Emory Douglas

Emory Douglas is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Emory Douglas moves to San Francisco with his family for his health.

Emory Douglas has his first lessons in graphic design at the Youth Training School, a juvenile detention center in Ontario, California. In their print shop he is introduced to typography, illustration, and logo design.

Emory Douglas studies commercial art at San Francisco City College. There he is inspired by the works of Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, and Charles White, and becomes involved in the Black Arts Movement.

In January, Emory Douglas meets Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale at a planning meeting for an event with Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow. There he asks them how he can join the Black Panther Party.

Emory Douglas visits Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver at the Black House, where Cleaver lives. Seale is working on the first issue of The Black Panther Community News Service, and Douglas offers his help to improve it.

Emory Douglas serves as the party’s Revolutionary Artist and oversees layout and production of The Black Panther Community News Service until the party disbands in the early 1980s.

Emory Douglas is appointed Minister of Culture of the Black Panther Party.

Emory Douglas is briefly roommates with Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver. The home is a hub for the Black Panther Party’s San Francisco chapter.

Emory Douglas has a solo exhibition at Suzanne Jackson’s Gallery 32 in Los Angeles. The exhibition serves as a fundraiser for Black Panther Party programs, including free breakfast for children, free health clinics, and freeing political prisoners.

Suzanne Jackson organizes a solo exhibition of Black Panther Party member Emory Douglas at Gallery 32. The LAPD and FBI visit the gallery throughout the exhibition to monitor it.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, organizes the exhibition Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas.

Emory Douglas is included in the group exhibition All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 at the Oakland Museum of California.