Lost and Found Again: Photos of African-Americans on the Plains, Nebraska

John Johnson stood in a self-portrait—possibly a wedding portrait—with his wife, Odessa. (John Johnson / Courtesy Douglas Keister / NMAAHC, SI)

Lost and Found Again: Photos of African-Americans on the Plains, Nebraska


Douglas Keister, bought a box of glass negatives that featured portraits of the city’s small African-American population from the 1910s and ’20s, an era from which few other photos survived. As Keister and Zimmer scrutinized the portraits, they began to see something else emerge: an untold story of what historians call the new negro movement. Following World War I, African-American writers, musicians, artists and academics across the country sought to promote confidence, dignity and self-expression—a movement that would blossom into the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson’s portraits, they realized, were part of the same intellectual current. His subjects were formally posed and dressed in their best, and they often held books to show that they were educated. “Up until then, many photos of African-Americans showed the plight of the poor,” Keister says. “These photos are elevating. They’re ennoblin

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

have slept with over 700 men - 22yr old Ghanaian lady.

BEGINNING OF FORMAL EDUCATION IN SENYA BERAKU.

Archaeologists have long suspected that some of the "heads" on Easter Island had a buried body.

Breaking out of Black and White Having the ability to quickly react to any given scenario with a yay or nay response can be quite useful in every day life.

The last American slave ship docked

Today in 1915. The worst rail disaster in Britain took place at Quintinshill (Gretna Green) in Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.

The Vasa, a heavily armed Swedish warship

William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham (1756–1787) was an American loyalist infamous

You know, one of the coolest mysteries in archaeology is figuring out where Punt, the so-called "God's Land," really was.

sharing borders with the northern environs of Ghana is Tiébélé;