Armed, militant-looking, angry African-American adolescent men, women, and children: an incessant image employed by revolutionary artist Emory Douglas. Douglas is perhaps one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century and created thousands of influential protest images that remain unforgettable to this day. Through the use of compelling imagery, Emory Douglas helped define the distinct visual aesthetic of the Black Panther Party's newspapers, pamphlets, and posters. It was through such means that Douglas had the ability to enlighten and provoke a predominantly illiterate and uneducated community through visual communication, demonstrating that art can evolve into a powerful tool for accelerating social and political change. Emory Douglas was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until 1951 when he and his mother moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. At the time, San Francisco was the hub of African American organizations holding events aimed at overturning social injustices within the Bay Area's black communities. As a minor immersed in the community, Douglas became fascinated with Charles Wilbert White, an African-American social realist artist who created various monochrome sketches and paintings, "transforming American scenes into iconic modernist narratives." Not long after, Douglas was incarcerated at the Youth Training School in Ontario, California, where he spent countless hours working in the penitentiary's print shop. It wasn't until the mid-1960s that Douglas enrolled at City College of San Francisco, majoring in commercial art and graphic design. Shortly thereafter, Douglas went to a Black Panther rally, where he met Bobby Seale and Huey Newton; during...... middle of paper......ion. Tucson, Arizona: John Brown Party, 1971, 1-2Gaiter, Colette. “VIEWING A REVOLUTION: THE EMORY DOUGLAS NEWSPAPER AND THE BLACK PANTHER.” AIGA. June 8, 2005.http://www.aiga.org/visualizing-a-revolution-emory-dou...(accessed March 9, 2012).Moyer, Carrie. "The Minister of Culture: The Revolutionary Art of EmoryDouglas." Modern Painters 19, no.9 (2007): Art Full Text (H.W.Wilson), EBSCOhost (11 April 2012). Ross, Alice. "Emory Douglas - Interview." Digital arts. 26 January 2009.http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/?FeatureID...(accessed 8 March 2012), 2Stewart, Sean. On the Ground: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the United States. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2011, 28 Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., s.v. “Emory Douglas.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Douglas (accessed March. 7,2012).