Without Sanctuary
May 1, 2000 9:52 AM Subscribe
Without Sanctuary - postcards & photographs of lynching in America. Shocking and sad.
Excuse me? Are you saying that you think it's celebrating the lynchings?
Without Sanctuary is available as a book and is also an exhibit showing at the New York Historical Society.
This is an era in American history that must remain documented, lest we forget. I just finished reading Black Hawk Down, about the military debacle in Somalia where one of our dead pilots was dragged through the streets; the soldiers expressed shock that mothers and children stood around impassively or even cheering as this happened. Yet I had recently read a long review of Without Sanctuary that described exactly that: happy Americans attending a horrific murder of another human being as if it were the county fair. (Not to mention the fact that dragging bodies of one's enemies goes back to Homer ...)
If these photos are disturbing, they should be. It's disturbing to be human.
posted by dhartung at 5:08 PM on May 1, 2000
Without Sanctuary is available as a book and is also an exhibit showing at the New York Historical Society.
This is an era in American history that must remain documented, lest we forget. I just finished reading Black Hawk Down, about the military debacle in Somalia where one of our dead pilots was dragged through the streets; the soldiers expressed shock that mothers and children stood around impassively or even cheering as this happened. Yet I had recently read a long review of Without Sanctuary that described exactly that: happy Americans attending a horrific murder of another human being as if it were the county fair. (Not to mention the fact that dragging bodies of one's enemies goes back to Homer ...)
If these photos are disturbing, they should be. It's disturbing to be human.
posted by dhartung at 5:08 PM on May 1, 2000
For an explanation of the project (collecting and preserving these artefacts) and why it's been undertaken, I recommend listening to
Fresh Air's interview with James Allen, the man responsible or amassing this collection.
http://whyy.org/cgi-bin/FAshowretrieve.cgi?2841
posted by bird_on_a_wire at 6:49 PM on May 1, 2000
Fresh Air's interview with James Allen, the man responsible or amassing this collection.
http://whyy.org/cgi-bin/FAshowretrieve.cgi?2841
posted by bird_on_a_wire at 6:49 PM on May 1, 2000
No, Dan, I don't think it's celebrating them. I just think that there needs to be more context than the website provides, from what I found.
posted by delfuego at 7:09 PM on May 1, 2000
posted by delfuego at 7:09 PM on May 1, 2000
« Older Time Warner Pulls ABC | Next up for bid, the damn raft. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by delfuego at 4:35 PM on May 1, 2000