The fight for equal rights, basic rights like equal education, were brought to the forefront of America’s attention during the African American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. Just as we saw in the Civil War-era work The Lord is My Shepherd, which depicted a newly emancipated black man reading the Bible, here too, in the depiction of African Americans reading in a library we are reminded that the ability to read, to educate oneself is the ultimate form of empowerment and best tool with which to combat oppression. The two African Americans shown in a cramped confined space are visually and literally restricted, both by horizontal barriers and by their status as minorities in the 1950s. The work alludes to the lack of opportunities and education open to blacks. The landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 helped begin to heal discriminatory divides. The court declared separate public schools unconstitutional, stating that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
