Malena Amusa

What it looked like then…

Word up Feministing for the lede on this online exhibit: Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939- 1943.

Not many of us blogging or reading blogs have live memories of America on the eve of WWII. This exhibit works to fill in those gaps with images. The Library of Congress producing the exhibit reported:

These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations, the nation’s subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country’s great mobilization for World War II.

The pics of Black life are eerie. Like in this one above. Folks are farming with no shoes on. And that dirt looks crunchy and hot. Oh and see the baby in the picture’s left margin. How stark and symbolic? Slave life, it shows, carried the South well into the 20th century. In fact, WWII wasn’t a watershed growth period for Blacks. But even through this, the Black people captured in these photos exhibit an unspoken class and dignity.

Posted at 12:48 PM, Jun 21, 2007 in Permalink | View Comments