reflect on how the various artists use their medium (photographic archives, poetry, and song) to move their audience toward justice
Order Instructions
In 250 Words, reflect on how the various artists use their medium (photographic archives, poetry, and song) to move their audience toward justice. What do they emphasize about lynching? What images or language do they use to catalyze the urgent need for justice and racial equality? Please focus on at least two texts — they can be any format a poem, a song, or the photographic gallery Without Sanctuary. . . . . . . . . .
As you saw in Ethnic Notions, the dehumanization of black people justified white supremacy in the Jim Crow era. It also justified the rampant lynching that was commonplace in both the North and South. The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is an organization that is committed to educating Americans about the racialized forms of violence that took place in the United States. You can read a lot about the unimaginably horrific phenomenon of lynching on their website. Here is a direct link to the EJI’s map of documented lynchings that occurred in the United States: https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore Links to an external site.According to the EJI, more than 4,000 black people were publicly murdered in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950.
The Birth of a Nation, which came out in 1915, is a deeply disturbing film that spread racist propaganda that presented the lynching of African Americans as a necessary form of justice. Although set in the Confederate south, this film was popular among white audiences in both the North and the South. In the film, the KKK is depicted in heroic terms, a group that will save American values. A central episode in this film is a scene in which a white man in blackface pursues a white woman whom he desires to marry. Terrified, she falls into a precipice. Here is an excerpt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mdNSeNaUkwLinks to an external site.
This famous scene allegorizes black male violence and white female virtue and sensationalizes the consequences of interracial marriage, something that was illegal in all southern states until anti-miscegenation laws were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1967. Because, very often, black men being accused of even desiring a white woman resulted in lynching in the early half of the 20th century, it is very evident that interracial marriage or sex was more than just a “taboo” in the white southern imagination; it was regarded as a transgression that justified violent mob intervention. Read this New Yorker essay that discusses the film’s continued relevance: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/hundred-years-later-birth-nation-hasnt-gone-away
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Although anti-miscegenation law varied by state, the United States remained deeply segregated. And even in the more progressive Northern cities such as New York and Chicago, where many African Americans migrated to, racial segregation structured all civic institutions. In fact, many light-skinned African Americans “passed” as white in the North in order to gain access to better jobs or housing.
Despite the real risk of speaking out against lynching, many Harlem Renaissance artists and writers sought to expose the racialized violence of lynching and fought for racial justice. In response to The Birth of a Nation, African American director and producer Oscar Micheaux created the silent film Within Our Gates. You can watch it here, if you are interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gjRBbEKwFcLinks to an external site.
The short texts you will read for SMALL DISCUSSION 3 all focus on lynching. After teaching this course for many years, I have learned that a large number American students are not aware of the history of lynching in their own country. The repression of this form of domestic terrorism in reflects an unwillingness to face that deep roots of white supremacy in this country. The horror of lynching photos is manifold, but something that I find deeply disturbing is the glee on white people’s faces (see below) while looking up at the dangling body of hung African Americans. The selection poetry and song “Strange Fruit” performed by Billie Holiday describe the chilling details of lynching, which are documented in the lynching photographs in the collection by James Allen: https://withoutsanctuary.org/ Links to an external site.
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