>>5692146We called up a white Mother Country radical photographer, got him together, and asked him
to shoot some pictures of Huey because we knew it was necessary for us to try and get a
centralized symbol of the leadership of black people in the black community. We had to
centralize it in some way, so we decided on a picture of Huey. This photographer came over
with his cameras and his tripods, and Eldridge set the scene. The photographer took a
number of different shots. We got a wicker chair and African shields, and we had a shotgun
over there, and Eldridge said, "Take the gun and put the spear here." He artistically put that
picture together that everyone sees of Huey P. Newton sitting in the chair, with the shotgun
and the spear, and the shields sitting on each side of the chair.
The shields were very important, because Huey was articulating that we use the spear and
the shield, and the shield is very significant. Huey would say many times that a long, long
time ago, there was a man who invented a spear, and he frightened a whole lot of people.
But, Huey said, the people invented a shield against the spear. The people weren't so
frightened after all. So this is really what Huey P. Newton symbolized with the Black
Panther Party - he represented a shield for black people against all the imperialism, the
decadence, the aggression, and the racism in this country. That's what Huey P. Newton
symbolized with us. That's the way we projected it.
