Eve Crane, a photo journalist who vividly captured the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, features her work during an exhibit at A’Kasha gallery in Beaverton. Next to her stands David Hilliard, a former chief of staff for the Black Panthers, who met Crane during the tumultuous decade.

Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com

An art gallery in Beaverton is an unexpected to place to catch a rare glimpse into a radical civil rights movement that once shocked the country.

But A’kasha gallery in downtown Beaverton brings some of the powerful images of that turbulent time with an exhibit this week that highlights the work of Eve Crane, a photo journalist who captured pictures of the Bay Area Black Panther Party.

In 1968, Crane, now retired and a resident of Aloha, met a writer and activist named Eldridge Cleaver while covering the tumultuous Democratic National Convention for the now defunct Ramparts magazine.

What ensued was a deep friendship that granted Crane access to burgeoning Black Panther Party movement in the Bay Area, which Cleaver was a key member of.

“I was interested in what he had to say,” said Crane, speaking at A’kasha, of how she secured such intimate access to the radical political movement. “I was there to take pictures, not steal a man,”

A soft-spoken and unassuming woman, Crane chronicled the movement that shocked the Bay Area and the nation with its militant demands for civil rights and prominent toting of firearms. She photographed marches, speeches, the tense protests, and the aftermath of periodic conflicts with the police in vivid detail.

But she also captured the more human side of a controversial political movement that was widely demonized in the press.

“They were presented as gun carrying revolutionaries, but they were way beyond that,” said Crane.

Steve Smith, the owner of A’kasha, said that he was introduced to Crane’s work from a mutual friend who spoke highly of her work. He recalls flipping through her portfolio or more ordinary work, until he came to a part that Crane warned was a bit more controversial.

“The hairs stood up on the back of my neck,” said Smith of his reaction to seeing the stark images. He began arranging for an exhibit shortly afterward.

Smith also arranged for David Hilliard, one of the key members of the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, to come to A’kasha to talk about the movement. Speaking with the Portland Observer at the gallery, he said that he struggled with trying to get fair coverage from the press, which focused on the more sensational aspects of the movement, and found Crane’s work to be much more honest and fair.

He stressed that the movement was more than just gun-toting militants, and was just as interested in community development in underserved areas. Hilliard pointed out that much of the Black Panther Party Program was simply a demand for what much of the world wanted: decent housing, care for elders, education, and healthcare.

“It’s more dangerous to feed kids breakfast,” he said.

He also noted that the panthers carried guns out of a very real need for self-defense from racist police. He added that when going on patrol they would have a gun in one hand and a law book in the other. Often times the police were more annoyed with the use of the law book, said Hilliard.

“We never considered ourselves militant,” exclaimed Hilliard.

Crane’s work will be on display for the next several weeks at A’kasha, 12602 S.W. Farmington Rd.

Hilliard and Crane will be speaking about the era on Saturday May 22, at 3 p.m.