Civil Rights Childhood

Picturing Liberation in African American Photobooks

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, African-American Studies, Anthropology
Cover of the book Civil Rights Childhood by Katharine Capshaw, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Katharine Capshaw ISBN: 9781452943701
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: December 1, 2014
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Katharine Capshaw
ISBN: 9781452943701
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: December 1, 2014
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

Childhood joy, pleasure, and creativity are not often associated with the civil rights movement. Their ties to the movement may have faded from historical memory, but these qualities received considerable photographic attention in that tumultuous era. Katharine Capshaw’s Civil Rights Childhood reveals how the black child has been—and continues to be—a social agent that demands change.

Because children carry a compelling aura of human value and potential, images of African American children in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education had a powerful effect on the fight for civil rights. In the iconography of Emmett Till and the girls murdered in the 1963 Birmingham church bombings, Capshaw explores the function of children’s photographic books and the image of the black child in social justice campaigns for school integration and the civil rights movement. Drawing on works ranging from documentary photography, coffee-table and art books, and popular historical narratives and photographic picture books for the very young, Civil Rights Childhood sheds new light on images of the child and family that portrayed liberatory models of blackness, but it also considers the role photographs played in the desire for consensus and closure with the rise of multiculturalism.

Offering rich analysis, Capshaw recovers many obscure texts and photographs while at the same time placing major names like Langston Hughes, June Jordan, and Toni Morrison in dialogue with lesser-known writers. An important addition to thinking about representation and politics, Civil Rights Childhood ultimately shows how the photobook—and the aspirations of childhood itself—encourage cultural transformation.

Childhood joy, pleasure, and creativity are not often associated with the civil rights movement. Their ties to the movement may have faded from historical memory, but these qualities received considerable photographic attention in that tumultuous era. Katharine Capshaw’s Civil Rights Childhood reveals how the black child has been—and continues to be—a social agent that demands change.

Because children carry a compelling aura of human value and potential, images of African American children in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education had a powerful effect on the fight for civil rights. In the iconography of Emmett Till and the girls murdered in the 1963 Birmingham church bombings, Capshaw explores the function of children’s photographic books and the image of the black child in social justice campaigns for school integration and the civil rights movement. Drawing on works ranging from documentary photography, coffee-table and art books, and popular historical narratives and photographic picture books for the very young, Civil Rights Childhood sheds new light on images of the child and family that portrayed liberatory models of blackness, but it also considers the role photographs played in the desire for consensus and closure with the rise of multiculturalism.

Offering rich analysis, Capshaw recovers many obscure texts and photographs while at the same time placing major names like Langston Hughes, June Jordan, and Toni Morrison in dialogue with lesser-known writers. An important addition to thinking about representation and politics, Civil Rights Childhood ultimately shows how the photobook—and the aspirations of childhood itself—encourage cultural transformation.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Turn Here Sweet Corn by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Electric Animal by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book At the End of the Road by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book World Projects by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Testing Fate by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Consumers And Citizens by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Invention Of Women by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book The Fourth Eye by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Black Star, Crescent Moon by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Wolf Shadows by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Genetic Geographies by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book The Bohemian Flats by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Through No Fault of My Own by Katharine Capshaw
Cover of the book Cairo Pop by Katharine Capshaw
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy