ARCHIVES COLLECTION
I chose the two pictures below for my assignment. I found the first photograph on the GSU Collections website. I visited the Collections department and took a picture to capture the second image.
Link to Digital Home
http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ajc/id/1684/rec/1
Name: “Two Atlanta University students picketing at the Georgia Capitol building, Atlanta, Georgia, 1962.
Date: 1962
Artist: Bill Wilson (Photographer)
Bill Wilson worked for the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) from the years 1937–1942, left for a brief period, and then returned to the AJC in until he retired in 1979. In 1953, Wilson won different national awards for a picture he captured of a family of a Korean War Prisoner. During his career, Wilson captured photos from a variety of sources across Atlanta and Georgia: pictures that capture action in politics, sports, civil rights protests, natural disasters, etc.
Original Publication Location: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
E.F. Hoge, who sold the paper to Hoke Smith in the year 1887, founded the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1883. Hoke Smith was born in Newton, North Carolina, on September 2, 1855. He moved to Georgia when he was a young adult, attended school there, and eventually took the bar examination in Georgia — becoming an Atlanta lawyer. He served as chairman of the Fulton County and State Democratic Conventions in 1887.
Analysis
Two female students march—while in the background, a few white men look on. This image is powerful because not only are the students female but also they are black. The only men around are the white men in the background who represent the oppression brought on by the Jim Crow Laws. These appear to be business men in the background who had no problem getting jobs and becoming successful (indicated by their garments) due to their whiteness. But it goes further than this, there are no white women in the background, which indicates a white male dominated society. Democrazy not only fails these black female students but also women of other whiteness.
Name: The First Version Folklore
Date: 1938–1939
Artist: Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1971 on January 7th. She was a folklorist and author. She wrote the popular novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. Hurston was truly exposed to the world by the author Alice Walker, who sought out Hurston’s work and reintroduced the world to it.
Original Publication Location: Stetson Kennedy Papers,
Stetson Kennedy was an author of folklore and social issues in the South — he also edited folklore works for the Federal Writers’ Project in Florida. Some aspects of the project related to race relations. Kennedy started working on this project at the age of 21 and was put in charge of folklore, oral history, and ethnic studies. Kennedy was also an environmentalist, labor activist, and human rights supporter. He is well known for infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan and exposing them.
Analysis
This appears to be Zora Neale Hurston introducing her idea of Folklore to the world. Some of the letters on the page have faded over time, but this work is still in great condition. She uses words such as culture, classification, people, viewpoint, perpetuation, adapt, control, recognitions, and regulations. When one thinks of folklore, these action words are what make folklore successful. When something is practiced over a period of time by a group, culture, person, etc., the practice can become the norm for subsequent groups, cultures, and people. What was once a myth now becomes possible—and to some, probable. Hurston does a great job at capturing the verbs that drive folklore.
