Figure 1.-- This is a portrait of a middle-class black family. The family is not identified and the portrait is not dated. We would guess it was taken during the 1920s, probably the mid-20s. The boy is about 12 years old and wears a knicker suit with long black stockings, standard boy's wear at the time. His older sister is elegantly done up in white with a large hair bow and white long stockings. This was also standard for girls at the time, especially when dressing up. We have no information about the family.

This is a portrait of a middle-class black family. The family is not identified and the portrait is not dated. We would guess it was taken during the 1920s, probably the mid-20s. The boy is about 12 years old and wears a knicker suit with long black stockings, standard boy's wear at the time. His older sister is elegantly done up in white with a large hair bow and white long stockings. This was also standard for girls at the time, especially when dressing up. We have no information about the family. We think it is clear that they were an urban family, middle-class family. This is suggested both by the way they are dressed as well as the size of the family. At the time there were limited opportunities for blacks, so we might guess father was a preacher or a teacher in a segregated school. There is no suggestion, however, as to where they lived. The 1920s was a time of great transition for black Americans. Before World War I, blacks were largely a rural Southern population. Because of the general poverty of rural blacks, they are under represented in the photograophic record. The Great Migragtion began during the 1910s and the War was a factor. Blacks were streaming north, fleeing the repression, sharecropping, and lack of jobs in the South and seeking jobs in the large industrial cities of the Norrtheast and Midwest. In this case, we suspect that this family was part of the small middle-class in a Southern city.

Created: 1:20 AM 8/20/2011
Last updated: 1:20 AM 8/20/2011