African Americans Claiming Their Independence

Screenshot 2015-04-30 at 12.02.09 AM
Screenshot 2015-04-30 at 12.02.09 AM

Artist Statement:


In my visual, in which i chose to do a flyer, there are a lot of bold fonts and large words that would naturally catch the attention of whoever is reading it. There are also many misleading titles. The message that is portrayed based off by research and how these type of flyer would usually be is that all the ¨freedom¨ that African Americans were given during the Reconstruction Era was quite restricting compared to the freedom whites already had.

Something that might not be clear to the reader is the titles and headlines present. One of the headlines says ¨Freedom = Voting!¨ and then underneath it in a smaller, less eye-catching font gives an example of exactly how they ¨freedom¨ did not equal voting. Many laws were put into place that made it difficult for blacks to be apart of their community including electing who they wanted for their government. The point of that was to show how, in history, a simple statement, could have all these hidden strings tied to it. Yes, you get this, only if you do this, this and this. Even after that you still weren't done.  


All the examples given of different accounts of black ¨independence¨ were all there just to show how this wasn't a even thing. African Americans at the time all tried to be apart of the white community but were turned down. This just shows how often they happened in one era but how different they were. This matters because it really breaks down the hardships of African Americans during the Reconstruction Era. It has deeper meaning because like flyers in the past, at first glance you see opportunities at hand but then you read the fine print and see the hoops you have to jump through to achieve your goal.

Comments (8)

Kathryn Kopf (Student 2018)
Kathryn Kopf

I think that your flyer is really of the time. It reminds me of the poster about Blacks enlisting to fight and I think that's really good. The big text lets you know what's important and it allows you to scan it quickly, but still get the main idea.

Jameson Willis-Carroll (Student 2018)
Jameson Willis-Carroll

Wow Desarae this is really good. It looks like a real piece of its time. I like the way you made all the benefits in big letters and the things you don't want people to notice really small. Its purposely misleading which is very unique