Photographer Nacio Jan Brown captured the moment when Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was released from jail upon the reversal, by the California Court of Appeals, of his conviction for involuntary manslaughter.
By this point, Newton had already spent two years in prison. The reversal by the Court of Appeals was a major victory for the “Free Huey” campaign, which had mobilized popular support for his case across the globe and had elevated Newton as a figure of the black radical tradition.
Upon his release, Newton stripped off the grey shirt he had been made to wear as part of his prison uniform and—revealing a body toned by the discipline of exercise in prison—shouted, “You have the power and the power is with the people.”
