'Black Bodies in Propaganda' New Exhibition at the Penn Museum - A unique collection of posters, collected and curated by Penn professor and PBS History Detectives host Tukufu Zuberi, forms the basis of a provocative new exhibition at the Penn Museum: Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster, opening at 1:00 pm on June 2, 2013, and running through March 2, 2014. Propaganda has long been used to mobilize people in times of war, and this exhibition presents 33 posters, most targeting Africans and African-American civilians, in times of war.
These carefully designed works of art were aimed at mobilizing people of color in war efforts, even as they faced oppression and injustice in their homelands. The exhibition explores changing messages on race and politics through propaganda—from the American Civil War, to World War I, World War II, and through to the African independence movements. “These posters tell a story about the dynamics of race,” said Dr. Zuberi. “Black bodies are racialized in these posters as they capture defining moments in history. Race is always about second-class citizenship, it is always about a relationship between two groups and how one group is defined as superior and the other group is defined as inferior.
These posters represent definitive moments in this historical process.” Top image from entry; below image of item in exhibit from
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JB comment: In the Cold War, as is well know, black performers were recruited by the USG as "Jazz Ambassadors" to "fight" the ideological struggle against communism (although the performers themselves did not necessarily see their role in that way).
Image from
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