“Unmasked: Anti-Lynching Art and Public Community Remembrance in Indiana”
Session will present: In-PersonThe Montgomery National Memorial for Peace and Justice was the first national monument dedicated to exposing the country’s history of lynching while formulating a visual and spatial means for commemorating its victims. This important and major first step to acknowledge, in the words of the noted journalist and social justice advocate Ida B. Wells, “our country’s national crime”, has generated “remembrance projects” to instances of racist violence in communities around the country. Our project, “Unmasked: The 1935 Anti-Lynching Exhibitions and Community Remembrance in Indiana”, joined this conversation on a local level in Indiana, with the ultimate goal of creating a memorial in the city of Indianapolis to acknowledge all known occurrences of lynching in the state and to honor the victims of this once common public expression of White supremacy. The art installation reimagined two historic exhibitions held in 1935 to create public awareness of lynching with the goal of passing federal legislation. The gallery appeared as a darkened, contemplative space filled with artwork, video, and ephemera that exhibited a range of approaches to portraying lynching - those that focus on the perpetrators (which range from white mobs to the US Court system), those that focus on the victims (both male and female) and their families, and those that evoke protest against racism and White supremacy. The aim of our panel is to discuss the successes, trials, failures, and lessons from developing and eventually exhibited such a project.
Field(s) of Study:
Geographic Area: North America
Time Period: Twentieth Century
Time Period: Twenty-First Century
Time Period: Nineteenth Century
Media: Drawing
Chair:
Phoebe E. Wolfskill
Abstract Submissions Closed
