The Bigger Picture

How an FBI Poster Became a Black Power Symbol

Episode 6 | 14m 24s

How did an FBI Wanted poster, intended to make a criminal out of activist and academic Angela Y. Davis, transform her into a symbol of Black Power and liberation? Host Vincent Brown considers the impact of Davis’ image and the ways in which style can be a form of political activism. Professor Davis also shares her own complicated feelings about the image, which have evolved over the past 50 years.

Aired: 10/14/22 | Rating: NR

Major funding for THE BIGGER PICTURE was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding was provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, the Tamara L. Harris Foundation, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for the digital production of THE BIGGER PICTURE was provided by Chasing the Dream – a public media initiative from The WNET Group, reporting on poverty, opportunity, and justice in America, and supported by The JPB Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III.

More Episodes

• Why Gordon Parks’ Most Famous Photo Almost Wasn’t Released

  Ep7 | 12m 18s

• How an FBI Poster Became a Black Power Symbol

  Ep6 | 14m 24s

• This Photo of U.S. Immigration Isn’t What You Think

  Ep5 | 11m 6s

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