“A Song without Words”

Abstract

This chapter documents how activists with access to print publications might develop counternarratives to dominant stereotypes. In response to racist representations, artists for African American newspapers, such as Henry J. Lewis and Moses Tucker for the Indianapolis Freeman, developed an anti-lynching critique. Along with editors for other papers, such as John Mitchell for the RichmondPlanet, Harry Smith for the ClevelandGazette, and Benjamin Pelham (and others) for the DetroitPlaindealer, they challenged the lynching epidemic with powerful images. Their allegorical interpretive illustrations reconfigured mainstream lynching imagery, to discredit the prevailing rape/lynching narrative and mobilize resistance to racial violence. Their anti-lynching iconography helped to raise consciousness and spark action within the African American community, and suggests sensationalism’s potential as a mobilizing tool.