RAYMOND BROWN in JERSEY CITY BRENNAN COURTHOUSE COURT ART SHOW

Defendant Charles Hicks with defense attorney Raymond Brown 

 More on the Panther drawings from Richard Tomlinson. Now that we were able to identify the drawing of the 3 defendants in the recent post, this piece became another puzzle solved.  With the help of Brian Neary (former Hudson County Bar President, whose inspired thinking was behind this show and Ray Brown Jr calls him the "curator of his father's spirit") we were able to ID the legendary defense attorney Raymond Brown and  defendant Charles Hicks.  The story below shows the approach of Mr Brown to the case, a marked difference from the Panther trials in Chicago and New York, which Richard covered as well. The New York Panther trial is featured in the upcoming book, The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art. www.illustratedcourtroom.com

HISTORIC NJ COURT ART AT BRENNAN COURTHOUSE in JERSEY CITY, The Black Panthers

Jersey City Black Panthers 

This drawing by Richard Tomlinson has always been one of our favorites,  but we never knew who was pictured in the image. It was kept in a nice folio book for over 40 years and was never removed. While putting the show together for the Brennan Courthouse (which will open on Monday April 29th), Richard's widow generously agreed to allow the work to be shown, but still no idea of who was in the image. A computer search came up negative, no clues there. Never thinking a caption would be on the back of the paper, no one looked, until today. There it was, the complete story ( see image below). This beautiful drawing shows the 3 defendants of the trial: Rowley, Perez and Hicks in Richard's bold iconoclastic style. A mystery solved. 

Left to right Isaiah Rowley, Victor Perez, Charles Hicks of the Jersey City Black Panther trial