Joan Little At News Conference: Joan Little, recently acquitted in the icepick slaying of her white jailer, tells a news conference in Oakland on Friday that she used to be just like any other young woman who wants to "go out and party." She said that during her trial she became dedicated to the struggle for black freedom. In the background is Larry Little, no relation to Miss Little, who is national spokesperson for the Joan Little Defense Committee.

Joan Little (pronounced "Jo Ann") (born 1953) is a black woman charged for the 1974 murder of Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. Little's trial made her a cause célèbre of the Civil Rights, Feminist, and Anti-death Penalty Movements. She was the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case has become classic in legal circles as a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection.

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: manuscript title, date stamp and newspaper stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Acquittals
• Civil Rights Movements
• Injustice
• Joan Little
• Joan Little Defense Committee
• Larry Little
• Oakland
• Press Conferences
• Racial Discrimination

• Image Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 6 11/16 in. (23.5 x 16.99 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 10 x 8 1/16 in. (25.4 x 20.48 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen