Document 19A: Bobbi Cieciorka and Frank Cieciorka, Negroes in American History: A Freedom Primer. Atlanta: The Student Voice, Inc., 1965, 60 pp.

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Introduction

   Frank Cieciorka, born in upstate New York in 1939, was a gifted artist, who considered himself a socialist, though his life story was that of a bohemian artist and humanitarian. Frank came south to work in the Holly Springs project during Freedom Summer. Frank's outrage, expressed through the rawness of his art, resonated with movement folks. His most famous images, post-freedom summer, are the raised black fist and the black panther, logo of the Black Panther Party. He was married to Bobbi Cieciorka. Their primer on Negro history represents a revolution in the interpretation of African-American history and suggests the aid of newly-minted historians like Howard Zinn, then teaching at Spelman College in Atlanta, or Staughton Lynd, then at Tougaloo. Charlie Cobb, author of the Freedom School prospectus and strategy (Documents 18A and 18B), wrote the introduction.




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