How Posters Helped Shape America and Change the World
One enthusiast's collection, on exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California, offers a sweeping look at grass-roots movements since the 1960s
- By Jeff Greenwald
- Smithsonian.com, May 23, 2012
Michael Rossman in 1964. (Paul Fusco / Magnum Photos)
For at least 80 years, posters have been a powerful lever in America’s tool kit for social change. Though no single poster changed national policy, many brought important issues to light—and helped sway lawmakers, candidates and Congressional leaders. Posters focused attention on South African apartheid, the Vietnam War and the environment. They coaxed us to rock concerts, and inspired us to Celebrate Earth Day and Boycott Gallo. More than a national phenomenon, they helped create solidarity between social justice groups all over the world.
As a student at Berkeley in the early 1960s, Michael Rossman (1939-2008) was a tireless activist, renowned for his part in organizing the Free Speech Movement. Rossman later taught science, wrote books and collected posters created by the vital social and political movements sweeping the nation since 1965. By the end of his life he’d amassed nearly 25,000 posters, on themes ranging from “Be-ins” to Black Power: an extraordinary window onto America’s grass-roots democratic discourse.
An exhibition of 68 posters drawn from Rossman’s collection—“All of Us or None”—is now at the Oakland Museum of California (an additional 1,273 may be viewed online). Here are a dozen highlights, all pre-1980.
Comments (3)
Stanley is a very talented guy. His dad worked in the Disney studios. I had never seen this one before. Great image.
Posted by Mary Miller on December 6,2012 | 10:08 AM
I love seeing all these posters. very inspiring and memory-provoking. just one small "correction" for Cushing ---- Martin Luther King came out against the war in Vietnam in April 1967, during major anti-war protests in NYC and SF. Still, cushing's point is well-taken ---- it took a few years for opposition to the war to build up....and it took a few years for civil rights leaders to link their own cause with the anti-war movement.
Posted by bill cohen on May 30,2012 | 09:26 AM
This is a terrific exhibit about a very interesting time - well worth seeing if you're in the Bay Area, along with the companion 1968 exhibit. Many of the artists in the poster exhibit choose to produce their work anonymously, and unfortunately this allowed interlopers to insert themselves into the history of at least one of the groups, claiming the legacy of others. Sad, but this doesn't take away from the significance of the work displayed in the exhibit.
Posted by Peggy White on May 25,2012 | 04:15 PM