The Berkeley Art Museum is slavishly memorializing the Black Panthers. It's pretty sick. It's certainly possible to see the Panthers in a sympathetic light, as an outgrowth of repression that gave some measurement of empowerment to the Black community in a really turbulent time. Or even to see the murders they committed as a desperate response, rather then thuggish violence. You can do this and keep some measure of academic credibility! But to blatantly say 'The Panthers committed murders, and we wish for those murders to be forgotten,' is beyond hope for any academic honesty.

A jail photo of Newton just after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Frey’s killing captures the youthful resolve of movement, she said. His handsome face is relaxed, his large eyes open and hopeful despite the recent conviction.

“He seemed to be very much the leader,” wrote Baruch, who passed away in 1997, about the photo. “Sensitive and responsive, Huey’s face was a joy to photograph.”

A picture of the Panthers after the murder of Panther Bookkeeper Van Patter would be more interesting. (From Dan Flynn:)

Van Patter, who served the Party in an accounting capacity, uncovered severe financial improprieties by the Panthers. On December 13, 1974, Van Patter disappeared. Her dead body, head caved in, would later turn up in San Francisco Bay.

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