Henry J. Lewis
<p><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;" data-mce-mark="1">Henry J. Lewis was born in slavery in Mississippi, sometime in the late 1830s (the exact year of his birth is unknown). He was severely burned as a child, which left him blind in one eye and crippled in his left hand. He lived much of his life in Pine Bluffs, Arkansas. In the 1870s he produced some engravings for </span><em style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Harper’s Weekly</em><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;" data-mce-mark="1">, and in the early 1880s worked as a sketch artist for the Smithsonian’s “Mound Survey” of pre-historic Native American sites in Arkansas and elsewhere. His cartoons in the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199">Indianapolis </a></span><a style="font-size: 10px;" title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Freeman</em></a><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;" data-mce-mark="1"> in 1889 focused on themes of economic, social and political rights for African Americans. He died in April 1891.</span></p>
owproject
2013-11-09 18:53:34
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"Ethiopia to Uncle Sam"
This drawing in the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis Freeman</em></a> shows Uncle Sam standing impotently before a robed figure, Ethiopia, as she gestures toward the shooting of innocent African American men and women, and a burning church. “See how my people are murdered, maltreated and outraged in the South,” Ethiopia says, “and you, with a great army and navy, are taking no measures to prevent it.” Ethiopia was a recurring figure in <em>Freeman</em> iconography, who represented strong advocacy of equal protection and due process.
owproject
2013-07-09 15:43:28
377
"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
64
"Some Day"
In June 1892, the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis Freeman</em></a> re-printed an earlier visual compilation of civil rights themes drawn by the late political cartoonist <a title="Henry J. Lewis" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/193">Henry J. Lewis</a>. The small cartoon laments the need for combative imagery in the black press, but explains its necessity. “Some day the inspiration for such representations will have passed,” the caption reads; “some day, America will extend equal rights and justice to all men.” A sign affixed to the whipping post reads: “Give the Negro an equal chance with other men, and there will be no race problem.”
owproject
2013-07-03 17:52:23
67
"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
70
"Notice"
<span style="font-size: 13px;">As editor, <a title="George L. Knox" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/198">George L. Knox</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> in the formerly independent <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis </em></a></span><a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em style="font-size: 13px;">Freeman</em></a><span style="font-size: 13px;"> to chide the National Negro Democratic Convention meeting in that city in August 1894. "Gentlemen," reads the caption, "cannot you persuade the white members of your party South, to cease these persecutions of your brethren?" At the time, </span>the Southern branch of the Democratic party remained hostile to voting and civil rights for African Americans. While some African Americans in the Northwest were moving away from the Republican Party, which they saw as failing to protect those rights, this cartoon made clear that the Democrats offered no refuge for African American voters.
owproject
2013-06-26 04:46:05
124
"A Song Without Words"
<p>On the eve of local elections in 1895, the <a title="Indianapolis Freeman" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/199"><em>Indianapolis </em><em>Freeman</em></a> printed a previously-published drawing by the late political cartoonist <a title="Henry J. Lewis" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/193">Henry J. Lewis</a>, entited "A Song Without Words." The drawing used inserts within the larger frame to tell the story of a lynching by hanging (1), shooting (2) and fire (3). The persistence of Lewis's artwork after the transition from the editorship of Democratic-leaning independent <a title="Edward E. Cooper" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/200">Edward E. Cooper</a> to that of Republican <a title="George L. Knox" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/198">George L. Knox</a>, demonstrates that the paper's visual themes--of organizing, political activism and the vote--transcended political party affiliation.</p>
owproject
2013-06-19 04:54:38
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