from the archives

Excerpt from OSMOS Issue 16

BEV GRANT 1968

BY ALISON GINGERAS

Bev Grant (b. 1942, Portland, Oregon) is an activist, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and musician who lives and works in Brooklyn. She began attending anti-war demonstrations in 1967. At a SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) conference at Princeton University, she attended a “Women’s Liberation” workshop led by Chude Pam Allen, who invited her to join a consciousness-raising group on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Having settled in that neighborhood, Grant immediately began attending and ultimately participating in many of the period’s significant protest actions. She used her recently purchased Pentax 35mm camera to record what was clearly a historic moment of political action. She joined a newly formed political-documentary collective called New York Newsreel (later renamed Third World Newsreel) and began to deploy her activist experiences and documentarian eye as a photographer and filmmaker. Through her work with Newsreel, Grant had personal and intimate access to the Young Lords Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Poor People’s Campaign. She also contributed photos to Liberation News Service, an underground press agency that distributed images and texts to political newspapers throughout the countryThough Grant participated in several grassroots political movements over the years, her vast archive of photographic negatives has lain dormant for decades and was previously unknown. Privileging her career as an accomplished musician, Grant had taken a long hiatus from photography and film until very recently. Grant’s camera bore witness to watershed moments that launched the nascent feminist movement in the US, such as the No More Miss America protest in Atlantic City (September 7, 1968), the Jeanette Rankin Brigade protest in Washington, DC (January 15, 1968), the abortion-rights protest at Rockefeller Center (March 1968), and the Fillmore East Takeover (October 1968).

Assembling Grant’s iconic images from this chapter of the history of the American Left not only commemorates her career as a documentary photographer and filmmaker. It also serves as a crucial reminder of the collective power of protest and social action at this fragile moment for our democracy.

Photographed on September 7, 1968, the No More Miss America action featured protesters hanging symbols of female oppression on a Miss America puppet placed inside a “Freedom Trash Can.” New York Radical Women planned the event. Women came from as far Gainsville, Florida to participate in this protest held in Atlantic City. Women threw objects of oppression into the Freedom Trash Can in the middle of the boardwalk outside the convention center. Dressed as an auctioneer, Peggy Dobbins auctioned off a giant Miss America Puppet. The originator of the idea to protest the Miss America contest, Carol Hanisch, led a sheep who wore a Miss America sash around the boardwalk. There were hecklers who thought the protestors were just jealous. There was political theatre, purpose and fun. Some protestors went inside with press passes and released stink bombs. Once inside, the protestors unfurled a Women’s Liberation banner over the rail of the balcony during the contest.

In October 1968, members of a Lower East Side group called “The Motherfuckers” occupied the Fillmore East—a rock music venue owned by concert promoter Bill Graham on 2nd Avenue and East 6th Street. The Motherfuckers were an anarchist group who called themselves a “street gang with analysis” that was said to have inspired members of the Weather Underground. The Motherfuckers fought against police brutality and advocated for community empowerment. Through their spokesperson Ben Morea, they demanded to hold a free concert for the community one night a week at the Fillmore. They conducted the initial occupation with permission of the Living Theatre who were performing their piece Paradise Now at the Fillmore East. Bill Graham agreed to grant them space but after three consecutive weeks of free concerts (including free food and drugs), he shut them down with the assistance of the NYPD.

A “Legalize Abortion” banner is shown being displayed by members of the Parent’s Aid Society from Hempstead, NY, in front of Rockefeller Center during a large legalize abortion rally.

Members of W.I.T.C.H. on the steps of the Federal Building on Wall Street, intoned incantations in front of surprised Wall Street employees. Formed shortly after the Miss America protest, Peggy Powell Dobbins initiated the creation of W.I.T.C.H. in homage to the history of women who were persecuted because of their independence. The group came together to plan disruptive guerrilla actions against corporate, anti-women targets. The Wall Street protest was the first of many actions. Later, autonomous W.I.T.C.H. groups began spontaneously popping up across the country without a particular or ideological agenda other than “to stir things up.”

In December 1969, a protest march was organized in New York in response to the FBI assassination of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. On December 4th, Hampton was shot with a machine gun by the FBI while sleeping in his bed after having been drugged by an FBI infiltrator.

Taken on April 27th, this image captures an antiwar rally at the Central Park band shell. Gathered are members of G.I.s Against the War and proponents of free speech. Speakers included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Reverend Fitzpatrick, Barbara Dane, along with representatives of the labor movement. There were musical performances from the Freedom Singers and draft cards were burned.

Black Panther Party leaders, Erika Huggins & Bobby Seale were being tried on murder and kidnapping charges in New Haven, CT. The demonstration was supported and attended by the Women’s Liberation Movement, The Young Lords Party and other progressive organizations. The trial ended two years later in a hung jury, and the defendants were released after two years of incarceration.