"Free (?) America"
The gruesome lynching of a mentally disabled man, Henry Smith in Paris, Texas, in February 1893, sparked renewed visual critique in the African American press regarding federal inaction on lynching. The mob’s torture of Henry Smith seemed to contradict the nation’s values, these editors believed. “Free (?) America” quipped the terse, sarcastic caption to an illustration of Smith’s torture in Wisconsin’s <a title="Northwestern Recorder" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/195"><em>Northwestern Recorder</em></a>.
owproject
2013-06-30 18:07:04
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"Thirty Years of Progress"
After the brutal lynching of a mentally disabled man, Henry Smith, this image in <a title="Detroit Plaindealer" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/192"><em>Detroit Plaindealer</em></a> portrayed the failure of outgoing President Benjamin Harrison administration’s to condemn the lynching as a direct contrast to Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and the founding principles of the Republican Party. At left, President Abraham Lincoln is shown holding the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and opening the door of freedom to an African American man leaving bondage; at right, in 1893 a mob sets him on fire. The image suggests that government in a civilized society would have shielded any accused criminal, but particularly one of Smith’s limited mental capacity, from mob action.
owproject
2013-06-29 06:43:26
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