Edward Puchner (University of South Carolina)
During the Second World War, the African American press featured scathing editorial cartoons to outline the paradoxical stance of African Americans within a war-torn American society. These cartoons advocated both participation in the fight against tyranny abroad, and an equal effort against discrimination on the home front. Examining the cartoons of two major African American newspapers, the Chicago Defender and the Baltimore Afro-American, that figured prominently in reflecting and shaping public response to the war within African American communities across the country, this study grounds these cartoons within the shifting debates of the African American press and re-contextualizes them as sites of significant political awareness and action.
This paper was presented at the conference, "In the Same Boat”: British and American Visual Culture During the Second World War, in the History of Art department at Yale University, May 8-9, 2015.