Richmond Art Center photo exhibit captures past activism
By Janis Hashe
Jul 22, 2025
No photographs exist of the American Revolution, which created a new, free nation. No photographs exist of the 1381 English Peasants’ Revolt battling crippling taxes and serfdom. No photographs exist of the 508 B.C.E. Athenian Revolution, which deposed the tyrant Hippias and led to the establishment of democracy.
But photographs do exist of the progressive movements of the 1960s and ’70s, telling the story of times that changed the world.
The Richmond Art Center (RAC) provides photographic glimpses of those times in “Mobilize, Organize, Occupy,” an exhibition of the photos of Kenneth P. Green Sr. Green Sr., a young Black Laney College student, captured images of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Laney College’s “March Against Repression,” the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz by Indigenous peoples and the Richmond Black Panther Party rally following the police killing of Denzil Dowell. Green Sr. went on to become the Oakland Tribune’s first Black photographer, a job he held until his death.
Green’s son, Kenneth P. Green Jr., curated the exhibition. He was 12 when his father died in a tragic accident at age 40. Custodianship of the 80,000-plus negatives Green Sr. left behind led him on a journey to rediscover his father and to work through the trauma of his early death.
“I grew up in the darkroom at Laney College,” Green Jr. said, describing how his father continued to use the darkroom after graduating. At the opening reception for the exhibition on July 12, he spoke with 83-year-old Henry Ralston, another of the five young Black men who formed a photography club at Laney.
Said Green Jr., “He told me, ‘We knew and understood that we needed to capture what was going on because we needed a record.’”
Green Sr. was known as a “one-shot wonder,” said his son, meaning he could instinctively capture a pivotal image.
Green Jr. “used the spirit” of his father—and consultation with his mother—to select the photos in “Mobilize, Organize, Occupy.” He described his mother “doing something really phenomenal” in rearranging the order in which the photos would be presented.
The show is organized into three sections in the RAC’s galleries. “Mobilize” includes photos from the 1967 Black Panther rally in Richmond.
As exhibition materials state: “On April 1, 1967, Denzil Dowell, an unarmed 22-year-old construction worker, was fatally shot by a Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy in North Richmond. Police claimed he was killed by a single shotgun blast while burglarizing a liquor store and ignoring commands to stop. However, the coroner’s report told a different story: Dowell’s body had six bullet wounds, and evidence suggested he was shot while surrendering with his hands raised.”
Green Sr. attended and photographed the rally, organized by the Black Panther Party, held on April 22, 1967, outside the Dowell family home. His photographs include “now-iconic images of [Bobby] Seale and [Huey P.] Newton addressing the crowd,” materials state.
The second section, “Organize,” features Green Sr.’s images of the March 29, 1970, “March Against Repression.” Organized by Laney College’s Black Campus Movement and Black Student Union, and supported by the Southern Christian Leadership Council, the march “honored victims of racial violence” and moved from downtown Oakland to Parks Chapel AME Church, as Green Sr.’s pictures document.
The third section, “Occupy,” pictures the occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indigenous peoples from Nov. 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, bringing “national attention to Indigenous struggles and [inspiring] future resistance,” according to RAC materials. Green Sr. attended and photographed the “Liberation Day” ceremony and drum circle on Alcatraz Island on May 31, 1970.
Asked what he would like viewers to take away from the exhibition, Green Jr. said, “My dad was trying to show the community at its best.” These photos, he said, are like a drumbeat through a lens, “pulling you into that idea.”
‘Mobilize, Organize, Occupy: Kenneth P. Green Sr.’ runs through Sept. 6 at Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. Open Wed-Sat, 10am to 4pm. Free. Gallery walk led by curator Kenneth P. Green Jr. at 11am on July 26. richmondartcenter.org
—
Top Image: Kenneth P. Green Sr. photographed several progressive movements of the ’60s and ’70s. This photo, taken March 29, 1970, and titled ‘March Against Repression,’ is part of his coverage of the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz by Indigenous peoples. (Photo by Kenneth P. Green Sr.)
