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Artistic Statement:

My visual is about Abraham Lincoln not really freeing the slaves. I believe that Abraham Lincoln always had the power to free them he just waited on it because that’s not what he really wanted. I think my visual will be unclear in the sense that most people think that he freed the slaves because that’s what they were taught. They have no real background knowledge of the situation so of course they will agree that Lincoln freed the slaves.

Lincoln’s main priority at the time was saving the union. He didn’t care about the slaves or whether they were free or not, he just didn’t want the union to fall apart. He freed the slaves to make a statement to the rest of the union that he was in charge. He says he was antislavery yet at the same time he never wanted blacks and whites to be equal.

Artist Statement

As my visual, I decided to make a concept map. It shows that at the end of the reconstruction era, the blacks were still getting the same treatments. There were violence; beating, whipping, killing and there was so called “freedom”; with restrictions, segregation, and living. This visual has a meaning because it is telling the readers that even after the reconstruction, the former slaves became freedmen but yet they were still getting the same treatments. The quotes that I used are all from former slaves/freedmen after the reconstruction.

One element that the visual has that may not be clear for the reader is the branch in the middle that doesn’t connect to anything. That might not be clear because everything else is connected to one another, but that one isn’t. I decided to put that by itself in the middle because the phrase sums up the whole visual. It says, “The blacks were still under the whites,” which is what was happening. Even after the reconstruction, the blacks were suppose to be freedmen, but yet they were still under the whites and they had a hard time living on their own.

Another thing that might not be clear to the audience are the “branches”, the connections from one thing to another. The connections are pointing out the different points of the certain topic. For violence, it is connecting to three different points; whipping, beating and killing, because those are all a part of violence. For “freedom”, it’s connecting to restriction, living?, and segregation. Each of the points are connecting to two different quotes that I found from former slaves/freedmen that were spoken after the reconstruction.

My visual shows that after the reconstruction, the blacks were still getting the same treatments. They were treated poorly, they didn’t have their so called freedom, and they were still under the whites. Even though many believed that the reconstruction gave the former slaves freedom, they didn’t really fully get their freedom until about a hundred years later. That is why I think it matters as to the African American history as a whole.

Nat Hilton

My piece is a flyer about the Sculptor Edmonia Lewis. It is set in the time of reconstruction and speaks about her history, impact, and artwork. The one portion of the flyer I wanted to focus on was my highlighting of keywords, I imagined these to be popular negative or positive phrases of the time and wanted to add emphasis. I did this by making them a certain color and putting them on bold them. As I previously mentioned, I would assume they would use this style in the news flyers of the period, highlighting and making the key words bold to catch the reader's eye. This is important because I wanted to attain a form of accuracy when making this flyer, and this style interested me the most, it seemed very practical and looked appealing. The second portion I wanted to highlight about the visuals has to do with the face beneath the text, you can clearly see eyes and a mouth. These few features are meant to represent Edmonia Lewis in a very minimalist and simplistic way, I was looking for something that looked of the era but was slightly modern. I feel like the mixture of old fashioned word organization and the more modern style of interpretive imagery would draw the reader in even more. I thought it mattered to include Edmonia’s facial features as a visual because I wanted her personality to be welcome in the flyer, not just her information. I wanted there to be a personal connection with this Abolitionist Artist of the reconstruction era, she was a large influence for many people and affected the art world and that time period in a very big way. Edmonia Lewis impacted African American history`by inputting her artistic work into a key moment in history, one of the most influential parts of African American change in America and she was on the forefront of the art world. She has influenced not just sculptors but several African American artists of all generations.

LINK TO FLYER: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PU3BGFjhywzz8uFVxdCoZ5hDgsbfTjz9oeGSsk5yKc8/edit

LINK TO RESEARCH:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Da3YElsvtxMfNSEk2hSqhHgALX3xRVjlIttQFVW94yY/edit

Philadelphia was one of the worst cities to be a different race in the Northeast during the Reconstruction Era. One of the major issues there (or, alternatively, the one that gathered many protests) was the Philadelphia street cars being segregated. Because of the climate, the opinion columns pictured were actually a bit more liberal than would’ve been acceptable at the time, and the second one wouldn’t likely be published in a neutral newspaper.

The political cartoon may be a bit unclear. The real message is that the street car in itself does not symbolize equal rights, but getting into it does. A door is drawn on the street car, and is labeled equal rights (the picture is low quality and I apologize). This is supposed to be a symbol more than anything else; getting onto the street car wouldn’t automatically create equal rights for every citizen of the United States. However, it would be (and was) a victory and a statement. If the street cars could be desegregated, then other things could get done, too.

Also, on the opinions, we still see the racist one today. It may take different forms, the homophobe, for example, but what they say is always the same. “We gave them enough, they don’t need more.” This is dangerous, the way they’re playing it. They act like they’re trying to preserve peace.

Something I inserted in there was the comment about ‘our lord’ on the other one. This was just so it would feel more 1800s-ish while the newspaper looked ridiculously modern.

Not to say that the segregated street cars weren’t an issue, because they were, and people were suffering because of it.

Many people famous for their efforts during Reconstruction were involved i this mess, including William Still.

My cartoon is split into two sections. The first column is drawings that represent a black man on his journey through life during the Reconstruction era. When slaves are given the right to, he learns to read and is amazed by it, he’s learning new things. The hate group against blacks at the time called the KKK, Klu Klux Klan, notices this and is infuriated so they burn the book. They did this a lot back during that era and many more graphic and violent things that I decided not to show in that specific panel. This is important because slaves obviously did benefit from the Reconstruction era and the laws passed along with it. However, whenever an eager black wanted to do something more for themselves or achieve something in their new way of life, there would always be a backfire and racial hate that came along with their success. So even though they were technically and legally “free” the treatment they were given was just how it was when they were enslaved. You were one of the lucky ones if you were black during that time and succeed financially and socially amongst the whites in life. But this was rare, if not impossible.

In the first panel in the second column there is a drawing of the same black man but now he is a doctor, most of you probably think that this wasn't possible, but the patients would see him in the confines of his own home to receive treatment. When someone tipped the KKK about Dr. Johnson’s recent activities they went straight to his home, forcibly brought him to the woods and lynched him. This form of killing was quite common back then among the KKK, they would usually gather many black men and have a group lynching inviting the townspeople to watch, like a movie. They would all gather together in the woods and laugh and ridicule the murdered. These acts were cruel, inhuman and immoral.

So overall, it shows the racial discrimination and immoral acts brought upon blacks in America. It matters for us to study these topics so history won’t repeat itself and for everyone to be educated on the struggle this countries ancestors had to endure to give us freedom and the life we live today. Freedom, a right that every human that ever lived should have gotten.

Artist Statement:

In my visual it may be hard to understand certain aspects such as the date written and the name of the newspaper itself. I am here to clear all that up. lets start with the date the newspaper was made. It was made on April 28, 1870, the reason why I chose this date was because the KKK was created about years prior. They also had a lot activity during this time with the Radical Republicans and African Americans in general. Andrew Johnson was also Impeached 2 years before this date and the Radical Republicans had a big role in the impeachment.

Now to the second point. Why did I name the newspaper,¨The Philadelphia post¨?

The first reason is pretty simple really, I just like the way it sounds and I also live in Philadelphia. With further reflection though I figure that Philadelphia is a recurring state in African American history. It has been a staple in which African Americans go to, to have a taste of freedom. That is basically why I called it ¨The Philadelphia Post¨.

Finally to the juicy stuff, Why should you care about Radical Republicans? In my opinion Radical Republicans are not afraid to think out of society standards and stand up to what they believe in. You can draw from those traits and learn how they stood up for what they believe in and apply to your own life. Thank you for taking the time to look at my artist statement and actually looking at my visual.

Kali- Maria

Savannah -Linda    

Jevon - Jarome

Ajanae - luisa ‘

Script 1  :

Maria and  lisa walk down the hall

Maria : ¿Vienes a mi fiesta de luisa?

Linda: No, pero me gustaría ir

(Luisa walks down the hallway)

Luisa: Hola amigos , ¿Que tal?

Maria : Hola, bien y tú?

Linda: Hola , mas menos.

Luisa: Bueno, Bueno. ¿Te gustaría venir a mi fiesta?

Linda: ¡Claro que sí!

Maria: ¡Sí Sí!

Luisa: Bueno, Nos vemos allí en siete

(luisa Walks away)

Maria- ¡Estoy muy emocionado!

Linda- ¡Mi tambien!

(the next day lisa and maria are getting ready)

Linda- ¿Me prestas tu brillo de labios?

Maria - Si

Linda-¿Lista?

Maria - Si

( both walk to the party door)

Bouncer- Hola , ID porfavor

Linda- ¿ID? Nadie dijo nada acerca de ID

Maria - No tenemos ID

Bouncer- Lo siento la niña , nada ID,  nada la entrada

Linda  y Maria -Por Favor, Por favor, Por favor Quan Pablo

Bouncer - Llamo a la policía

Linda- No No lo siento

( girls walk away sadly )

Artist statement

For my Visual I decided to create a map showing the supplies that the north sent the south. The shows where the supplies started off and how they got to there location and the distance they had to travel.

There are elements of the visual that might not be 100% clear to the person looking at it. One element that might not be clear to the viewer is that the supplies were being sent from the north and not being sent from the south. People may think this because there is no arrow indicating which way the supplies were going. Another element that might not be clear is what time period this is taking place in. People might not know it is between 1865 and 1875 because there is no date on the visual. One last element that might not be clear is how the supplies were being sent to there destination. People looking at the visual might not know what mode of transportation was being used to take the supplies to one point to another.

The visual I created has meaning for the study of the reconstruction era. It has meaning because it shows what the north was willing to send to the south to help them rebuild. We can see from the visual what the south needed to rebuild and how they would use the materials they received from the north.The visual also allows us to see what specific area of the south needed a certain material and shows where in the north the materials were coming from. It also helps viewers see the distance it would take these supplies to reach there destination. lastly it helps viewers understand that there were certain materials that the south was able to produce on their own and didn't need the north to send them it.

Research link

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1feADhbP_qdShAV22oppXhf2WgJNC6mHNZQ05WSd7TCI/edit

Visual link

http://mapmaker.education.nationalgeographic.com/fkiVlhPoXAMc23iJxJU2YH/

Visual link info

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L_9tP3Jyb000HnnJTXXDt1cnmyMretqZswdVDgisLx8/edit

Nombres: James Thomas, Xavier Gavin, Saamir Baker

Fecha: 29-4-15

Para quien es su menu? James “The Great” Thomas.

Tiene el/ ella un dieta especial (vegetarian@, Kosher, Musulman, diabetico, etc.)? Cual?

No. Le encanta todo.

Nombre: Emma Schwingel-Sauer

Fecha: April 29, 2015

Para quien es su menu?

Jamie

Tiene el/ ella un dieta especial (vegetarian@, Kosher, Musulman, diabetico, etc.)? Cual?

sin gluten

Artist Statement:

The newspaper I wrote was to represent the Compromise of 1877. It tells the audience what the real cause was for the ending of the Reconstruction Era. There are multiple subtitles aligned with descriptions about it. One of the elements of the newspaper which may be not clear to the reader is that it specifically speaks out to what the hidden details were which most citizens and media probably didn't know or speak about. It has perspectives to it, one which is titled ¨what is occurring in the public¨ and ¨behind the closed doors.¨ On the public side it explains what the main things everyone knew about and what the terms were for the South. The closed doors side tells us about what the Republicans gave to the Democrats in trade for Hayes to become president. The South had more terms compared to Rutherford Hayes just becoming President and the newspaper highlights it. Another element of the visual is that there is an image under the ¨Consequences¨ title which may be a little bit confusing as well but it makes the audience think. It represents both sides, the north and the south and what the end product was. The north ended up losing their aid with blacks and the south was practically in charge even though Hayes was president. This newspaper matters and has meaning for the study of the Reconstruction era because it thoroughly represents what the Compromise was for and in many different perspectives. The era was an impact on American History because blacks were no longer in aid and it gave them a chance to stand up on their own and fight for their rights.

To understand this graphic, you must first know about the Ku Klux Klan, a prominent terrorist group in our nation’s history. The KKK is famous for it’s appalling actions and violence against African Americans and may still be alive today. According to Dictionary.com the KKK is “a secret organization in the southern U.S., active for several years after the Civil War, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired powers of blacks and to oppose carpetbaggers from the North, and which was responsible for many lawless and violent proceedings.” The Ku Klux Klan has had a large influence on the entire country and assisted in changing many things for better or for worse.

Many people know of or about the Ku Klux Klan and it’s part during the reconstruction. However, not many understand it’s true importance during the time. It wasn’t just an ugly mark in our history where thousands were murdered, the Ku Klux Klan made a huge difference in our history that is still influencing us today. The KKK held the south and our country back in time, keeping them from slowly progressing and getting past their racist views. They inspired violent actions and racist views once again, keeping those opinions alive and celebrated. The KKK also influenced the government, keeping racist democrats in power, slowing down the evolution of African American rights. The KKK’s actions more than a hundred years ago are still impacting us today. Their supremacist views and action contributed to our still racist country. Both consciously and unconsciously, our country today is still racist, whether we like it or not.

The two things that may be unclear to my reader about my visual are, the reason why Black Codes were created and how they affected African Americans during this time. This matters because if the reader of my visual is unsure about why Black Codes were created, thy will be confused about the codes themselves and will want me to explain more about how African-Americans were viewed during this time. Knowing why the Black Codes were created would help my reader determine and be able to comprehend the rules that the Black Codes allowed and established. Without knowing the reasons behind these codes, my reader(s), will start questioning the actions of the African-Americans themselves. The way the Black Codes affected African-Americans is also a little unclear, I give and state ways that they could affect African-Americans but I don’t really give examples and elaborate on this. My visual that I created has meaning for Reconstruction, because the 1800-1900’s were years of big changes especially the 1800’s.One of the ways people during this time would express their feelings about these events were through flyers and even newspapers. So, for my visual I made a flyer talking about the creation of Black Codes and the type of rules that were apart of these codes. Black Codes were created right in the time of successful Reconstruction to prevent current free African- Americans from obtaining the freedom granted to them through Reconstruction. Black Codes also affected Reconstruction in a very bad way. They defied the freedom and rights that African Americans were given and they overrided the ¨Reconstruction Amendments¨ with the codes. Because, of this African-Americans could not fully take advantage of the freedom granted to them. Black Codes also connect greatly with African American History because, not only were these codes made and set to just African Americans, but they were something African Americans had to overcome. This allowed them to grow and progress and made room for change. Black Codes affected many of their lives in a bad way. However, just like many other events and challenges  that occurred in African American history, we were able to overcome them through faith, unity, and standing together.

My messages could be distinguished in different ways, but I thought about two messages that would be hard to clarify. The two elements that were hard to clarify were the two pictures in the newspaper. A piece of art can be seen by different people with various perspectives, so it’s important to get the right message across so there won’t be any confusion. The first one is a picture of seven African American men in suits and bow ties. This could produce distinct ideas without the caption at the bottom, however. This picture represents the first seven African American Representatives of the U.S. Congress in the early 1870’s. The picture is a physical piece of evidence that white Americans were getting around to accepting African Americans as responsible people instead of just slaves.

The second picture is the most confusing part of the newspaper because there is no writing portion to back up the thought process of the picture. The second picture is a political cartoon that displays America being rebuilt one step at a time during the Reconstruction Era. The two men in the picture is Abraham Lincoln and a U.S. Governor of Georgia. Abraham Lincoln is lifting a pole which is supporting a ball that turns out to be a picture of the southern states. The U.S. Governor is on the ball and he is stitching up the southern states with a needle and thread. This represents the North supporting the South so they can fix themselves.

This newspaper gets a lot of messages across while educating the reader. Learning about African American participation during Reconstruction is important because most people thought freed slaves didn’t do anything to help America regrow. African Americans educated themselves and thousands in the south, provided labor in rebuilding towns, and provided jobs to churches and organizations, and they did all of this without the North’s help or influence. This independent attitude the African Americans had weren’t well known throughout America to this day, and it’s important to learn about information that is unheard of.

This representation of a 1866 newspaper give you a feel of the time and what was happening then. The visuals and the statements given help any reader to understand the importance of religion and the church during reconstruction. One thing that the reader might not understand is that the picture in the middle is of the Olive Branch Baptist Church. This church is very historically important because it was the first church built after the Civil War. There is a misconception about these churches that most people overlook, but it is documented fact that these churches were not solely built and run by African Americans. In fact white people contributed to the production of the black church. Also not only did black preachers give sermons, but quite a few of them were given by white men. This go to show that in the eyes of religion we are all seen as equal. This newspaper visual was made to communicate to people that, even though most people didn’t see African Americans as humans, and gave them little to no rights, they could still seek refuge. You could say that these churches were a safe haven for the people. Not only did they churches give a place for people to worship, but they also were very involved in their community and took part in any local events. With the end of the came lots of privileges for blacks, but it also came with many responsibilities and burdens. Many people looked to God for answers, and there was no better place to do this then in one of his holy churches.