Light Within Darkness

Benjamin Moore

This exhibit highlights the ways Black people utilized the black ego to resist racist stereotypes of blackness in order to assert a black identity that is self-defining and self-determined. Black ego, a term coined by Eric C. Lincoln, refers to the positive affirmation of black people. Black ego is not only the factor that ties all of these archival pictures together but also what connects black people to each other further than just their physical location. From the moment our ancestors stepped onto the coast of America, we have been disrespected and dehumanized. It is almost an insane thought to believe that a group of people could possibly grow when they are constantly painted as horrid creatures with animalistic characteristics, but our ancestors found a way. Slavery brought upon terrible wrongdoings to our ancestors for no justifiable reason. However, our enslaved ancestors were able to find strength, pride, and courage in the face of oppression. White people took every possible precaution to ensure that we as a race would forever be under their thumb. They would try and cloud the black mind into making us believe that we were in fact these barbaric animals they depicted us to be. It took time and great strength for us as a race to battle the societal norms that caged our minds into the thought that we were so inferior. We discovered our worth as a group of people, and through this discovery found our own sense of identity that we lost the moment we were captured from our homeland. Throughout the 400+ years of oppression, white society had created our social value, but the creation of the Black Ego gave black people their soul value to see themselves as the beautiful People they are. The archives used in this exhibit can be found within the Black Arts Movement time period, a time at which blackness was celebrated, and this exhibit is meant to display the importance of loving one’s self because if you do not believe your life is destined for more, it will never be.

Eric C. Lincoln Black Identity and Self-Realization Document

Series 3, Black Identity and Self Realization, undated, Box: 133, Folder: 10. C. Eric Lincoln collection, 0000-0000-0000-0047. Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, Inc. http://findingaids.auctr.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/144857 Accessed May 02, 2023.

This is an undated artifact written by Eric C. Lincoln. Based upon the diction used by Lincoln such as the terms “soul brother” and “soul sisters”, it could be best assumed that it was written within the Black Arts Movement. The goal of this movement was to achieve liberation by showing black people who they truly are, and Lincoln discusses the importance of Black Identity in his writing. In this document, Lincoln describes the creation of the Black Ego as a positive within the black race as it created the ability to love one’s own blackness. This allowed black people to value themselves and connect with one another on a spiritual level that could never be broken by any outside force. This enabled black people to endure the hundreds of years of tyranny and set a new standard to which black people held themselves to. Because of this newly established Black Ego, we resisted any ideas or stereotypes that depicted our blackness to be anything other than the beauty we knew it to be.

Black is Beautiful Vince Cullers Ad

Series 15, "Black is Beautiful," black ball, black book, black boy, black eye, black Friday, black hand, black heart, black jack, black magic, black mail, black market, black maria, black mark, little black sambo. white lies, Black is Beautiful. By Vince Cullers Advertising, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, undated, map-case: 1, drawer: 3. Hoyt William Fuller collection, 0000-0000-0000-0039. Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, Inc. http://findingaids.auctr.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/56273 Accessed May 01, 2023

This artifact is an ad curated by Vince Cullers Advertising of Chicago Illinois, an ad agency that was created to change the narrative surrounding black beauty. Many black people during this time were having trouble loving their blackness because they constantly saw it being ruined in the media. The ad displays all the words that contain the word black within society that carry a negative connotation, and refutes all of those by the statement of white lies. The ad concludes by stating “Black is Beautiful”, to display that no matter what white society might say about your blackness, at the end of the day it is still beautiful. This artifact was published to combat the idea that anything that has to do with black is bad, and designed to raise the soul value of every black person within the United States. Black Ego gave the Vince Cullers Agency the ability to have their own self-defining identity.

Murry DePillar Aunt Jemima Painting

Series 15, DePillers, Murry N. (artist)-Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, image of a militant Aunt Jemima bursting out of a pancake box and a black woman with an afro hairstyle on a box and background American flag with Chicago police badges as stars, undated, map-case: 1, drawer: 3. Hoyt William Fuller collection, 0000-0000-0000-0039. Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, Inc. . http://findingaids.auctr.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/56279 Accessed May 01, 2023.

Within the Black Arts Movement, black people were now able to tap into their Black Ego and see themselves outside of the picture frame created by white society. This artifact is the product of this newly found identity, as it depicts the face of the Aunt Jemima brand the way she should have always been. Murry DePillers depicts Aunt Jemima bursting out of the racist “Pancake Box” that kept her trapped and displayed her as a brave, strong woman. With this painting being made within the Black Arts Movement, DePillers accomplished all the goals of the movement in one picture by giving Aunt Jemima liberation by realizing her true identity. This artifact is significant as it does the political work by breaking down racial stereotypes that surround black women as well as black people.

Free Angela Davis Ad

Angela Davis!: This Black Woman is a Heroine, 1970 David Taylor Papers, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library

Black people in this time have started to embrace their new identity and Black Ego grew stronger, making the connections between black people that much stronger. A test of this strength came in 1970 with the arrest of Angela Davis. This artifact is an ad demanding the release of our heroine. At the time, Davis was accused of kidnapping, murder, and criminal conspiracies to a crime in which she had no involvement. One might be puzzled at the fact that anyone could possibly want a murderer free, but the truth was Angela Davis was not a murderer. White society painted Davis as this horrible person who deserved nothing short of death and attributed her actions to the color of her skin. This artifact displayed the strength of the spiritual connection that every black person had with one another because no matter how white people perceived Angela Davis, we knew her truth. In the eyes of black people she was a heroine and we would stop at nothing to ensure her freedom. This ad showed black unity as well as a self-determined black identity.

The Black Panther Newsletter

The Black Panther: Black Community News Service 23 August 1969, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library

Black people had grown so much as a race from the beginning of the Black Arts Movement, and made strides that displayed them to have great promise in the future. However, black people still faced resistance from white people in their venture for black liberation. A newspaper created by the Black Panther Party displayed one of those roadblocks. The front page of the newspaper shows a white man depicted as a pig speaking all of these empty promises to a black man, and the black man fell into the white person’s trap. This artifact is significant as it showed how desperate white people had become in the effort of trying to oppress black people. White people realized how strong of a unity we were growing and decided to try and break that unity from within. White people knew everything that black people could possibly want because they were the same people who took everything black people needed. They offered black people the possibility of money and power, only for the simple cost of betraying their own race. The Black Panther Party knew that they can only get those who had not seen the complete beauty within themselves, and published this newspaper to give black people a warning. If black people kept their Black Ego no one could break it.

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