Rock against racism: the seminal photography of Leni Sinclair
The photographer, activist and co-founder of the White Panthers captured some of the greatest musicians of her generation as well as the struggle for civil rights
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Civil rights activist Stokeley Carmichael at the National Student Association conference in Bloomington, Indiana, August 1963.
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A poem on the side of a truck for Medgar Evers, a prominent civil rights activist assassinated by a white supremacist in June 1963.
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Leni Sinclair in East Germany in 1963. She was born Magdalene Arndt in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) in 1940 before moving to the United States in 1959.
Photograph: Courtesy of Leni Sinclair
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Jazz musician John Coltrane on stage at the Drome Lounge in Detroit, Michigan, June 1966.
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Iggy Pop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1968.
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Iggy Pop on stage at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, 1968.
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Poet, writer and manager of MC5, John Sinclair, in 1969. Leni and John married in 1965 and, with Pun Plamondon, formed the White Panther party in 1968.
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Black Panthers demonstrating in Detroit, 1969.
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Musician and MC, Brother JC (Jesse) Crawford on Zug Isle in Detroit, Michigan, 1969.
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MC5 drummer Dennis ‘Machine Gun’ Thompson in Detroit, 1969.
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Wayne Kramer, MC5 guitarist, East Lansing, Michigan, 1969.
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White Panther party members at their headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1970.
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Jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie, in a picture taken about 1970.
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White Panther party members enjoying the summer of 1971 at their headquarters.
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Jane Fonda speaks in 1971 in support of John Sinclair, who had been imprisoned two years earlier for possession of marijuana.
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Leni Sinclair in 1971, wearing a T-shirt in support of her imprisoned husband. John Sinclair was released later that year after protests against his harsh sentence.
Photograph: Courtesy of Leni Sinclair
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Avant-garde jazz vocalist Leon Thomas on stage at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 1972.
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Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Showcase Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, June 1975, during their Natty Dread tour.
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Aretha Franklin sings at a benefit concert for her father, the Rev CL Franklin, at Cobo Arena in Detroit, March 1980. He was shot in a suspected robbery the year before and remained in a coma until his death in 1984.
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Prince performs at Cobo Arena, Detroit, in December 1980.
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