James Allen's documentation of this dark, repressed side of America is an important reminder of the extent of racialized violence in our country. It was first a traveling exhibit, then a book, and later was an online site, unfortunately it has been removed from the website. I say unfortunate because it was a tool for learning and confronting this past--one cannot comprehend the racialized violence of lynching until they look into the laughing, smiling celebrating faces surrounding a horribly disfigured and slaughtered human being (even as reproductions of photographs on a website the horror of these pictures still remain with me today). We so easily typify the evil of genocides in other countries while ignoring our own crimes against humanity (if anyone is unsure why we should remember these acts, please ask and I will reply):
My Original Post on Without Sanctuary
NPR: Report on Without Sanctuary Exhibit
CNN: Exhibit of Photos Displays Racial Hatred
Bad Subjects Review of the Book
Art Review When It First Toured the Nation
Village Voice Review of the Book
Facing History and Ourselves
American Lynching (Documentary)
Strange Fruit, Jazz and Civil Rights
2 comments:
Those photos do stay with you. Haunting, as they should be. What is also haunting is that there is still much racism in this country, and if you are white person reading this, don't think I mean you against people of color. I've seen all colors do it, even against their own color.
Yes, and so much more... where do we begin.
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