An American Inheritance: Jim Crow Era

Many of the images in this exhibit were created to marginalize the new hard-won freedoms of African Americans at that time.

During Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War, Black people reunited with their families, looked for jobs, built and attended schools, and Black men exercised their right to vote and hold public office.

The Jim Crow era that followed Reconstruction was a violent backlash against Black people’s pursuit of freedom and citizenship. This era included the return of the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, the burning of homes and businesses, attacks on those who tried to vote, and many other forms of racial violence.

The images and stereotypes in this exhibit were used to justify this violence. Racists portrayed African Americans as subservient, dangerous, promiscuous, unintelligent, and less than human. These images appeared on everyday objects and helped create a story and culture that supported white supremacy. When white people bought and displayed these artifacts in their homes and daily lives, they helped spread and support these stereotypes.

This photograph of the 1930 mob lynching of Thomas Shipp
and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. This is the lynching
Dr. James Cameron survived.