The eyebolt was made into a necklace and every conference attendee was given one to wear as a ticket to the event. The overall image of the poster is meant to represent a dialogue among women amongst the grid. De Bretteville describes further, The palm trees on the grid meant that LA was this oasis of feminist activity ... and I saw the Angelika Kaufman moon as the time that’s passing in which women were being nourished by the muse…I thought of the Feminist perspective as a kind of grid that enabled me to filter through what I saw, heard and read, enabling me to see what I had not previously noticed or known.
West Coast Conference Berkeley-Oakland Women’s Union Silkscreen, 1975 Oakland, California
This conference was sponsored by the Berkeley-Oakland Women’s Union. Like many of the women’s unions nationwide, this one was socialist, and joined issues of women’s liberation to issues of social class. Workers and women were regarded as have closely linked interests.
Forced Sterilization People's Press Silkscreen, circa 1974 San Francisco, California
Throughout the 20th Century, in the U.S. alone, there were more than 60,000 victims of forced or coerced sterilization, drawn from the most marginalized ranks of society—persons with purported or real mental illness or other disabilities, prisoners, low-income people who were blamed for increasing the public assistance rolls, people of color, lesbians, teen parents, and victims of rape and incest. In 1970, the Nixon administration dramatically increased Medicaid-funded sterilization of low-income Americans, primarily Americans of color. In the decade that followed, more than 25% of Native American women of child-bearing age were sterilized. This issue was one of many human and civil rights issues targeted by the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Those Who Make Peaceful Revolution Impossible W. M. Evensen Offset, 1970 Los Angeles, California
President John F. Kennedy made this statement during a speech at the White House in 1962. It became a popular slogan to support non‑violent resistance. In April 1967, speaking at Manhattan's RiversideChurch, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked Kennedy's words to criticize U.S. foreign policy in Viet Nam. Many attribute King’s assassination, exactly one year later, to the expansion of his work from domestic Civil Rights issues, to critiquing U.S. foreign policy.
W. M. Evensen, former railroad switchman and UCLA Political Science graduate, served two years in Peru with the Peace Corps (1964-66). He became an adult educational planner for UCLA’s Department of Urban Affairs (1968-73). This experimental Department, part of the University of California’s system-wide effort to attack poverty and racism, conducted race relations training for police, social workers, and nurses, created heroin treatment & research programs, and community-owned low-income housing. As a Peace Corps-trained community organizer, Evensen was charged with getting UCLA institutionally involved in poverty community problem-solving efforts. His community development work, and the dedicated involvement of UCLA graduate students and faculty, resulted in precedent-setting projects in the Los Angeles poverty communities of Compton, Pico-Union and Venice. Evensen describes what motivated him to design this poster: The most devastating event in that period for me was RFK's 1968 Presidential Campaign, where I co-founded Young Professionals for Kennedy and we organized 700 Kennedy Koffee Klatches in Southern California. His sudden death and the end of his Campaign with nothing to fill it, pushed me to express myself even more. While I threw myself into my community action work, it wasn't as immediately satisfying as creating a piece of pubic art promoting peaceful change. Having experienced the Century City Police Riot, (1967), the Venice Beach LAPD Riot (1969), the LAPD invasion of the UCLA campus after students defiantly took over the AdministrationBuilding to protest the killing of Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard (1970), I chose to fight the institutionally sanctioned violence with art. I had NO artistic training or exposure to art growing up in working-class San Bernardino (1945-61). However, the urgency and the violent chaotic nature of the times forced me to extend myself. Living in Venice, inspired by outdoor muralists like the Fine Arts Squad who publicly displayed their painterly messages, I decided to publish posters with peaceful revolution themes under the publishing name, Peace Prints. I found a lithographer in the nearby Ballona Wetlands, north of Jefferson Boulevard, who printed 250 copies of each of the two posters I designed. For the JFK poster, images of those people preventing peaceful revolution (Reagan, Nixon, Agnew) were cut from newspaper/magazines. The posters were sold in Los Angeles county bookstores (Papa Bach had the last JFK) and were sold out by the late ‘70s.
Vote Peace and Freedom Party Helck Offset, 1968 California
The Peace and Freedom Party grew out of unhappiness with the Democratic Party's support for the war in Viet Nam and failure to effectively support the Civil Rights Movement. Officially founded in 1967, the party achieved ballot status in California at the start of 1968. It later got ballot status in thirteen other states. From its inception, the Peace and Freedom Party has been a strong advocate of protecting the environment from pollution and nuclear waste. It advocates personal liberties and universal free access to education and health care.
Partido La Raza Unida Malaquías Montoya Peace Press Offset, circa 1972 Los Angeles, California
Partido de La Raza Unida (People’s United Party) was founded in 1967 in Crystal City, Texas, and centered on Chicano nationalism. During the 1970s the party campaigned for better housing, work, and educational opportunities for Mexican-Americans. In California, the Partido spread throughout the state and held strong ground in the county of Los Angeles at one point with as many as 20 different chapters.
With or Without Documents Centro de Acción Social Autónomo‑Hermandad General de Trabajadores (CASA‑HGT) Offset, mid 1970s Los Angeles, California
Centro de Acción Social Autónomo‑Hermandad General de Trabajadores, or CASA, was founded in 1968, to work on immigration and labor issues. Chapters of CASA existed in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Jose, San Diego and in Colorado. Although numerous organizations and actions took place around immigration issues in the 1960s and 1970s, few posters promoting immigrant rights were produced in California until the mid to late 1970s.
Shirley Chisholm Artist Unknown Offset, 1972 Berkeley, California
Shirley Chisholm (1924 – 2005) was an African American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress, and represented New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. On January 25, 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Love Justice Corita Kent Offset, circa 1970 Los Angeles, California
We Celebrate Women's Struggles Susan Shapiro Gonna Rise Again Graphics Silkscreen, 1975 Oakland, California
BAZAAR George Stowe Jr. Offset, 1970 Los Angeles, California
Harper’s Bazaar, a haute couture fashion magazine, is spoofed with this faux cover showing anticipated fashions five years into the polluted future.
Defend Venice Rick Davidson Photographer: Richard Mackson Peace Press Offset, 1975 Los Angeles, California
This poster was made by members of "Free Venice Resistance," a group of anti‑war and anti‑development activists who were engaged in an ongoing struggle to preserve the Venice community from 1967 to 1987. This particular poster focuses on a rare MontereyCyprus that only grows in two places in the world, and would have been destroyed by a developer. It became a symbol of the efforts of "Free Venice” to protect the whole community. Fifty-seven police confronted three activists who were trying to save the cypress, and charged them with assault and battery and resisting arrest. This poster was sold to raise funds for their defense.
Defend Venice Rick Davidson Photographer: Richard Mackson Peace Press Offset, 1975 Los Angeles, California
President Lyndon Baines Johnson is depicted as King Kong, escalating the war in Viet Nam while his promised domestic priorities go unfulfilled. Meanwhile, sheep march into the Draft Board, and come out wearing army helmets. As Johnson escalated the war, military conscription, or "the draft", became increasingly unpopular. There was active resistance to the draft during the 1960s, from students taking advantage of legal exemptions and medical deferments, to militant expressions that included draft-card burnings and blockades of draft boards and induction centers.
The Fascist Gun in the West Vic Dinnerstein Offset, 1966 Los Angeles, California
Originally designed in 1966 when Ronald Reagan was Governor of California, and reissued during the 1980 presidential campaign. This poster was in an exhibition which traveled to Mexico in 1981. When the exhibition returned to the U.S., this poster was confiscated by customs agents as "treasonous."
Jail to the Chief Vic Dinnerstein and John Jeheber Offset, 1973 Los Angeles, California
Altering the familiar phrase “Hail to the Chief,” this poster proposes that prison might be a more fitting place than the White House for Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon. Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, after pleading no contest to charges of federal tax evasion, a plea bargain that dropped charges of political corruption. Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974 after being charged with high crimes and misdemeanors related to the 1972 breakin of Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel by the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). Taped conversations proved that Nixon had attempted to influence the police investigation of the Watergate incident.
Rally Together to Impeach Impeachment Coordinating Committee Peace Press Offset, 1973 Los Angeles, California
Free the Watergate 500 ITrager Great Western Distributors, Inc. Offset, 1973 Los Angeles, California
The Watergate scandal resulted from the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. Effects of the scandal eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974; the only resignation of a U.S. President. The scandal also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of 43 people, including dozens of top Nixon administration officials. Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, then issued a pardon to Nixon.
War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things Lorraine Schneider Another Mother for Peace Offset, 1967 Beverly Hills, California
War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things [Vietnamese version] Lorraine Schneider Another Mother for Peace Offset, 1970 Beverly Hills, California
Let's Get It Together Gerta Katz Using logo by Lorraine Schneider Another Mother for Peace Offset, 1971 Beverly Hills, California
Tis the season to remember Gerta Katz Using logo by Lorraine Schneider Another Mother for Peace Offset, 1975 Beverly Hills, California
In 1965, Lorraine Schneider, an activist, artist, and mother, created the War is Not Healthy slogan and image for a design contest at Pratt Art Institute in New York. No submissions could be larger than 4" by 4." Her image was seen as too simplistic and did not win, but it became one of the most famous political graphics of the era.
In 1967, fifteen middle class women met at the Beverly Hills home of Barbara Avedon, television screen-writer and peace activist, to discuss “doing something” about the war in Viet Nam. Another Mother for Peace (AMP) was formed. Avedon later wrote, We were not ‘bearded sandaled youths,’ ‘wild-eyed radicals’ or dyed in the wool ‘old line freedom fighters’ and we wanted the Congress to know that they were dealing with an awakening and enraged middle class…We decided to send a [very ‘lady-like’]Mother’s Day card to Washington.
It was a collaborative effort. Lorraine Schneider donated her etching for the face of the card, Dorothy Jones did the research, Barbara Avedon wrote the words and AMP designer, Gerta Katz, did the distinctive calligraphy and layout. The card said, For my Mother’s Day gift of this year, I don’t want candy or flowers. I want an end to killing. We who have given life must be dedicated to preserving it. Please talk peace.
A first printing quickly sold out, as did a second of 5,000. Eventually 200,000 cards were sold, and members of Congress were flooded with them. For eighteen years, Gerta Katz was art director for Another Mother for Peace. During that time, she incorporated Lorraine Schneider’s logo into posters, flyers, newsletters, datebooks, buttons, cards, and jewelry, helping to promote it into an internationally recognized symbol for peace.
UCLA Peace Philip Swartz Group Graphics Silkscreen, 1970 Los Angeles, California
Earth Day Is Everyday Earl Newman Silkscreen, 1970 Venice, California
Earl Newman describes the origins of the poster: It was the beginning of more consciousness about recycling and people trying to build more awareness…Israel Feuer, activist with the Peace and Freedom Party, came up with the slogan, “Earth Day is Everyday” before I came up with the design.
Earth Day ‘74 Bob Zaugh Tracy Okida Peace Press Offset, 1974 Los Angeles, California
Peace Press was a print collective founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by anti-Viet Nam War activists. They formed Peace Press because most commercial print shops refused to print their anti-war materials and other controversial issues of the times. Bob Zaugh, activist, draft resister and member of the Peace Press collective, describes the origins of this poster. I remember going to the airport and being accosted by members of the Hari Krishna sect who offered publications to passersby as if they were free and then required payment. I wanted to share something truly free and political…When I offered Earth Day ’74 to people lined up at the theaters in Westwood, people would be suspicious. Someone would finally take one and other people saw that I wasn’t asking for money. Then they all wanted it.”
World Peace Earl Newman Silkscreen, 1970 Venice, California
Earl Newman described how both the aesthetics and the image fit in with the peace movement and psychedelic style of the period.
Write for Peace Artist Unknown Silkscreen on computer paper, 1970 Berkeley, California
In April 1970, when the U.S. invaded Cambodia, a neutral country during the Viet Nam War, college campuses throughout the U.S. erupted in protest, and one‑third of them shut down.Both Write for Peace and the purple Peace poster were printed by students at the University of California, at Berkeley, during this student strike. They used reams of used computer paper that was available for free – and used the unprinted side for silk-screening hundreds of protest posters such as these. The perforations for the tractor-feed computer paper are visible.
Peace Artist Unknown Silkscreen on computer paper, 1970 Berkeley, California
Children with Dove PM Company; Satori Offset, 1967 California, Santa Monica
Free People's Park People's Poster Company Offset, circa 1969 Berkeley, California
People's Park in Berkeley, California, was the scene of a major confrontation between students and police in May 1969. The students wanted to save a park built by the community, but then Governor Ronald Reagan called in hundreds of police and sheriffs to destroy the park and guard the site. During a confrontation between 6,000 unarmed demonstrators and nearly 800 officers armed with rifles and tear gas, a student bystander was shot and killed by the police, and hundreds were injured.
Ecology Now Earth First Offset, 1970 Los Angeles, California
The April 22, 1970 Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately twenty million Americans participated. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, air-polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, the loss of wilderness, and the destruction of neighborhoods by freeways and expressways, suddenly realized they shared common values. Gaylord Nelson, A U.S. senator from Wisconsin, conceived the idea for his environmental teach-in following a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after the devastating oil spill off the coast in 1969. Outraged by the devastation and Washington’s political inertia, Nelson proposed a national teach-in on the environment to be observed by every university campus in the U.S. be held on April 22, 1970. He modeled it on the highly effective Viet Nam War teach-ins of the time. The Earth Day movement proved to be autonomous with no central governing body— not unlike the Occupy movement of today. In 1993, Senator Nelson described how it simply grew on its own: Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.
Save Our Santa Monica Mountains J. Sellery Silkscreen, circa 1971 Los Angeles, California
This poster raised awareness and support for incorporating the Santa Monica Mountains into the National Park System. It was produced in response to a plan by the City of Los Angeles to widen the scenic, two-lane Mulholland Drive into a four-lane thoroughfare. This would literally have paved the way for massive building in the thenundeveloped Santa Monica Mountains.
Three Los Angeles women—Margot Feuer of Malibu, Sue Nelson of Brentwood, and Jill Swift of Tarzana, led the effort to create a national park in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area—the world's largest urban national park and the most heavily used National Park facility in the nation—won federal approval on November 10, 1978. Feuer and Nelson focused more on lobbying public officials, while Swift devoted herself to building grass-roots awareness. She did it one step at a time, literally, by organizing hikes that brought thousands of people in direct contact with the area's beaches, trails, flora and fauna. In August, 1971, Swift organized a march on Mulholland Drive that drew 5,000 people. It was a turning point for the Los Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club. For the first time it had gotten involved in opposing local land development. Conservation had come home. It was no longer a fight for a park in the mountains or desert, it meant battling the new development up the street. And it meant opposing real estate agents and developers and contractors, some of whom were neighbors and friends. Swift, a self-described housewife and Girl Scout troop mother, mounted the Mulholland March "when my kids dared me to stop complaining about the paving of Mulholland Drive and do something about it." Some Sierra Club members did not think the club should discourage development and opposed the march, but it turned out to be a staggering success. It swung many local politicians over to the side of protecting the mountains and produced many new activists for the cause.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975 was an extraordinary collaborative effort. First and foremost, we thank the artists, cultural workers, activists, and organizations who produced the posters; we thank everyone who saved the posters so that future generations might learn from these powerful graphics; and we thank the individuals who donated work to make this exhibition possible. Pat Allen Abby Arnold Judith Bettelheim Charles & Barbara Brittin Marlene Bronte Armando Cabrera Carlos Callejo Carlos & Marianna Cortez Lincoln Cushing Rick Davidson Vic Dinnerstein
Susan Einstein Mona Field Bob Fitch Karen Flock Linda Garrett Sherna & Marvin Gluck Shifra Goldman Muriel Goldsmith Joanne Heidkamp Patricia Hoffman Don & Ann Kalish Gerta Katz
David Kunzle Alita & Leon Letwin Michael Letwin Walter Lippmann Joan Mandell Rena & August Maymudes Brian Alfred Murphy Mo Nishida Mike Lee Jan Palchikoff Ed Pearl
Nancy Pearlman Pat Reif Michael Rossman & AOUON Archive Rachel Sene Kathie Sheldon Selma Waldman David Walls Carol Wells Emily Winters Irene Wolt Terry Wolverton Bob Zaugh
Special thanks to the artists, activists and cultural workers who agreed to be interviewed and helped document stories that might otherwise be lost: Jay Belloli Carlos Callejo Sasha Carrera Ismael Cazarez William M. Evensen Kathy Gallegos Rupert García Gerta Katz
Malaquías Montoya Lezlie Salkowitz-Montoya Brian Murphy Sheila Levrant de Bretteville Joe Melchione David Mosley
Earl Newman Rich Raya Daryl Rush John Seely, Jr. Becca Wilson Andy Zermeño
Thank you to Julie Thompson and Brogan de Paor and the Activist Video Archive for conducting and taping the interviews, and to Donna Golden for editing the interviews and linking them to www.youtube.com/poligraphiks.
Special thanks to the City of West Hollywood, the City Council, the Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, and to Susan Anderson and the staff of the West Hollywood Library for graciously hosting the premiere of this exhibition. To CSPG’s interns, volunteers, board members and staff who were tireless in researching, transcribing, editing and preparing the posters, keeping our computers running and our Facebook page up-to-date, sincerest thanks go to: Sherry Anapol Fred Blair Ana Castro Lexi Courtis Freda Fair Gloria Galvez Ted Hajjar
Louise Katz Sullivan Vanessa Lopez Sharon Madden Andrew Newton Sharon Mizota Jeff Schuerholz Carol Watson
CSPG Staff: Carol A. Wells, Executive Director Mary Sutton, Program Director Joy Novak, Archivist Alena Barrios, Administrative Assistant
Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975 was funded in part by the California Council for the Humanities California Story Fund, and the City of West Hollywood.
Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975 was produced from the collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, an educational and research archive with more than 80,000 posters—including the largest collection of post WW II posters in the U.S. Through its diverse programs, CSPG is reclaiming the power of art to inspire people to action. Donations to this archive are welcome. All donations are tax-deductible.
Center for the Study of Political Graphics 3916 Sepulveda Blvd – Suite 103 Culver City, CA 90230
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