The Prometheus Ballet-Billy Morrow Jackson, Civil Rights, Political Poster, 1964

Description

These posters make me sad, but wer cannot forget the past...we do need to move forward...these posters deserve to be properly displayed in a special spot. The 1960's were turbulent times. Civil Rights Movements were a major turning point in our history.
I borrowed and copied the following discription form "Kneal" magizine August 2018 for your history lesson.
Prometheus Ballet
In
“Prometheus Ballet”
Jackson references mythology—the story of Prometheus who was punished for bringing fire to the people—a symbol of enlightenment, hope, and independence.
As punishment, Prometheus was chained to Mount Caucasus for eternity. Vultures would eat his liver daily. The liver would regenerate overnight, and the cycle would begin again the next day. In this image, Jackson casts Martin Luther King as Prometheus holding the goblet of fire.
George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama, was cast in the role of the vulture. Governor Wallace was most famous for blocking the admission to the University of Alabama of Vivian Malone and James Hood by
“standing in the schoolhouse door”
. Wallace is seen as an arch segregationist as evidenced by his 1963 inaugural address —
“Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
(3) Wallace not only serves as the vulture in the narrative, he is shown wielding a fire hose that references the water hoses used by the police to “disperse” marchers and activists.
The figure of the fire hydrant is probably Eugene
“Bull”
Connor. Bull Connor was the Public Service Commissioner for the city of Birmingham. One of the strategies in the Birmingham protest was to fill-up the jails. Once the jails were full, in order keep protestors paralyzing commerce in the central city, fire hoses and attack dogs were used to disperse the demonstrators. In the myth, Hercules frees Prometheus from his punishment. In the background you can see two Uncle Sam’s—one black and one white. Two very different views of America and the body politic are contained in this one figure. The Uncle Sams are being split and John F. Kennedy is seen as emerging from his political chrysalis. Kennedy has been given the role of Hercules that will free Prometheus (King) from his imprisonment and torture.
Vultures/buzzards are prominent in several other prints because they are carrion feeders that subsist on the flesh of dead things. The slave culture was one that prospered from the suffering and death of others.
The Prometheus Baller is part of a series of 8 posters on the Civil Rights Movement by Billy Morrow Jackson.
Attached is and article about the artist.
I have the entire series in the original tube .
The poster has been stored in a tube, dated Nov16,1965 mailed to St Louis FOSNCC. (St Louis Friends of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)