"Firing at Long Range."
This drawing by <em><a title="The Richmond Planet" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/204">Richmond Planet</a> </em>editor <a title="John Mitchell, Jr." href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/203">John Mitchell, Jr.</a>, drew attention to <a title="Ida B. Wells" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/202">Ida B. Wells</a>’s success in bringing British attention to American inaction in the face of southern lynching. The drawing shows the cannon of British public opinion “Firing at Long Range” across the ocean at the United States. The drawing places Wells’s efforts in the larger context of the war over public opinion, a shaming action necessary given government officials’ failure of will.
owproject
2013-06-23 03:35:21
114
"Silenced The Witnesses!"
In this image in the <em><a title="The Richmond Planet" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/204">Richmond Planet</a>,</em> editor and artist <a title="John Mitchell, Jr." href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/203">John Mitchell, Jr.</a>, highlighted the double standard in suppressing reporting and legal prosecution of sexual crimes against African American girls and women. Speculating on the reasons for the disappearance of the two witnesses in the trial of Thomas Penn, a white man accused of raping a 10-year-old African American girl, Lina Hanna, the drawing shows two empty graves and explicitly states: “Dead folks tell no tales. Absent witnesses cannot testify.”
owproject
2013-06-21 03:22:21
110
"White Men To The Rescue"
More conciliatory than his other drawings, this illustration by <a title="The Richmond Planet" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/204"><em>Richmond Planet</em></a> editor <a title="John Mitchell, Jr." href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/203">John Mitchell, Jr.</a>, applauded liberal whites for their efforts to thwart lynching and enforce law and order, and thereby contribute to southern economic progress. “Lawlessness cripples business, and drives away capital,” the caption reads, in an argument for state rather than federal government action. “Colored men’s prayers are answered. Liberal-minded white men are coming to the rescue."
owproject
2013-06-22 03:30:01
112