ENG 411

Abolition: Then and Now

Introduction

This exhibition is centered on the theme of abolition. It is meant to illustrate the historical and conceptual relationships between the abolitionist movement in the 19th century and the one that exists today through the prism of the writings and experiences of Frederick Douglass and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through photographs, research from historical archives, and engagement with theory, each student has sought to reflect on these topics from a distinct angle. Taken together, the contributions attempt to point the way forward in the struggle for racial equality and universal liberation by encouraging us to take history seriously, learn from the insights of those who preceded us, and appreciate the unity of thinking and doing.



The Importance of Photography in Abolition

By: Iliyah Coles

Photography has played a major role in the abolition movement, both then and now. Photographers within the movement have used and continue to use the medium to document various peoples in life’s tragedies and successes. Frederick Douglass spoke about the art of photography in numerous speeches and essays. In this essay, I will discuss a couple of those speeches and relate them to photography in both the Civil Rights Era and the current Black Lives Matter movement. The goal of this piece is to express that photography’s greatest role perhaps is to humanize the lives systemic racism often desensitizes.

(Re)Picturing Black Life in the Face of Death

Text by Cammie Lee

Images, in all their various mediums, are portals into the past and tapestries upon which we project our present desires. Hardly just objects of decorous utility, they move people to act in extraordinary ways. In the fight for abolition, images have united people in shared passion and emotion, providing sites of healing and collective mourning. Yet they may also agitate wounds and deal further injury to those already hurting. In the words that follow, I examine three attempts to visually document a single event in history, detailing impact, public response, and the poetry of the images themselves.

Background Image: The Lynching Site of Leo Frank, Marietta, Ga., 1915 by Oliver Clasper. Featured in the photo series “The Spaces We Inherit” from 2018

A Comparative Analysis of Historic and Contemporary Writings to Understand Abolition in the Present Day

By: Auhjanae McGee

Abolition is a complex concept. As systemic racism evolves, Black people are still trying to understand how they can conceptualize their own abolition, and they are often met with backlash. Contemporary black writers have published their thoughts on what they believe abolition looks like. And if you look at the writings of Frederick Douglass, you will see striking parallels. Reading contemporary writers in comparison with Douglass demonstrates how abolitionist ideas persist throughout history and abolitionist thought may not be as radical as originally believed.

Background Image: Fibonacci Blue, “Juneteenth reparations rally to demand reparations from the United States government,” Flickr.com, CC BY-2.0 (2020).

Archives of History: Dominant Media and Understandings of the Call to ‘Defund the Police’

by Isabel Lewis

In studying Douglass and Emerson, we discussed how media does not only create a record of events, but is a force in shaping their meaning and historical significance. Throughout the course of U.S history dominant media has worked against the cause of prison abolition by supporting the narrative of black criminality, while simultaneously downplaying the brutality of our own American institutions. Whether it be the intentional and rare use of color in capturing the Civil Rights Movement, to modern fixations on looting and rioting, rather than the call for police reform, dominant media has acted as an obstacle to true racial equality. In this essay, I attempt to breakdown this issue further, looking specifically at calls to Defund the Police in the years since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement.


International Perspective on Emerson and Douglass

By Braden Flax

Retracing the Abolitionist Imagination

A Bibliography by Ana Mariana Sotomayor Palomino