"The Great Southern Exodus"
In its election-eve issue in 1892, perhaps to encourage the exodus that <a title="Ida B. Wells" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/202">Ida B. Wells</a>’s campaign had begun, the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis Freeman</em></a> re-printed a drawing by the late political cartoonist, <a title="Henry J. Lewis" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/193">Henry J. Lewis</a>. A series of frames reminded readers that migration was another form of protest against local and state governments that had failed to punish lynching. The image shows African American men, women, and families in a train station, departing the South. Insets depict whippings, lynching, and pursuit by dogs that help to explain “The Great Southern Exodus.”
owproject
2013-07-01 18:23:24
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"Still Asleep"
When Frederick Douglass warned whites of the dangers of “reaping the whirlwind,” the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis </em></a><em><a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199">Freeman</a> </em>recycled an oft-used drawing by the late political cartoonist, <a title="Henry J. Lewis" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/193">Henry J. Lewis</a>, showing a sleeping African American Gulliver, a gentle giant at the mercy of club-wielding oppressors. The image challenged the notion of “superior” white civilization, as imperialists, explorers, and slave-traders of various nationalities scale the helpless figure, who represents Africa, or possibly the African American man. “Still Asleep,” says the caption: “Can Nothing Rouse Him?”
owproject
2013-07-05 00:00:57
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"Our National Cemetery"
In this image, the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis Freeman</em></a> depicts Uncle Sam as a gravedigger, tending the failed legislation of generations. A headstone for the recently-defeated “Blair Education Bill,” which would have supplied federal funding for local public schools, is visible alongside a host of other pieces of legislation designed to protect African Americans. Such images implied that President Benjamin Harrison and the Republican Party would suffer in 1892 if they ignored the needs of African American voters.
owproject
2013-07-06 16:05:02
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