Beauty Shop and Police Brutality Right Panel Detail

Title

Creator

unknown | signed Samabe Shabaks

Description

This scene shows a Black community resisting police violence. In the foreground, two officers are brutalizing a Black woman; one grabs her limbs, while the other is kneeling on her neck in a scene eerily similar to George Floyd’s murder. In the background, three uniformed Black Panthers fire rifles at the officers, showing an active form of “policing the police.” Two children, also dressed in black, seem to be throwing rocks at the police. Faced away from the viewer, two girls on the left side run away, while a woman in the center looks towards a door. The building in the background is covered in various pro-Black slogans and graffiti, including “Free Lee Otis Now!,” a reference to the treatment of Lee Otis Johnson. The choice to place this mural on a wall with a fire hose, which adds to the sense of urgency and emergency, is an example of Biggers’ teachings to integrate architectural features into mural design.

Inscription

Vivian + Jesse

Free Bobby Seale

Free Lee Otis

Black Is Beautiful

Black Control Of The Black Community

Malcolm X Lives

Say It Loud

People Permit Themselves To Be Oppressed

I'm Black And I'm Proud

Black Power!

Fuck

Free Huey

Free Lee Otis Now!

Know Thyself! We Will Not Ignore Our Rich Cultural Heritage! We Will Study Our Own Beautiful, Indigenous Music

Jesse + Vivian

Gie Still Fries Her Hair (1970 AD.)

Black Is Beautiful

Pussy

Fire Hose

Warning: $1,000.00 fine for anyone found tampering with fire equipment

Subject

1900-1999

Police--Violence against

Architecture

Black art

Black nationalism

Black Panther Party (BPP)

Death

Graffiti

Memory

Police brutality

Political organizations

Racial violence

Weapons

Political slogans

Additional Techniques

Mural painting

Format

JPEG

HCAC Identifier

HCAC.TSU.0274.002

Rights

All rights held by the University Museum at Texas Southern. For permission to publish, distribute, or use this image for any other purpose, please contact University Museum, Texas Southern University umuseum@gmail.com Attn: Museum Director. Materials not created by Texas Southern University may still be under copyright. Additional materials may be presented for educational and research purposes in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law.

Main Image

Beauty Shop and Police Brutality

References

"The Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change." National Museum of African American History and Culture. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/black-panther-party-challenging-police-and-promoting-social-change.

"The Law: The Agitator." Time. 13 March, 1972. https://time.com/archive/6639423/the-law-the-agitator/.