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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/the-omaha-two-inspired-activist-artists-ben-jones-and-emory-douglas-to-create-iconographic-images-of-nebraskas-political-prisoners/">https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/the-omaha-two-inspired-activist-artists-ben-jones-and-emory-douglas-to-create-iconographic-images-of-nebraskas-political-prisoners/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The Omaha Two inspired activist artists
Ben Jones and Emory Douglas to create iconographic images of
Nebraska’s political prisoners</h1>
Michael Richardson - February 13, 2020</div>
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<figure data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_725"
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class="wp-caption"><img data-attachment-id="725"
data-permalink="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/the-omaha-two-inspired-activist-artists-ben-jones-and-emory-douglas-to-create-iconographic-images-of-nebraskas-political-prisoners/screenshot-253/"
data-orig-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-253.png"
data-orig-size="752,411" data-comments-opened="1"
data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}"
data-image-title="Screenshot (253)"
data-image-description=""
data-medium-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-253.png?w=300"
data-large-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-253.png?w=752"
src="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-253.png?w=840"
alt="Screenshot (253)"><figcaption
id="caption-attachment-725" class="wp-caption-text">Ben
Jones painted Edward Poindexter and Emory Douglas
portrayed Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa, two Black
Panther leaders sentenced to life in prison.
(credits: Ben Jones/Emory Douglas)</figcaption></figure>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Ben Jones, a Chicago
artist, has recently completed a portrait of <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2020/01/06/fbi-director-j-edgar-hoover-approved-frame-up-in-1970-police-murder-case-during-cointelpro-secret-war-on-the-black-panther-party/">Edward
Poindexter</a>, an inmate of the Nebraska State
Penitentiary. Emory Douglas, former Black Panther
Minister of Culture, created a poster of <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/book-tour-visit-to-mondos-book-collection-in-prison-stirs-memories/">Wopashitwe
Mondo Eyen we Langa</a> (former David Rice) in 2016
for Mondo’s memorial service. Mondo, who died in March
2016 serving a life without parole sentence, and
Poindexter were leaders of Omaha’s Black Panthers in
1970 when they were arrested for a policeman’s murder.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">The two men were targets
of a clandestine, and illegal, operation of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation code-named <a
href="https://thereader.com/news/the-fbi-and-omahas-black-panthers">COINTELPRO</a>.
The men were framed for the August 17, 1970 murder of
Patrolman <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2019/08/17/policemans-murder-on-august-17-1970-triggered-clandestine-cointelpro-operation-against-the-omaha-two/">Larry
Minard</a>, killed in an ambush bombing. J. Edgar
Hoover, the infamous FBI director personally oversaw
the manipulation of the murder investigation and
ordered the FBI Laboratory to withhold a report on the
identity of an anonymous 911 caller who lured Minard
to his death. The pair were convicted in April 1971
after a controversial trial marred by conflicting
police testimony, perjured testimony, withheld
evidence, and planted evidence.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Jones says his upbringing
in the Midwest led to his activism for the two
prisoners. “When I was eighteen, I was incarcerated
for three weeks in Lincoln, Nebraska. I do not recall
the charges beyond the crime of being young and black
in America, but I vividly remember how it felt.”</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“Staring out the window, I
knew that two blocks down the road was the Nebraska
State Penitentiary….I knew that Mondo we Langa and Ed
Poindexter were incarcerated for a crime they did not
commit. I thought about how I had driven by them
without any conception of what they were going
through….They were persecuted by COINTELPRO for trying
to help people.”</p>
<figure data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_729"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-729"
class="wp-caption"><img data-attachment-id="729"
data-permalink="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/the-omaha-two-inspired-activist-artists-ben-jones-and-emory-douglas-to-create-iconographic-images-of-nebraskas-political-prisoners/screenshot-257/"
data-orig-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-257.png"
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data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}"
data-image-title="Screenshot (257)"
data-image-description=""
data-medium-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-257.png?w=300"
data-large-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-257.png?w=664"
src="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot-257.png?w=840"
alt="Screenshot (257)"><figcaption
id="caption-attachment-729" class="wp-caption-text">Edward
Poindexter and David Rice (Wopashitewe Mondo Eyen we
Langa) were Black Panther leaders in Omaha and
frequently harassed by police. (credits: Omaha
Police Department)</figcaption></figure>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“Thinking about the
victims of COINTELPRO, one begins to wonder whether
the Panthers underestimated the degree of sadism with
which the state would seek to obliterate the Black
Power movement.”</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“The sickening idea that
the Panthers were punished for trying to help black
people never left me. After I got out, I tried to get
we Langa and Poindexter out. I organized fundraisers
and benefit shows. I painted an eighty by five foot
banner that read “FREE MONDO & ED” and was
sprawled out at the state capitol.”</p>
<figure data-shortcode="caption" id="attachment_731"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-731"
class="wp-caption"><img data-attachment-id="731"
data-permalink="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/the-omaha-two-inspired-activist-artists-ben-jones-and-emory-douglas-to-create-iconographic-images-of-nebraskas-political-prisoners/free-mondo-ed-banner-nebraska-state-capitol-steps-031312-by-mary-ellen-kennedy/"
data-orig-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/free-mondo-ed-banner-nebraska-state-capitol-steps-031312-by-mary-ellen-kennedy.jpg"
data-orig-size="638,267" data-comments-opened="1"
data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1331657104","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}"
data-image-title="Free-Mondo-Ed-banner-Nebraska-State-Capitol-steps-031312-by-Mary-Ellen-Kennedy"
data-image-description=""
data-medium-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/free-mondo-ed-banner-nebraska-state-capitol-steps-031312-by-mary-ellen-kennedy.jpg?w=300"
data-large-file="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/free-mondo-ed-banner-nebraska-state-capitol-steps-031312-by-mary-ellen-kennedy.jpg?w=638"
src="https://richardsonreports.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/free-mondo-ed-banner-nebraska-state-capitol-steps-031312-by-mary-ellen-kennedy.jpg?w=840"
alt="Free-Mondo-Ed-banner-Nebraska-State-Capitol-steps-031312-by-Mary-Ellen-Kennedy"><figcaption
id="caption-attachment-731" class="wp-caption-text">Artist
Ben Jones took his message of freedom for the Omaha
Two to the Nebraska State Capitol steps. (credit:
Mary Kennedy)</figcaption></figure>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">“Much of the reach of
their story comes by way of we Langa’s writings and
art….One of his collages became the frontispiece of
his 2008 book <i>The Black Panther is an African Cat:
Poems of Exploration and Testimony.”</i></p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Emery Douglas was
cartoonist for the <i>Black Panther</i> newspaper and
over the years has become recognized as the leading
artist of the Black Power movement. Although Douglas
and Mondo never met the pair were comrades in struggle
and after Mondo died in prison Douglas made a painting
for Mondo’s memorial service. Douglas put red stripes
over Mondo’s face to symbolize both prison bars and
the American flag.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true">Ed Poindexter remains
confined at the Nebraska State Penitentiary,
approaching his fiftieth year of imprisonment. Both
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts and Douglas County
Attorney Don Kleine <a
href="https://www.omaha.com/news/metro/author-asks-don-kleine-gov-ricketts-to-reopen-probe-of/article_59ca1b74-de3d-5396-a6cf-3a21c5b92f88.html">refuse
requests to reopen the investigation</a> into
Minard’s murder despite documented evidence that J.
Edgar Hoover tampered with the investigation and
trial. Meanwhile, from his tiny cell in Lincoln at the
maximum-security prison, Ed Poindexter continues to
proclaim his innocence.</p>
<p data-adtags-visited="true"><i>For further information
on the Omaha Two see</i> <a
href="https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/new-book-on-fbis-war-against-the-black-panthers-gets-five-star-review/">FRAMED:
J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO & the Omaha Two
story</a>,<i> in print edition at </i><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/FRAMED-Edgar-Hoover-COINTELPRO-Omaha/dp/1985021994/ref=sr_1_43?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530637788&sr=1-43&keywords=framed">Amazon</a><i>
and in </i><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=FRAMED%3A+J.+Edgar+Hoover%2C+COINTELPRO+%26+the+Omaha+Two+story">ebook</a><i>.
Portions of the book may be read free online at </i><a
href="https://northomahahistory.com/2017/07/07/framed-series-summary-by-michael-richardson/">NorthOmahaHistory.com</a>.
<i>The book is also available to patrons of the Omaha
Public Library.</i></p>
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