Civil Rights Congress

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Civil Rights Congress

Artist Elizabeth Catlett (American, 1915-2012)

Date1949

DimensionsH: 17 1/2 in. (44.5 cm); W: 11 in. (27.9 cm)

MediumLinoleum cut.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Dr. Elizabeth Catlett

Object number

2006.151

Not on View

Label TextThis striking image, with its unsettling references to lynching and the Ku Klux Klan, pays tribute to William L. Patterson (1891–1980). He was an active member of the American Communist Party and an author of We Charge Genocide, a 1951 petition accusing the United States government of willful intent to murder African Americans because of its failure to legislate against the practice of lynching. When he presented this document to the United Nations, his passport was revoked. Patterson became national executive secretary of the Civil Rights Congress, an activist group formed in 1946 that organized protests and advocated for civil rights legislation.Published Referencescf. Lewis, Samella, The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, Claremont, CA, Handcraft Studios, 1984, p. 173 (repr.).

cf. Herzog, Melanie Anne, Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2005, p. 100, fig. 55 (repr.) p. 99.

cf. Herzog, Melanie Anne, Elizabeth Catlett: In the Image of the People, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006, p.30, pl. 1 (repr. col.) p. 4.

Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, Speaking Out: The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, June 15 - September 23, 2007.

Toledo Museum of Art, People Get Ready: 50 Years of Civil Rights, June 27-September 21, 2014.