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The Place of Art in Black Panther Party Revolutionary Thought and Practice: from Revolution to Reform, a Content Analysis

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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 12-2018 The Place of Art in Black Panther Party Revolutionary Thought and Practice: From Revolution to Reform, A Content Analysis Michael James Macaluso Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Macaluso, Michael James, "The Place of Art in Black Panther Party Revolutionary Thought and Practice: From Revolution to Reform, A Content Analysis" (2018). Dissertations. 3364. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/3364 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PLACE OF ART IN BLACK PANTHER PARTY REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT AND PRACTICE: FROM REVOLUTION TO REFORM, A CONTENT ANALYSIS by Michael Macaluso A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sociology Western Michigan University December 2018 Doctoral Committee: Zoann Snyder, Ph.D., Chair Thomas VanValey, Ph.D. Richard Yidana, Ph.D. Douglas Davidson, Ph.D. Copyright by Michael Macaluso 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank Dr. Zoann Snyder, Dr. Richard Yidana, Dr. Thomas Lee VanValey, and Dr. Douglas Davidson for agreeing to serve on this committee. Zoann, I want thank you for your patience throughout this journey, I truly appreciate your assistance. Richard, your help with this work has been a significant influence to this study. I appreciate all the support you have offered me through this process. Thomas and Doug, I am grateful all the assistance and help that was provided for this study. In sum, I thank you all very much for the opportunity you afforded me. I am eternally grateful. Second, I would like to thank my wonderful wife, Lorinda Foster Macaluso. Lori, I cannot thank you enough for your support through this long journey. Without you this work may never have gotten done. I am a very lucky man to have had such wonderful support and a loving wife! I love you dearly. Finally, I would like to thank all of my family and friends. There are too many to name, but through friendship and guidance, you have made this journey more bearable in times when I thought I could not finish. I wish the best for everyone and thank you all! Michael Macaluso ii THE PLACE OF ART IN BLACK PANTHER PARTY REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT AND PRACTICE: FROM REVOLUTION TO REFORM, A CONTENT ANALYSIS Michael Macaluso, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2018 The Black Panther Intercommunal News Services (BPINS) was one of the most powerful black presses and a mechanism to build an imagined political community. Unfortunately, the scholarly and sociological literature examining the artwork of the Black Panther Party published in BPINS has been inadequate. Most work to date focuses solely on one artist, Emory Douglas, the Party’s Minister of Culture and primary editor of their press. Many other artists contributed to the collective endeavor of art and organization at large. The artwork of the Black Panther Party was a communal enterprise geared toward the promotion of political consciousness through visual literacy. This dissertation is a content analysis of that artwork published in BPINS over its 13-year publication. Using systematic sampling, 313 images were collected and analyzed focusing on four historical transitions of the Black Panther Party and how artwork shifted from a Black Nationalist revolutionary stance to a reformative intercommunal focus. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................... 2 Background of the Party...................................................................................................... 3 BPINS, Political Symbolism and the BPP ....................................................................... 8 Researching the BPP and BPINS ............................................................................................10 Political Symbolism, Language, and Imagined Communities ............................... 17 Art as a Communal Endeavor ............................................................................................ 19 Methods – Art Analysis ........................................................................................................ 20 II. HISTORY: ORIGINS OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY .................................................. 23 From “Brothers off the Block” to a Nationally Recognized SMO ......................... 29 Women of the Party .............................................................................................................. 31 Community Programs .......................................................................................................... 32 The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service ..................................................... 34 III. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................ 39 IV. THEORY ............................................................................................................................................ 61 iv Table of Contents – Continued CHAPTER Visual Literacy through Framing ..................................................................................... 61 The Power of the Press ........................................................................................................ 68 The Social Construction of an Imagined Community through BPINS .................76 V. SOCIOLOGY OF ART ..................................................................................................................... 79 Sociology of Art, BPINS and the BPP: An Expression of Life ................................. 79 Black Art: The Intersection of the Black Power Movement and Black Arts Movement ................................................................................................... 86 Visual Literacy in Pursuit of Liberation......................................................................... 89 VI. METHODS ......................................................................................................................................... 94 Visual Media ............................................................................................................................. 94 Coding and Analysis .............................................................................................................. 98 First Coding ..................................................................................................................... 107 Second Coding ................................................................................................................ 107 Third Coding ................................................................................................................... 107 Fourth and Fifth Coding Rounds ............................................................................. 110 Credibility/Validity ...................................................................................................... 112 Reliability/Dependability .......................................................................................... 113 Transferability ................................................................................................................ 114 Significance of the Research ..................................................................................... 115 VII. ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................................... 116 From Revolution to Reform: Four Historical Shifts .................................................. 116 v Table of Contents – Continued CHAPTER Analysis: 10 Point Platform and Program .................................................................... 120 The Four Eras of the Black Panther Party .................................................................... 123 VIII. RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................... 126 From Revolution to Reform: A Re-Framing of Black Panther Party Principles through the Party’s Historical Shift ............................................... 126 The 10 Point Platform and Program ............................................................................... 132 The Black Panther Party in Transition: Four Historical Shifts ............................. 135 IX. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................
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