Essential Context

This exhibit displays photography and documentation of a racist history within the Georgia prison systems in the early twentieth century. We carefully considered the ways in which we could uncover the hidden history of this troubling period, not allowing it to be forgotten or ignored, while not including any material that would perpetuate a history of violence or make a spectacle of the issue. We believe that Progressive-era investigative journalists and newspapers made an important and correct choice to include this unsettling material in their publications because they raised the public’s awareness of a hidden history of injustice that might have never been scrutinized otherwise. It was this documentation of the injustice in the labor system that lead to policy changes and ended the unfair treatment of chain gang prisoners, which is the idea that we are trying to convey by including the photographs and documents used. This exhibit recounts a history of racist language and discrimination that we do not endorse, and that was as offensive in its time as it is today. In an effort to remain sensitive and intentional in our interactions with this history, there was much consideration and consultation with staff at the Harry Ransom Center and the Perry Castaneda Library regarding the specific photographs used to represent this violation of human rights. The goal of this exhibit is to display the ways in which Progressive-era investigative journalism helped end the injustice found in the Georgia prison system, and to combat any tendency to simply replicate the histories of violence.