Jim Crow Rd.

by Michael David Murphy, 2008

Photograph

The artist who created this photo is Michael David Murphy. He is a photographer with an aim of making his art accessible, meaning that he wants a regular person to be able to understand his work. Jim Crow Rd. is part of a collection of pictures Murphy took at the different intersections where the street sign is visible. This photograph went extremely well within the context of the Citizen. An obvious reason is that the photo appears in a section of the book in which a street is described in a way that is parallel to Jim Crow Rd. The name of the street in the lyric is "White Plains Road" and the photograph shows a road with two very plain and identical white houses. There is also a deeper reason why this photograph fits so well at this juncture in the book; a quote on the page by the picture says "all black people look the same” (Rankine, 7). In the context of the poetry within this book, that racist comment aimed to categorize African Americans is ironic in the context of this photograph of Jim Crow Road since all the houses on this street look like the same cookie-cutter house. This street is named after a set of racist laws that were made in the United States to oppress the African American community. The Jim Crow Laws segregated African American people and white people in all public areas including schools, restaurants, shops, etc. This blatantly racist law was able to be passed under the "separate but equal" concept, even though it was not equality. This continuing inequality between whites and every minority is represented within this photograph. The road sign itself makes the audience wonder what the people living in this neighborhood think about the Jim Crow laws. It makes one wonder if the people on this road actually believe in the racist ideas that linger in our society or if they live in a state of ignorance, unaware of what their street name is and unaware of what is happening in the world around them.

~ Research by Megan Goins and Sarah Green

Andrews, Blake. "Q & A with Michael David Murphy." Q & A with Michael David Murphy. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. <http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2014/10/q-with-michael-david-murphy.html>.

Murphy, Michael David. "Jim Crow Road - 2007." Michael David Murphy. Web. 30 Jan. 2017. <http://michaeldavidmurphy.com/albums/jim-crow-rd-2007/>.