May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 113

Price Realized: $ 500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(BLACK PANTHERS.) Issue of "Broadside: The National Topical Song Magazine" featuring a song for the Lowndes County Black Panther Party. 16 pages, 11 x 8 1/2 inches, staple-bound; minor wear. New York, July 1966

Additional Details

The song was written by African-American composer Len H. Chandler, Jr. Its chorus: "You'd better walk with the black panther, that's all you gotta do, 'cause when you're walkin' with the Big Black Cat no wolves'll be runnin' you." It is here published with both lyrics and music, and illustrated with a small illustration of the iconic panther silhouette. It is followed by a short essay by Chandler: "I went down to Lowndes County, Alabama to write background music for an NBC documentary on the voter registration drive. . . . Until this year, Lowndes County has not had one black registered voter since reconstruction. So in the political & economic life of Alabama, they have been the black sheep, and what hope has the sheep where the wolf is made shepherd."