“It is also obvious that an image of an armed black man has always shocked more than a similar depiction of a white man.

Even more absurd when you consider that the Panthers only wanted one thing - equality. And to get it they would wake up at 4 in the morning, prepare breakfast for the children of the neighborhood, publish their own newspaper, and devise specific plans to guide their struggle and make sense of their sacrifices.“

Stephen Shames
Official photographer of the Panthers for 7 years since 1967 up to 1974.