The Inferior Man That Proved Hitler Wrong

"The Inferior Man That Proved Hitler Wrong" is an homage to Jesse Owens that suggests the pent-up energy of an era of history—the black freedom struggle—is about to spring into full stride. Lockett's most compelling images were ones like Owens, whose position is a crouching animal (ready to strike at racism), a supplicant (using his humility as a source of strength) and a subject bowing or prostrating itself before a "master" (or "master race"). The submissively bowed athlete is anything but. (Compare the themes of heroic achievement in Inferior Man with those of its companion piece, "Fever Within", which looks at the contemporary heroism shown by victims of the AIDS virus—the disease that killed the artist.)