CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY THESIS TITLE: Illustrating Ourselves: Lorenzo Harris and Historical Memory in The Crisis, 1913-1922 AUTHOR: Joy Noel Aezerlee Miller DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: December 14, 2017 THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY. Jill Watts U-, oc,;- - 6 ~ - 2..t> I fs -THE-S-IS_C_O_MMI__TT_E_E_C_HAIR _____ ___JAN ~ ~NATURE~ DATE Jeffrey Charles \, (lJ o ~ -o 3-- GO /9, THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE Kimber Quinney ~tg THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE Illustrating Ourselves: Lorenzo Harris and Historical Memory in The Crisis, 1913-1922 Joy Miller California State University, San Marcos Department of History © 2018 Miller 1 Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Illustrating Ourselves: Lorenzo Harris and Historical Memory in The Crisis, 1913- 1922. Chapter 3: Conclusion Bibliography Miller 2 Abstract Lorenzo Harris, John Henry Adams, Albert A. Smith, and Laura Wheeler-Waring were illustrators for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) publication The Crisis during the early part of the twentieth-century. The illustrators of The Crisis came from a variety of backgrounds and different African American communities. Their political cartoons and illustrations between 1913 and 1922 are historically significant because these artists fought against the false and racists imagery that was printed in white media. Their contributions to the publication were instrumental in creating a visual political statement that spoke to the multiple experiences of African Americans. While W.E.B. Du Bois was editor of The Crisis, the artists seemingly had agency over the work they produced. Their illustrations commented on gender, politics, the judicial system, and lynching. They also challenged racist stereotyped caricatures of African Americans and reflected on contemporary issues. Significantly, their political cartoons reflected their individual backgrounds and the historical memory that was woven throughout their respective communities. Whether it was intentional or unintentional to incorporate historical memory into their work these artists were affected by it and historical memory was integrated into their illustrations. They used their illustrations to protest against racial, economic and social inequality that African American communities faced in the United States during this period. Their powerful illustrations were both socially conscious and politically active. Miller 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank California State University, San Marcos History Department for their support in creating this website and the support of my overall thesis. I would like to thank my Masters of Arts in History Committee Dr. Jill Watts, Dr. Jeffrey Charles, and Dr. Kimber Quinney for their incredible support, time, and guidance in helping complete this thesis. I would also like to thank my mother, Melenia Simon, for her encouragement throughout the process of me attending school. I would also like to thank each reader of this thesis for taking the time to read it. By reading this thesis, you are participating and sharing an important history that needs to continue living. I hope that you will take a moment and share what you have learned. So, with my deepest gratitude, thank you to everyone. Miller 4 Chapter One: Introduction During the early twentieth-century political cartoons were used by various newspapers across the United States as a means to create meaningful but concise visual messages that would address politics and social conditions of the day. Many papers featured political cartoons to also address racial issues. In this period, white newspapers depicted African Americans in political cartoons using stereotypes that reinforced racist ideology. The illustrations showed African Americans as inferior, unintelligent and idle. Despite the reality that African Americans historically provided the backbone of the nation’s labor force and there was a successful and educated black middle-class, white newspaper cartoons perpetuated negative stereotypes and riterated a narrative that maintained white society’s dominance. In response to white newspapers’ false and racist imagery, African American newspapers strove to combat visual representations implying black “inferiority.” Specifically, during this period, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s magazine, The Crisis, used art from illustrators to fight against these racial stereotypes. African American art is political; both its content as well as the very act of creating it is and was a political statement. As Belinda Edmondson wrote: Recently some African American scholars have been arguing very persuasively that the very genesis of African American arts was itself political. According to bell hooks, whatever African Americans created music, dance, poetry, or painting, it was regarded as testimony, challenging racist beliefs that blacks were uncivilized and that the measure of their savagery was their collective failure to create “great” art. Furthermore, [hooks] states, African slaves brought with them an aesthetic that art should emphasize kinship ties and help to ensure the survival of the community. These ideas formed the basis of Miller 5 African American aesthetics, since cultural production and artistic expressiveness were also ways for displaced African people to maintain connections with the past.1 Several African American publications carried cartoons and illustrations, but The Crisis, which was edited by NAACP founder and leader W.E. B. Du Bois, was one of the most important and widely circulated during its time. Historical memories of African American communities influenced The Crisis’s illustrators as they created political cartoons and illustrations that challenged racist stereotyped caricatures and reflected on the contemporary issues of African Americans. The artists created political cartoons that showed African Americans from diverse socioeconomic classes fighting for their rights as citizens. Illustrators also depicted African Americans engaging with the government. Cartoons criticized the actions of the White House and the federal government’s failure to create policy. In their drawings, The Crisis cartoonists analyzed the longer history of racism and its effect on African Americans in American politics and society. The illustrators of The Crisis came from a variety of backgrounds and different African American communities. Their contributions to the publication were instrumental in creating a visual political statement that spoke to the multiple experiences of African Americans. Their political cartoons reflected their individual backgrounds and the historical memory of their respective communities. Historical memory is defined as a group or an individual using memories from the past to challenge a narrative that is used by a rival group or individual to gain agency or establish domination. Whether the artists’ use of historical memory was intentional or unintentional, the influence of historical memories was prevalent in their illustrations. The artists 1 Belinda Edmondson, Making Men: Gender, Literary Authority, and Women’s Writing in Caribbean Narrative (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 87. Miller 6 of The Crisis used their illustrations as a political tool to challenge the white racist narrative that demeaned and suppressed African Americans. Hence it is important to study the individual biographies of the various artists to understand how their experiences affected their illustrations. The thesis that follows is divided into two parts. First, a digital history project in the form of a website focuses on the lives and illustrations of four of The Crisis’ artists between 1913 and 1922. The time frame for this study starts with Woodrow Wilson’s administration and ends with the early development of the Harlem Renaissance movement. These artists are John Henry Adams, Lorenzo Harris, Albert A. Smith, and Laura Wheeler-Waring. Although other artists contributed visual images to The Crisis during this period, these particular artists contributed most often. Interestingly, political cartooning was reserved for male artists and Laurel Wheeler- Waring was confined to contributing portraits and illustrations that complemented poems and stories. Nonetheless, she was one of the first female artists to work for the publication and her illustrations are important to analyze. Her illustrations were created during a period when women were not allowed to vote. Even when women received the right to vote in 1920, most African American women lived in the south and remained disenfranchised. By restricting Wheeler- Waring to non- political cartoons, Du Bois practiced the sexism common in American society. But the fact that Wheeler-Waring created art that reflected the beauty and the humanity in African American communities was just as much of a political challenge to stereotypes as was provided by her male counterparts. Additionally, her work carried a rebellion against the constraint of sexism. The website will offer a comparative thematic study of the four artists’ illustrations by analyzing their work across the categories of gender, justice system, lynching, and politics. The website, in addition, will have a link to a section that will include