Family pictures "out of place" : race, resistance, and affirmation in the Pope family photograph collection, 1890-1920

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Elizabeth Arnold Hull (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Lisa Levenstein

Abstract: "This thesis explores the significance of family photography for African Americans in the Jim Crow South through an examination of the photograph collection kept by the Popes, a middle-class African American family of Raleigh, NC. Drawing from multiple disciplines including social history, material culture, and visual culture, the study argues that portraiture represents a crucial yet under-examined arena for the construction of black identity and the expression of political agency under segregation. Findings include that the production, display, and distribution of photographs by families like the Popes represented political acts of opposition to images of blacks created by the dominant culture, as well as examples of African Americans taking control over their own representation in response to white supremacist stereotypes. Meanwhile, these photographs also fulfilled important personal functions, allowing blacks to shape their own legacy and to define and affirm their own senses of beauty, self-worth, and belonging."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2006
Keywords
family, photography, African Americans, Jim Crow, South, photograph collection, Pope family, Raleigh, NC, social history, portraiture, black identity
Subjects
African Americans--North Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century--Pictorial works
African Americans--North Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century--Pictorial works
African American families--North Carolina--Raleigh
Photography of families

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