What Amerika Means to the Black Man circa 1775–1970
Date
Credits
- Dana C. Chandler Jr. 6 Artist
Format
- Illustration 420
- Flyer 179
- Flyer/poster 72
- Print 376
Techniques
- offset lithography 669
- illustration 354
Dimensions
Locations Made
- United States 1032
- Boston 70
- Massachusetts 59
What Amerika Means to the Black Man circa 1775–1970 is an offset print piece created and distributed in 1970 by African American Master Artists-in Residency Program (AAMARP) founder Dana C. Chandler, Jr. This particular print protests the overly high rate of Black incarceration in the United States, with a deliberate spelling of “America” with a “k” in reference to overt institutional racism and its roots in Ku Klux Klan activity. The one-star flag imprisoning the print's subject possibly represents either the 1836 Texas naval flag, indicating lasting Confederate influence, or the flag of Liberia, a project that garnered little support among African-Americans due to its colonialist nature and thinly-veiled objective of reducing the freed Black American population. At the bottom of the print, Chandler Jr. includes the title of the work, “WHAT AMERIKA MEANS TO THE BLACK MAN CIRCA 1775–1970,” a signature (“by BLACK ARTIST DANA C. CHANDLER JR.”), and an explicit call to action: “FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS……TODAY!!”
