[Civil Rights]
"FREEDOM NOW!" – Protest Poster
Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America poster, ca. 1979, protesting the wrongful conviction and nearly decade-long incarceration of ten civil rights activists following a 1971 riot over school desegregation in Wilmington, North Carolina. With the printed text: "FREEDOM NOW! For the Wilmington 10 / Para Los 10 De Wilmington / Pour Les 10 De Wilmington." Mild edge wear, overall in fine condition. 18 x 31 inches (45.7 x 78.7 cm.).Wrongfully convicted of arson and conspiracy, the Wilmington Ten—eight African American high-school students, an African American minister, and a white female social worker—were victims of the racial and political turmoil during America’s civil rights era. In 1978 thousands of protesters marched in Washington, D.C., demanding the release of the Wilmington Ten. North Carolina Governor James Hunt commuted their sentences in 1978, and, though he refused to pardon them, the Wilmington Ten were all released by 1979. (19733)
Law, Politics & Social Sciences History & Historiography Poster