Comments on: The African American Experience in Photographs

The African American Experience in Photographs

winna — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:38:16 -0800

Missouri's digital archives of African American portraits. African American portraits from Florida's archives. The Black Archives of Mid-America. Missouri's archives, with a specific section for the African American community in northeast Missouri.

Cased photos from California. Civil War soldiers from Michigan. Just for fun.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:45:49 -0800

This is a fucking excellent post. Thank you.

By: winna

winna — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:48:27 -0800

Thank you! I did forget to mention - when you are in the Missouri archives you can resize the portraits by resizing the window.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:59:54 -0800

I thought your username was familiar—you made that great post about Glasgow. This is great too. Post more often!

By: snsranch

snsranch — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:00:12 -0800

Seconding fucking excellent post. Fascinating and beautiful stuff. I thank you too!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:01:34 -0800

Oh yes.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:23:00 -0800

Wisconsin, thanks!

By: LarryC

LarryC — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:42:11 -0800

Wonderful! What a contrast these portraits make to the racist depictions of blacks in the popular press at this same time. Thanks for an excellent post.

By: Powerful Religious Baby

Powerful Religious Baby — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:54:40 -0800

OH DAMN Nellie Franklin just stepped straight out of a bandbox! Thanks for the links, winna--is it just me, or has today been a really great day for posts?

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:45:23 -0800

I see some iPhone wallpapers in there.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:05:28 -0800

Really beautiful photographs. Adding this link to the vintage and antique African American photographs: African-Americans and the U.S. Navy.

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:35:27 -0800

From the files of the totally awesome smorgasbord of midcentury found photos website Square America: African-American Snapshots and Portraits.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:55:55 -0800

Good and yes.

By: kozad

kozad — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:04:18 -0800

Wow. The glut of information available at a mouse-click is fantastic...using all archaic and modern definitions of the word. Being from MO, it was especially cool. This WAS NOT in our high school library. Books could be written about the implications of this, and probably have. And thanks, Guy. Very cool!

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:24:28 -0800

Some of those African American people in the MO link definitely look Native American, imo. Cool link, it's funny how despite all the old fashioned outfits how fresh and contemporary everyone looks. And the teeny weenies are beautifully drawn!

By: liza

liza — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:22:45 -0800

I can't believe nobody has included the extesive Black Americana digital archives of the New York Public Library. Here's the NYPL's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture which has an amazing online exhibit about the African diaspora, The African-American Migration Experience. I not only stumbled upon it while researching images for My Black Puerto Rico, but I found a picture of my grandfather's cousin, Vicente Prats Sabater, who was the first member of our family to emigrate to the US mainland from Puerto Rico. I put together the slideshow as a visual companion to Divide and Conquer : Obama and the Latino Vote in the NY Times, which seeks to tear a new one on anybody who dares to say that : (1) Latinos are devoid of African ancestry and thusly (2) would never vote for Barack Obama. So here's a bit more of Latin American negritude than what you would have expected on a Saturday morning. Enjoy!

By: liza

liza — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:46:12 -0800

@DenOfSizer (1) Well, it's a myth that all hemispheric First Americans look a certain asiatic way and are just a reddish hue of brown. They came in all shades, look and sizes. (2) Many runaway slaves ended up in native territories. In the Caribbean, cimarroons are considered indigenous Caribes. You have the Misquitos and Garifuna in Central America. (3) You also have to account for the fact that Africa is extremely diverse and populations from the Northern part of the continent or from regions with high Arab influence are not going to look like the stereotypical black african that people think of when they think "slaves". Yet, to take it one step further : Pure Blood is such a myth. Even Europeans are a miscegenated bunch.

By: RedEmma

RedEmma — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:28:52 -0800

Missouri was a place where a lot of Cherokees on the Trail of Tears (who inter-married in some places with blacks) fled the death march, hiding in the woods and finding a place there. It makes sense that they would have continued to inter-marry with blacks in Missouri.