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Exhibiting Racism: the Cultural Politics of Lynching Photography Re-Presentations

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Exhibiting Racism: the Cultural Politics of Lynching Photography Re-Presentations EXHIBITING RACISM: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPHY RE-PRESENTATIONS by Erika Damita’jo Molloseau Bachelor of Arts, Western Michigan University, 2001 Master of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented August 8, 2008 by Erika Damita’jo Molloseau It was defended on September 1, 2007 and approved by Cecil Blake, PhD, Department Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Africana Studies Scott Kiesling, PhD, Department Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics Lester Olson, PhD, Professor, Department of Communication Dissertation Advisor, Ronald Zboray, PhD, Professor and Director of Graduate Study, Department of Communication ii Copyright © by Erika Damita’jo Molloseau 2008 iii EXHIBITING RACISM: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPHY RE-PRESENTATIONS Erika Damita’jo Molloseau, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 Using an interdisciplinary approach and the guiding principles of new historicism, this study explores the discursive and visual representational history of lynching to understand how the practice has persisted as part of the fabric of American culture. Focusing on the “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” exhibition at three United States cultural venues I argue that audiences employ discernible meaning making strategies to interpret these lynching photographs and postcards. This examination also features analysis of distinct institutional characteristics of the Andy Warhol Museum, Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, alongside visual rhetorical analysis of each site’s exhibition contents. Through phenomenological categorization and analysis of audience comment books maintained by each institution, I maintain that museum visitors employ various types of cultural knowledge about past and present black-white race relations. Audiences undertake comparative analyses of the distant past with the contemporary historical moment to make sense of lynching imagery and history as simultaneously both a discrete historical epoch and part of a constellation of racist and violent activities characterizing American history which continue to influence race relations today. From analysis of museum audiences’ responses to lynching photography exhibitions, this study concludes that an overwhelming portion of “Without Sanctuary” audiences locate racism, discrimination, and prejudice at the individual iv level of society, not the collective or systemic level, highlighting an important barrier beleaguering the task of racial reconciliation and national healing around the phenomenon and practice of lynching. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE....................................................................................................................................IX 1.0 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 PRINCIPLES OF STUDY.................................................................................. 8 1.2 CHAPTER ARRAINGMENT.......................................................................... 14 1.3 BRIEF HISTORY OF LYNCHING ................................................................ 16 2.0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................................... 18 2.1 REPRESENTING LYNCHING....................................................................... 23 2.2 SOCIOLOGICAL/SOCIOHISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS.............. 29 2.2.1 Typology of Lynching................................................................................. 40 2.3 HISTORICAL REPRESENTATIONS ........................................................... 51 2.4 LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS................................................................ 62 2.5 ACTIVISTS’ REPRESENTATIONS .............................................................. 75 2.5.1 Jesse Daniel Ames and the ASWPL .......................................................... 78 2.5.2 NAACP......................................................................................................... 85 2.6 LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIONS ......................................................... 94 2.7 LEGAL LYNCHING EXECUTIONS........................................................... 106 2.8 REPRESENTATIONS OF LYNCHING MYTHOLOGY .......................... 112 2.9 REPRESENTATIONS OF LYNCHING IMAGERY.................................. 141 vi 2.9.1 Without Sanctuary Lynching Imagery ................................................... 160 3.0 CULTURAL CENTERS ......................................................................................... 176 3.1 ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM......................................................................... 182 3.2 CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.......................................................................................................................... 189 3.3 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE ................ 196 4.0 RE-PRESENTATIONS ........................................................................................... 205 4.1 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 210 4.2 THE WITHOUT SANCTUARY PROJECT ................................................ 211 4.3 WITHOUT SANCTUARY: LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPHY IN AMERICA ........................................................................................................................... 222 4.4 BEARING WITNESS BARING OUR SOULS ............................................ 227 5.0 AUDIENCES RESPOND ........................................................................................ 237 5.1 MEDIA IN AUDIENCES EVERYDAY LIVES........................................... 242 5.2 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 247 5.3 COMMENTS ON EXHIBITION CONTENTS............................................ 251 5.4 CONNECTION TO POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES......................... 268 5.5 COMMENTARY ON AFRICAN AMERICAN PROGRESS .................... 276 6.0 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 286 APPENDIX A............................................................................................................................ 291 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................ 292 APPENDIX C............................................................................................................................ 293 APPENDIX D ........................................................................................................................... 294 vii APPENDIX E ............................................................................................................................ 295 APPENDIX F ............................................................................................................................ 296 APPENDIX G............................................................................................................................ 297 APPENDIX H............................................................................................................................ 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 299 viii PREFACE The completion of this project was possible with the intellectual, academic, professional and personal support from a number of individuals. I sincerely thank my dissertation advisor, Ronald Zboary for his commitment to my intellectual and professional growth throughout the research and writing of this study. I also thank committee members Lester Olson, Cecil Blake, and Scott Keisling for their support throughout the formulation and writing of this dissertation. I am grateful to the University of Pittsburgh, College of Arts and Sciences, Students of Color Research Grant Committee which awarded me funding to complete field work important to the overall development of this project. I also thank Kathleen Bolton Gray for your help editing parts of this document. Finally, I thank the following individuals for their personal support throughout the dissertation process: Robert and Carol Snyder, Joseph Pryor, Melissa Swauger, Christian Molloseau, Andrea Stringer, and Mary Saracino Zboray ix 1.0 INTRODUCTION The practice of lynching, like the institutions of slavery and racial segregation, are ineluctably part of the American social and cultural milieu. Black-white race relations are forever informed, impacted, and constrained by the brutality, violence, and dehumanization of institutional, political, cultural, and economic systems of subordination based upon racial, sexual, and gendered difference. Lynching was constitutive of—and constituted by—the social environment, systemic practices, and day-to-day lived experiences of black and white men and women during and following the lynching era; however, few popular discourses and public history presentations acknowledge the practice and its significance. Rather, narratives about black and white race relations
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