Reconstruction Era Visuals Project
Essentially, I created this newspaper as though it was being written by members of the Missouri Historical Society, which was known for its racial progressiveness and belief in equal rights. My newspaper centers around the encouragement for black people in the late 1800's with artistic skills to submit their art to the society to make a message to White America. The reason I chose my topic is because it has always interested me how blacks have continuously struggled with finding their way into the media, and still today. Representation of black people in tv/magazines/movies/etc has been a topic of discussion for years, and recently acknowledged as being extremely progressive. Up until doing this project, I wasn't aware that African Americans were representing themselves - or making an effort to - in paintings, sculptures, and other popular forms of art in the 19th century. I chose to do a newspaper because I thought it would be interesting to try and put myself in the shoes of a member of the M.H.S. in the 19th century, and it was. Two elements that may be visually unclear are the art pieces I chose to use. For the most part I chose black artists who were well known in their time and that fit into the time frame. The bottom right image is one taken outside the Missouri Historical Society.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ua4ZQw0-ShRy-uiUkUPP6rfEo4IJCFrd4WKJSOavOII/edit
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