Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices
Twelve Million Black Voices is a 1941 collection of photographs, selected from the Farm Security Administration files by FSA-employed Edwin Rosskam and accompanied by Richard Wright’s texts. This paper examines the specificity of Twelve Million Black Voices within the frame of American documentary p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Transatlantica |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/7232 |
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| author | Laurence Cossu-Beaumont |
| author_facet | Laurence Cossu-Beaumont |
| author_sort | Laurence Cossu-Beaumont |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Twelve Million Black Voices is a 1941 collection of photographs, selected from the Farm Security Administration files by FSA-employed Edwin Rosskam and accompanied by Richard Wright’s texts. This paper examines the specificity of Twelve Million Black Voices within the frame of American documentary photography. The first part of this paper considers the original place of a photo-text book on black life in a decade of “documentary literature” (Kazin, 1942, 493). The second part raises the question of the social, economic and political reality exposed by the widespread publication of photographs of –invisible– black Americans. Ultimately the paper will extend the reflection on “truth” in the narrative. A “folk history” is carefully crafted, or perhaps staged, by the weaving of text and photographs. This paper thus strives to articulate the recording of 1930s reality and the exposure of racial discrimination, the aesthetic vision of FSA photographers and the protest narrative unfolded by Wright by discussing the singular way Twelve Million Black Voices manages to signify the truth of the African American reality. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ea13b0b3a18f4474896ce1716c3e3091 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1765-2766 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2015-03-01 |
| publisher | Association Française d'Etudes Américaines |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Transatlantica |
| spelling | doaj-art-ea13b0b3a18f4474896ce1716c3e30912025-01-30T10:44:21ZengAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesTransatlantica1765-27662015-03-01210.4000/transatlantica.7232Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black VoicesLaurence Cossu-BeaumontTwelve Million Black Voices is a 1941 collection of photographs, selected from the Farm Security Administration files by FSA-employed Edwin Rosskam and accompanied by Richard Wright’s texts. This paper examines the specificity of Twelve Million Black Voices within the frame of American documentary photography. The first part of this paper considers the original place of a photo-text book on black life in a decade of “documentary literature” (Kazin, 1942, 493). The second part raises the question of the social, economic and political reality exposed by the widespread publication of photographs of –invisible– black Americans. Ultimately the paper will extend the reflection on “truth” in the narrative. A “folk history” is carefully crafted, or perhaps staged, by the weaving of text and photographs. This paper thus strives to articulate the recording of 1930s reality and the exposure of racial discrimination, the aesthetic vision of FSA photographers and the protest narrative unfolded by Wright by discussing the singular way Twelve Million Black Voices manages to signify the truth of the African American reality.https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/7232Great DepressionDocumentary PhotographyFarm Security AdministrationRichard WrightAfrican American Studiesprotest literature |
| spellingShingle | Laurence Cossu-Beaumont Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices Transatlantica Great Depression Documentary Photography Farm Security Administration Richard Wright African American Studies protest literature |
| title | Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices |
| title_full | Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices |
| title_fullStr | Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices |
| title_full_unstemmed | Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices |
| title_short | Twelve Million Black Voices: Let Us Now Hear Black Voices |
| title_sort | twelve million black voices let us now hear black voices |
| topic | Great Depression Documentary Photography Farm Security Administration Richard Wright African American Studies protest literature |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/7232 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laurencecossubeaumont twelvemillionblackvoicesletusnowhearblackvoices |