Primary Artist: Terry Forman
Created: San Francisco Collective, 1996
Medium: Offset printed
Dimensions: 21″ x 28″
A decorated veteran, Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt (1947–2011) became the LA Black Panther Party Deputy Minister of Defense. He took the name Geronimo from the Apache chief, and “Ji-Jaga,” after a Central African tribe. In 1970 the FBI framed him for murder after an FBI infiltrator claimed Geronimo confessed to him. At the time of the murder, Geronimo was in Oakland at a BPP meeting. Twenty-seven years later his lawyers proved that there were secret police tape recordings that proved he was in Oakland, and the conviction was overturned in 1997. Geronimo got $4.5 million from the FBI and the LAPD for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. He continued to participate in the Black Liberation Movement, and later moved to Tanzania, where he died in 2011. This poster was published as part of the world-wide campaign to free Geronimo. Geronimo’s frame up was one instance of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to imprison and kill Black Liberation, Native American, Puerto Rican and Mexican activists.
See Freedom Archives for extensive information about COINTELPRO.
Image: Posterized photograph of Geronimo speaking arm outstretched, with stylized prison bars dropped out of blue behind him. On right: photograph of children jumping on a mattress in front of New York housing.
Words: Large: Free Geronimo Pratt Fighting Spirit of the Black Nation. Small words: One of the longest held political prisoners in the U.S. today Geronimo jiJaga Pratt remains in San Quentin Prison after 17 years—a loved and respected leader of the Black Liberation Movement, framed by the FBI.
Color: yellow, black, dark blue ink on white paper
© Fireworks Graphics Collective. Go to “Contact Us” for legal use.
