"Black power" redux

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/9/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Did anyone else notice the article in today's NYT re the famous
> photographer, Arthur "WeeGee" Fellig"? Said article features a photo
> by WeeGee, dated 1951, of an embracing black couple. The woman holds
> in her hand an engraving(?) of a Colt "Equalizer" pistol. The photo is
> entitled, "Black Power." Cf. p.B34a.

Also online here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/arts/design/09weeg.html

The article reads:
"In one 1951 photo, he shows a black woman holding aloft a piece of
paper with a picture of a gun. The paper was actually a coupon to win
free admission to a new Randolph Scott movie called 'Colt 45.' But at
some point Weegee pinned a 'Black Power' button to the print to give
it a pointed meaning."

So Weegee apparently decided to call the photo "Black Power" well
after the fact -- at a time when the Black Power movement was already
prominent enough to have buttons and other paraphernalia. (Weegee died
in 1968, by the way.)


--Ben Zimmer

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