The Death of Emmett Till (Visual Imagery)
Emmett Till was fourteen years old when he was lynched in 1955 for "offending a white woman." Following his brutal murder, his mother held an open-casket funeral. The image of Till's young, brutalized body was published and dispersed across the nation. The visual imagery of Till's funeral drew national attention to the history of violence enacted against Black people in the United States. Although there have been numerous innocent Black men who have been murdered by white aggressors like Till, the imagery of his death prompted him to become a posthumous icon of the civil rights movement.
Jack Johnson (Visual Imagery)
Jack Johnson was the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion. His fame came at the height of the Jim Crow era, which had profound effects on American society. Johnson had a distinct personal style, and he often wore elaborate jewelry and outfits. His hyper-visibility was politicized, and his behavior was generally looked down upon by white society. The image of a Black person representing the United States on the world stage was seen as "threatening" to the country's image. Around the time of Jack Johnson’s success and his widely-discussed interracial marriage, author Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan of the Apes. This story depicted Black bodies as savage and threatening.
Rap music (Auditory Imagery)
In the book, rap music is referred to as "the soundtrack of sorrow and subversion." Although hip-hop had been born a decade earlier in the Bronx, 1988 was the year that rap music took Black America by storm. Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" prompted people to further mobilize and push back against centuries of racist mistreatment. Rap music was a widely-circulated artistic representation of struggle and frustration. Cultural influencers were pushing back against the Bush administration to make active changes to the flawed political system. However, their demands were met with indifference and sometimes fierce resistance.
Rodney King (Visual Imagery)
In 1991, a man named George Holiday shot footage from the balcony of his Los Angeles apartment. Holiday filmed a twenty-five-year-old Black man named Rodney King as he was being brutally beaten by four L.A. police officers. The visual imagery and evidence of an innocent Black man being beaten by authority figures sparked a nation-wide movement among this generation. Angela Davis and other influential activists of the era pushed for the officers to be indicted. However, in 1992, they were acquitted of beating King. The footage opened many people's eyes to the issue of police brutality. Although many white Americans would argue that society was becoming "post-racial," the imagery of the Rodney King incident prompted many Black activists to fight against policing and the institution's targeted attack on Black bodies.
