Primary Artist: Terry Forman
Created: San Francisco Collective, 1983
Medium: Silkscreen
Dimensions: 15.5″ x 21.25″
In the late 1970s to early 1990s, there was a resurgence in California of white supremacist groups. One of the groups was the White American Resistance/White Aryan Resistance, organized by Tom Metzger, also a member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. During this time there were several public demonstrations in California by the Klan and other white supremacist groups as well as considerable on-the-street organizing projects. In much of California, those demonstrations were largely ignored by the left. As reflected in this poster, these Klan actions were met by a coalition of Black and anti-racist activists including the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Their organizing effectively drove the racists out of San Francisco. Confrontations included pitched brawls with the racists: in one, the San Francisco Police Department stopped a Klan caravan on the Bay Bridge and escorted them out of the city for their own safety; in another, police brought in paddy wagons to rescue the bloodied white supremacists who were overwhelmed by a counter demonstration.
Peruse the Freedom Archives John Brown Anti-Klan Committee collection.
Read this article about the KKK from the History Channel.
Image: Graphic of a red and black brick wall with words splashed across it in white.
Words: “Stop Racist Attacks”, words below describe four examples of racist attacks in 1985. “CONCORD, NOV. 2, 1985: Two Black men stabbed by white men in KKK robes”. “CONCORD, NOV. 2, 1985: Black gay man found hanged in BART station parking lot.” “SAN FRANCISCO, MAY–SEPTEMBER 1985: Live bombs found in Ethnic Studies Department at San Francisco State University and three Jewish synagogues.” “BAY AREA, 1985: White American Resistance (WAR), a KKK front group, operates cable TV show and telephone hotline advocating death for people who are Black, gay or Jewish”. At bottom: SUPPORT BLACK PEOPLE’S HUMAN RIGHTS”.
Color: red and black ink on white paper
Sponsors: John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
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