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The Desperate Struggle

Ida B. Wells Barnett, an anti-lynching crusader, was born on this day in 1862.

Although she died in 1931, artists and other civil rights groups took up her cause. For example, two art exhibitions protesting lynch violence were held in New York City in 1935.

About the same time, Louis Lozowick created Lynching (Lynch Law). The artist was introduced to lithography in Berlin, and enjoyed working with the solid black pigment against the clean white paper. The lithograph became his primary medium. Lozowick is best known for his architectural lithographs and drawings. However, his social conscience is revealed in dramatic prints such as Lynching.

Learn more about the role art played in the anti-lynching movement of the 1930s in our journal American Art.

Pictured: Louis Lozowick, 1892–1973, Lynching (Lynch Law), 1936, lithograph on paper, 10 5/16 x 7 5/16 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Adele Lozowick.