Colored Man is No Slacker. 1918.
Artist: ANONYMOUS
Size: 11 3/4 x 15 7/8 in./30 x 40.2 cm
Condition: A-/ Slight tears at edges.
Printer: E. G. Renesch, Chicago
Reference:
Key Words: Art Nouveau; Black Images; American; World War I; Propaganda
Colored Man is No Slacker. 1918.
"Colored Man is No Slacker"—or rather, he's no draft-dodger. For this World War One enlistment ad, an African American infantry unit marches with the American flag held aloft as a couple tenderly says goodbye. Patriotism is both literally illustrated and subtly implied with notes of red and white punctuating the flowers around the woman's blue dress—these are good people who serve their country, the poster intones. In fact, more than 350,000 black men, trained and deployed in segregated units, served in the U.S. military during World War I, and 42,000 of them saw action in Europe. There's no denying the conflation of American ideals at this time: Americans were encouraged to enlist, to form a strong united front, to fight the evils of Europe together—and yet the troops were segregated, and black men were usually given burdensome non-combat shifts. The Peters Sisters astutely highlighted this oxymoronic ideology in their 1919 poem, "The Slacker:" So when the Victory is won / And the world is at peace / When the shedding of blood is done / And mankind again is free / Uncle Sam, if giving up life / For the deliverance of men / Does not give all, equal rights / Who will be, the slacker then?
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Artist: ANONYMOUS
Size: 11 3/4 x 15 7/8 in./30 x 40.2 cm
Condition: A-/ Slight tears at edges.
Printer: E. G. Renesch, Chicago
Reference:
Key Words: Art Nouveau; Black Images; American; World War I; Propaganda
Colored Man is No Slacker. 1918.
"Colored Man is No Slacker"—or rather, he's no draft-dodger. For this World War One enlistment ad, an African American infantry unit marches with the American flag held aloft as a couple tenderly says goodbye. Patriotism is both literally illustrated and subtly implied with notes of red and white punctuating the flowers around the woman's blue dress—these are good people who serve their country, the poster intones. In fact, more than 350,000 black men, trained and deployed in segregated units, served in the U.S. military during World War I, and 42,000 of them saw action in Europe. There's no denying the conflation of American ideals at this time: Americans were encouraged to enlist, to form a strong united front, to fight the evils of Europe together—and yet the troops were segregated, and black men were usually given burdensome non-combat shifts. The Peters Sisters astutely highlighted this oxymoronic ideology in their 1919 poem, "The Slacker:" So when the Victory is won / And the world is at peace / When the shedding of blood is done / And mankind again is free / Uncle Sam, if giving up life / For the deliverance of men / Does not give all, equal rights / Who will be, the slacker then?
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