Black Death: An Attraction

In How We Die, Holloway touches on the role that black death plays in society and how audience participates. She discusses how lynching’s of African Americans were events that many white people gathered their whole family around for. In the drawing “This Is Her First Lynching” it depicts a man lifting his young child above a crowd that is gathered to watch a lynching take place. Many artists during this time period captured the role that audience played in black death and how for many children their attendance was expected and an important moment in their life.

“. . . there will be others in this child’s life and that her attendance is anticipated.”

Elizabeth Catlett played an important role in capturing black death during the 20^th century but she also has a unique connection to the University of Iowa. She was one of three people to first earn a master’s in fine arts degree and also the first African American woman to do so. In Holloway’s chapter, How We Die, it is discussed how during the 1940s and 1950s African American visual artists played an important role in social and political activism. Elizabeth Catlett in particular touched on a subject that Holloway discusses about audience and participation in black death in her artwork, “And A Special Fear for My Loved Ones.” It not only showcases the audience gathering to watch the lynching’s takes place but it also creates another narrative of the many black deaths that were taking place.

“. . . acknowledges both company and crowd.”

Clearly audience played a large role in the horror of black death. Not only was the violent death of innocent black people awful but the fact that many people gathered and watched it truly depicts the horror of black death. These pictures from both Reginald Marsh and Elizabeth Catlett show how “normal” a scene gathered to watch people die really was and normalizing something so terrible truly shows how gruesome these deaths were.