Eldridge Cleaver (from the series Negroes with Guns, The Leaders), 2007, Mixed media on canvas, 30 x 24 inches


Negroes with Guns, The Leaders is a series of seven paintings inspired by the book Negroes with Guns by Robert F. Williams published in 1962. A complex and fascinating figure, Robert F. Williams wrote Negroes with Guns to justify the right of black people to defend themselves from racist violence and police brutality. The book was subsequently adopted by the Black Panther Party as one of its guiding texts. St. John composes each of these paintings as if it were the cover of a book, repeating the letters of the title and adding the image of a civil rights activist or Black Panther. Many of them died after gunshot, often by the police.