American Tragedy

The stark and graphic image, depicting the aftermath of a lynching and showing its terrible effect, was part of an outcry in the early 20th century where artists and intellectuals demanded lynching stop and criticized the brutality of race relations in the United States. The NAACP took a leading role in this movement. Some specific contexts for this print include James Weldon Johnson's 1924 Article 'Lynching, and American Disgrace', Billie Holiday's 1939 song 'Strange Fruit', and the 1935 anti-lynching art exhibition 'An Art Commentary on Lynching' sponsored by the NAACP and College Art Association.

This linocut print is stamped "Federal Art Project No. 1." Signed Sheffield Kagy in pencil in lower right; title in lower left. "31" marked in pencil preceding signature.