1960’S MISSISSIPPI MAN

“Mississippi Man” was created using a centuries-old technique called stipple where the artist uses a pen and ink. The artist carefully places one dot of black ink at a time. This photograph was taken from a photograph in a magazine that is no longer in print, called “Look Magazine”.

This particular photo image is of a man who was a Black sharecropper. He had been forced off of his land for trying to vote. He was living in a tent city with other Black people who had also tried to vote and were also kicked off their land by the white landowners. These tent cities were scattered across the Deep South during the Civil Rights Movement. His face tells it all. The expression on this man’s face captures the anger and at the same time the resistance that many felt about fighting white supremacy at that time and it continues today.

On a personal note, I was a civil rights worker in Alabama the summer of 1966 before I saw this photograph later that year. This photograph means a lot to me because it represents that “turning point” time of my life when I discovered that I could do art while I was in an Alabama jail serving a five day sentence. I had told the Chief of Police of Demopolis, Alabama, that he was the best liar I had ever met, which was a true statement. I had said this in an Alabama Marengo County courtroom and the judge found me guilty of contempt of court and he sent me to jail for five days and a $50 fine.

This event turned out to be the most profound five days of my entire life as I discovered for the first time in my life that I could actually do art. I carved a soap bar portrait head, using my fingernails and a straight pin that I found in my cell. The portrait was of another civil rights worker that was in the same jail.