Racist Imagery

Through this theme, Gates makes the argument that white supremacists in America used visual images to cement the idea of African American inferiority in the public consciousness. Postcards, advertisements, and political cartoons and pamphlets were all designed to highlight and exacerbate racist stereotypes and perpetuate fear and anger between the races. Gates reproduces a great many of these images in sections that separate the book's four chapters.

In the days of Reconstruction and early Redemption, these images often featured representations of violence against African Americans as a means frightening newly enfranchised black people away from the polls. These included a political cartoon of a white man shooting a black child, and another of a dead black man lying in an alley with the caption “One Vote Less” (47). Another cartoon features a white man slapping a black man with a ballot, along with the caption “A Warning. Get...