The Mirror Image: Black Washington in World War II-Era ... · The Mirror Image Black Washington in...

The Mirror Image: Black Washington in World War II-Era Federal Photography

Author(s): Barbara Orbach and Nicholas Natanson

Source: Washington History , Spring - Summer, 1992, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1992), pp. 4-25

Published by: Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/40065257

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4



Notes begin on page 92.

July 1943. Spectators at the parade to recruit Civilian Defense volunteers. By Esther Bubley. All photographs appear courtesy, Library of Congress. The original OWI/FSA captions are reproduced here with the sole omission of the words "Washington, D.C."

The Mirror Image Black Washington in World War II-Era

Federal Photography

by Barbara Orbach and Nicholas Natanson

December 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt

declared war on Japan to secure world freedom, and journalist Alden Stevens

declared Washington a "blight on democracy" - at once a "symbol of democracy and America" and "the most undemo-

cratic city in America." In a Harper's Mag- azine article strenuously arguing the case for home rule, Stevens painted a picture of housing, health care, justice, school, sani- tation, and transportation facilities - not to mention patience - strained beyond the city's means in the face of rapid population growth. And these, he cautioned, were the simpler problems:

Here in the Capital of a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, one third of the residents are for- bidden the theaters and the restaurants of

the principal business area, are effectively

blocked in their search for employment, are commonly charged two to three times as much rent as the other two-thirds are

charged for equivalent accommodation, and are hated and feared because they do not like it. ... Negroes who have lived in many parts of the country say that no- where else in America is there such bitter mutual race hatred.

Stevens noted that Washington's reputa- tion had even reached blues singer Lead- belly, who warned: "Tell all the colored folks to listen to me/Don't try to buy no home in Washington, D.C. /'Cause it's a bourgeois town. . . Z'1

The discrepancy between national ide- ology and local practice was not new. But with American's entry into World War II, Washington was not merely planted on the world stage, it was in the spotlight. Exposure of racism in the nation's capital could easily undercut the credibility of a government that was proclaiming the necessity of defending democratic principles; it could cost America vital support both at home and abroad. Government officials

were sensitive to the potential use of evidence of American racism in Axis propaganda. Indeed, Lawrence Cramer, execu-

5



tive secretary of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, warned that without countermeasures, such conditions might "present too fertile a field for the Divide and Conquer technique of our en- emies." Whether the enemy was responsible or not, many feared that negative pub- licity about race problems would further cool what they perceived as a lukewarm response to the war effort on the part of African Americans.2

It is logical to ask, then, whether Wash- ington was a particular focus in American propaganda campaigns, especially those mounted by the Office of War Information (OWI), which was officially assigned this task, and predecessor agencies that contributed to the war information effort (the Farm Security Administration, the Office

of Emergency Management, the Office of the Coordinator of Information). If so, how was the racial issue handled?

Answers - probably not simple ones - undoubtedly lie in the miles of textual records pertaining to the American propaganda effort. But the still images produced and gathered by the OWI provide intriguing clues to both propaganda intent and underlying realities. Pictures were a key part of the propaganda arsenal because of their power to communicate, regardless of the language or literacy of the target population. Yet the OWI photos offer some surprising contradictions, both in terms of their content and how they were used. Contrasting visions of black life in the city are particularly apparent in series of photos detailing the daily rounds of three

6



Winter 1942. Jewel Mazique working in the accessions division of the Library of Congress. By John Collier.

The Mirror Image.

black women in Washington, D.C. In order to assess the degree to which these images were symptomatic of agency attention to issues of race in Washington, however, it is necessary to regard them in light of their place in the OWI photographic coverage as a whole. How significant nu- merically was the portrayal of African Americans in the OWI photo file? What, if any, themes recur in the portrayal of black Washingtonians? What evidence can be found about the motivations behind the

portrayals? Who was the intended audience for the images, and how were the images actually used?

Farm Security Administration/ Office of War Information Collection

at the Library of Congress consists principally of the work produced by the photo unit led by social documentarian Roy Stryker under the auspices of the FSA (1935-1942) and then the OWI (1942-1944). Based on the mention of Washington in descriptions of FSA/OWI lots (groups of photos, each usually representing a single photo assignment), it appears that coverage of the city increased after 1941 and that a substantial share of that coverage included African Americans. Of the 173 lots

described as depicting Washington, 162 lots are dated after December 1941. And of

those 162 lots, approximately 40 - nearly one-quarter - feature African Americans. The 40 lots also represent a significant proportion of all images of African Americans, regardless of locale, produced for the OWI after 1941, even assuming that the 110 lot descriptions that mention African Ameri- cans, post-1941, may under-represent the number of lots in which blacks actually appear.3

The increasing focus on Washington can certainly be explained by economics and logistics. It was expensive to send

photographers farther afield, and such travel was fraught with bureaucratic obsta- cles involving gas and tire rations. Ex- changes between FSA/OWI photographers out on the road and Roy Stryker, who ran the unit and guided their efforts, fre- quently dwell on travel arrangements.

The correspondence does not reveal a stated goal to focus on either Washington or African Americans. But this is hardly surprising. Surviving written instructions to OWI-era photographers provide scant details on propaganda objectives. Particu- larly as propaganda campaign deadlines mounted, the agency relied on telephone contact to keep photographers informed. To the extent that photographers were clued in at all, it was probably through direct conversation, especially when they worked locally.4

It is possible, however, to understand more fully the pictures and some of the motivations for taking them by looking at the organization - an amalgam of organizations, really - and individuals involved in producing the images. Prior to October 1942, Roy Stryker' s unit had been eking out an existence at the fading Farm Secu- rity Administration, increasingly performing contract work for other agencies as they geared up for the defense effort. The photo unit's 1942 move to the Office of War Information confirmed an already growing trend away from FSA's trademark stark depictions of American's ill-fed, ill- clothed, and ill-housed, especially on de- clining farmlands, in favor of more encour- aging views of bustling activity in American defense centers and a quality of life worth fighting for. Stryker continued to issue assignments to the photographers, most of whom had moved with him from the FSA, but the detailed "shooting scripts" with which he had guided the FSA photographers' visual narratives do not turn up in his correspondence after the move to the OWI.

Assembled from a variety of pre- existing information units in several differ-

7



Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1992

Winter 1942. Jewel Mazique working in the stacks of the Library of Congress. By John Collier.

8



The Mirror Image.

ent government agencies, the OWI was di- vided into two branches according to target audience: domestic and overseas. The Domestic Branch included two dis-

tinct photography units: the Division of Photography in the Bureau of Publications and Graphics, which transferred, with Stryker, from the FSA; and the News Bu- reau Photography Section, which transferred from the Office of Emergency Man- agement. The News Bureau Photography Section staff included the black photographer Roger Smith, who had been hired ex- pressly to take pictures for distribution to the black press. Smith's work was coordinated with a special section of the News Bureau, the Negro Press Section, which was dedicated to furnishing a weekly news service to "202 Negro owned and ed- ited newspapers throughout the country" and to "strengthening Negro morale in the war effort," according to its chief, Ted Pos- ton, a former editor for major black publications {Amsterdam Daily News and Pitts- burgh Courier) and a former Harlem correspondent for the New York Post.5

Despite the section's news function, however, Roger Smith's work was not di- rected toward classic photojournalism - capturing breaking news events. Smith, like other OWI photographers, was assigned to take photographs suitable for feature stories or brochures. The stories

supplied by the Negro Press Section were, likewise, usually reports of government activities and developments. The nearest Negro Press Section chief Poston came to proposing investigation of more immedi- ate and controversial events was in a

memo to his boss regarding a threatened Capital Transit strike in late 1942. White streetcar operators had proposed to walk out should blacks be hired. Poston recog- nized the symbolic significance of the struggle, as did the Fair Employment Prac- tices Commission chairman, who commented that the black community saw "the promotion of its race to trolley plat- forms as the test of government sincerity in promising equal opportunity to all

Americans." Poston advised his boss that

he did not know "what steps, if any, the OWI may take to prevent a possible racial clash," but he believed that any confron- tation might result in a race riot that would be "detrimental to our cause on the domestic as well as the international scene.

With the increasing manpower shortage in Washington, D.C., it is inevitable that Ne- groes will eventually have to be employed as street car operators," wrote Poston. "Therefore, the officials of the company, the union and the District of Columbia

should be prepared now to take steps to see that this move is accomplished without violence."7

Whether he was trying to persuade his boss to agree with his point of view or to assign OWI coverage, no reply appears in the records. (Capital Transit sold its fran- chise in 1956, but while it ran the street- cars, no African Americans were ever hired to operate them.)8

as a whole, the post-1941 FSA and OWI photos might be seen as FDR's Four Freedoms - freedom of

speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want - made visible. The bulk of

those showing African Americans not only illustrate freedom of expression and of re- ligion, but carry an added accent on equality of opportunity. Recurring in the 40 lots are images of black Washingtonians taking advantage of educational or training opportunities, from female National Youth Administration trainees at the Navy Yard to students at Howard University. The steady stream of doctors, nurses, teachers, stenographers, library workers, and fire- men provides visual testimony that such training would, in fact, lead somewhere.

OWI-supplied captions reinforce the status and significance of white collar work: individuals are identified by their occupations, even when pictured off the job. While the photos acknowledge the re- ality that not all people are employed or are successful, this acknowledgment

9



Washington History, Spring! Summer 1992

Winter 1942. Jewel Mazique leaving work with a colleague from the Library of Congress Annex. By John Collier.

serves as an opportunity to illustrate the safety nets American society provides. Thus a group of children gives thanks before partaking of the fruits of a government-sponsored nutrition program; adults receive food, clothing, and employment assistance at a self-help exchange.

The FSA/OWI file as a whole is not

without exposes of horrifying slum conditions, but after 1941 the comforts of government housing, such as the Frederick Douglass housing project or the Slowe res- idence hall for women, were more fre- quently highlighted. The array of church congregations caught in moments of reflection and rapture presumably made freedom of worship visible.

Perhaps most prevalent of all are exam- ples of black participation in the war effort:

blacks register for sugar rationing along with whites from the "best residential sec-

tions/' They serve as air-raid wardens. Their children contribute scrap and pur- chase war bonds. Residents of an Arling- ton, Virginia, trailer camp even cultivate victory gardens. And at almost every turn one glimpses African Americans in military uniform.

Photos made during the late FSA and the OWI years do offer more candid glimpses of black citizens. In particular when the focus is on a general scene or an activity of propaganda value, regardless of who is performing it, blacks can be seen laboring or spectating - occasionally alongside whites (page 4). Generally, however, the content of images that focus on African Americans seems anything but ac- cidental.

Some of the most carefully crafted images are those narrating "a day in the life of" an individual. The number of free-

doms and intense participation that were packed into such individuals' days is ex- hausting to contemplate. One of the most tightly woven of these narratives was con- structed by FSA photographer John Collier in the winter of 1942 on contract to the

OWI predecessor, the Office of the Coor- dinator of Information.

Collier's photo story features Jewel Mazique, a photogenic black employee of the Library of Congress. She is pictured concentrating on paperwork in office space she shares with her white fellow workers (page 6), and working compe- tently in the stacks, shapely legs promi- nently displayed (page 8). Camaraderie with white colleagues begins to form a theme: lunchtime finds Mazique meeting with fellow members of the ClO-affiliated United Federal Workers of America -

several of them white; at the end of the

Winter 1942. Jewel Mazique, worker at the Library of Congress, cooking dinner for her husband and her three nieces whom she is

raising and educating. By John Collier.

10



The Mirror Image

11



Winter 1942. [Edward] Mazique with two of his nieces who he and his wife Jewel Mazique, a worker at the Library of

Congress, are raising. By John Collier.


day, she departs in the company of a white colleague (page 10). We commute home- ward with Mazique - she reads serenely, undistracted by the crowding that leaves her and her white seatmate little elbow

room on the unsegregated bus. After a stop to shop for groceries with her husband Edward, an intern at Howard Uni- versity Hospital, she arrives at the three- story home they are purchasing on California Street, N.W., in what is now known as the Adams-Morgan area of Washington. Scene upon scene portrays the comfortable and loving home she and her husband are providing to the three nieces they are raising (pages 11 and 13). Somewhere in the hours between home

and work, Mazique manages to donate blood, attend a union rally (page 14), and address a sedate church congregation about the need to participate in the war effort.

Jewel Mazique's daily round may, in fact, mirror the experience of the middle- class black community in wartime Wash- ington. But the aspects of life emphasized in the photo series might also be seen as a reply to the charges Alden Stevens had leveled against the city's racist attitudes. Although the photo captions consistently refer to Mazique simply as a "worker at the Library of Congress," the intellectual, almost scholarly nature of her work is stressed visually (as is her glamorous ap- pearance). Black scholarly contributions, particularly at the Library of Congress, appear to have been a favorite OWI propaganda theme. One report in the records of the chief of the OWI News Bureau con-

firms that a Library of Congress press release has received wide distribution; the press release announces the appointment of a black "Fellow in American Negro Studies," useful evidence that the library took African Americans and their culture

seriously.9 Library of Congress employment statis-

tics probably appealed to propagandists, as well, for an FEPC progress report on the

proportion of African Americans in federal service named the library as one of the most progressive federal employers. At a time when many agencies could demon- strate only limited increases in the employment of blacks, 11 percent of the library's more than 1,650 employees were black, and 55 of the 183 black workers held jobs classified as professional, the highest proportion of black professionals reported. General census statistics suggest just how hard it was to find black women in professional positions in Washington: of the 34,568 black women employed in the Dis- trict of Columbia in 1940, only 19 were listed as librarians, and only 840 (2.4 percent) fell into even semi-professional categories. In The Secret City, Constance Green noted that at the beginning of the war, almost 70 percent of African Americans held jobs in the lowest-paid categories, although the situation gradually improved with the initiation of training programs, the enactment of an official government nondiscrimination policy, and the sheer volume of work required to run a war.10

If Mazique's library work carried a positive visual message, her union activities were of double propaganda value. They illustrated her freedom of expression and assembly and at the same time offered visual testimony that, while some AFL unions might be holding fast, not all unions excluded black workers. Since the

Department of Interior opened its nonseg- regated cafeteria in 1937, federal cafeterias were also officially available to all, but Jewel Mazique would probably not have enjoyed such a casual lunch with white colleagues in most agencies, as it was not common for whites and blacks to sit to-

gether. The emphasis on the Maziques' ownership of their well-accoutered home also gains significance in light of Stevens's

12



The Mirror Image

observations on housing discrimination - a situation further exacerbated by the se- vere wartime housing shortage. And while there was probably no way to deal visually with the question of whether the blood Mazique donated was segregated from that donated by whites (a source of conflict at the local Red Cross), the message about her staunch participation in the war effort is unmistakable.11

Mazique' s various involvements and activities provided the kind of visual evidence needed to combat charges that in Washington, American democracy was

more a matter of theory than of practice. But Mazique' s personal biography affirms what the general historical record suggests - there was much more to the story. Elements missing from the official depic- tion of Mazique's life are at once intriguing and telling. Although the photo captions identify her simply as a "Negro," the Georgia-born Mazique was, in fact, partly Native American (Creek and Cherokee). Indeed, it may have been Mazique's Na- tive-American roots that drew John Collier to her, as his father, John Collier, Sf., was at the time commissioner of Indian affairs.

13



Washington Washington History, History, Spring/ Spring/ Summer Summer 1992 1992 Washington Washington History, History, Spring/ Spring/ Summer Summer 1992 1992

It It is is interesting interesting that that the the captions captions do do not not

bring bring out out this this ethnic ethnic connection. connection. There There

may may have have been been a a concern concern about about diffusing diffusing

the the "Negro" "Negro" focus focus of of the the story; story; what's what's

more, more, Collier Collier encountered encountered difficulties difficulties at at 1942 1942 for for other other opportunities.13 opportunities.13 more, more, Collier Collier encountered encountered difficulties difficulties at at

other other points points in in gaining gaining Stryker's Stryker's approval approval

to to cover cover Native Native Americans.12 Americans.12

If If Mazique's Mazique's ethnic ethnic origins origins were were de- de-

emphasized, emphasized, her her union union activism activism was was

hardly hardly exaggerated. exaggerated. But But the the photos photos do do not not

illustrate illustrate her her motives. motives. In In a a recent recent interview interview

with with the the authors, authors, Mazique Mazique explained explained that that

one one of of her her primary primary goals goals was was more more and and

better better employment employment for for African African Americans Americans

at at the the Library Library of of Congress Congress and and in in Wash- Wash-

ington ington at at large. large. Official Official labor labor statistics statistics not- not-

withstanding, withstanding, Mazique's Mazique's Library Library of of Con- Con-

gress gress experience experience was was not not one one of of widening widening

job job opportunity. opportunity. Mazique Mazique only only held held one one

job job there: there: as as a a file file clerk clerk in in the the Serials Serials Divi- Divi-

sion. sion. Despite Despite her her college college degree, degree, she she was was

unable unable to to obtain obtain a a higher-level higher-level position position - -

not not even even one one that that allowed allowed for for the the use use of of

typing typing skills. skills. She She left left the the library library later later in in

1942 1942 for for other other opportunities.13 opportunities.13

Without Without actually actually giving giving false false evidence, evidence,

the the Mazique Mazique photo photo story story omitted omitted some some re- re-

alities alities and and contrived contrived to to highlight highlight others others in in If If Mazique's Mazique's ethnic ethnic origins origins were were de- de- alities alities and and contrived contrived to to highlight highlight others others in in

addressing addressing racial racial themes. themes. One One of of the the few few

issues issues not not addressed addressed in in the the course course of of

Mazique's Mazique's active active day day was was educational educational op- op-

portunity. portunity. One One might might expect expect that that Wash- Wash-

ington's ington's segregated segregated schools schools offered offered little little in in

the the way way of of positive positive propaganda. propaganda. But But the the

same same month month that that John John Collier Collier worked worked with with

Jewel Jewel Mazique, Mazique, photographer photographer Marjory Marjory

Collins Collins recorded recorded a a black black grade-school grade-school

classroom, classroom, where where the the day day included included contri- contri-

butions butions to to the the war war effort, effort, as as well well as as a a nu- nu-

trition trition lesson lesson spelled spelled out out on on the the black- black-

Washington Washington History, History, Spring/ Spring/ Summer Summer 1992 1992 Washington Washington History, History, Spring/ Spring/ Summer Summer 1992 1992

It It is is interesting interesting that that the the captions captions do do not not sion. sion. Despite Despite her her college college degree, degree, she she was was sion. sion. Despite Despite her her college college degree, degree, she she was was It It is is interesting interesting that that the the captions captions do do not not

bring bring out out this this ethnic ethnic connection. connection. There There bring bring out out this this ethnic ethnic connection. connection. There There unable unable to to obtain obtain a a higher-level higher-level position position - - unable unable to to obtain obtain a a higher-level higher-level position position - -

may may have have been been a a concern concern about about diffusing diffusing not not even even one one that that allowed allowed for for the the use use of of not not even even one one that that allowed allowed for for the the use use of of may may have have been been a a concern concern about about diffusing diffusing

the the "Negro" "Negro" focus focus of of the the story; story; what's what's typing typing skills. skills. She She left left the the library library later later in in typing typing skills. skills. She She left left the the library library later later in in the the "Negro" "Negro" focus focus of of the the story; story; what's what's

more, more, Collier Collier encountered encountered difficulties difficulties at at 1942 1942 for for other other opportunities.13 opportunities.13 1942 1942 for for other other opportunities.13 opportunities.13 more, more, Collier Collier encountered encountered difficulties difficulties at at

other other points points in in gaining gaining Stryker's Stryker's approval approval Without Without actually actually giving giving false false evidence, evidence, Without Without actually actually giving giving false false evidence, evidence, other other points points in in gaining gaining Stryker's Stryker's approval approval

to to cover cover Native Native Americans.12 Americans.12 to to cover cover Native Native Americans.12 Americans.12 the the Mazique Mazique photo photo story story omitted omitted some some re- re- the the Mazique Mazique photo photo story story omitted omitted some some re- re-

alities alities and and contrived contrived to to highlight highlight others others in in If If Mazique's Mazique's ethnic ethnic origins origins were were de- de- alities alities and and contrived contrived to to highlight highlight others others in in If If Mazique's Mazique's ethnic ethnic origins origins were were de- de-

addressing addressing racial racial themes. themes. One One of of the the few few emphasized, emphasized, her her union union activism activism was was addressing addressing racial racial themes. themes. One One of of the the few few emphasized, emphasized, her her union union activism activism was was

hardly hardly exaggerated. exaggerated. But But the the photos photos do do not not issues issues not not addressed addressed in in the the course course of of issues issues not not addressed addressed in in the the course course of of hardly hardly exaggerated. exaggerated. But But the the photos photos do do not not

illustrate illustrate her her motives. motives. In In a a recent recent interview interview Mazique's Mazique's active active day day was was educational educational op- op- Mazique's Mazique's active active day day was was educational educational op- op- illustrate illustrate her her motives. motives. In In a a recent recent interview interview

with with the the authors, authors, Mazique Mazique explained explained that that portunity. portunity. One One might might expect expect that that Wash- Wash- portunity. portunity. One One might might expect expect that that Wash- Wash- with with the the authors, authors, Mazique Mazique explained explained that that

one one of of her her primary primary goals goals was was more more and and ington's ington's segregated segregated schools schools offered offered little little in in ington's ington's segregated segregated schools schools offered offered little little in in one one of of her her primary primary goals goals was was more more and and

better better employment employment for for African African Americans Americans better better employment employment for for African African Americans Americans the the way way of of positive positive propaganda. propaganda. But But the the the the way way of of positive positive propaganda. propaganda. But But the the

same same month month that that John John Collier Collier worked worked with with at at the the Library Library of of Congress Congress and and in in Wash- Wash- same same month month that that John John Collier Collier worked worked with with at at the the Library Library of of Congress Congress and and in in Wash- Wash-

ington ington at at large. large. Official Official labor labor statistics statistics not- not- Jewel Jewel Mazique, Mazique, photographer photographer Marjory Marjory Jewel Jewel Mazique, Mazique, photographer photographer Marjory Marjory ington ington at at large. large. Official Official labor labor statistics statistics not- not-

withstanding, withstanding, Mazique's Mazique's Library Library of of Con- Con- Collins Collins recorded recorded a a black black grade-school grade-school Collins Collins recorded recorded a a black black grade-school grade-school withstanding, withstanding, Mazique's Mazique's Library Library of of Con- Con-

gress gress experience experience was was not not one one of of widening widening gress gress experience experience was was not not one one of of widening widening classroom, classroom, where where the the day day included included contri- contri- classroom, classroom, where where the the day day included included contri- contri-

butions butions to to the the war war effort, effort, as as well well as as a a nu- nu- job job opportunity. opportunity. Mazique Mazique only only held held one one butions butions to to the the war war effort, effort, as as well well as as a a nu- nu- job job opportunity. opportunity. Mazique Mazique only only held held one one

job job there: there: as as a a file file clerk clerk in in the the Serials Serials Divi- Divi- trition trition lesson lesson spelled spelled out out on on the the black- black- trition trition lesson lesson spelled spelled out out on on the the black- black- job job there: there: as as a a file file clerk clerk in in the the Serials Serials Divi- Divi-

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Winter 1942. Jewel Mazique, worker at the Library of Congress, organizing for the union. By John Collier.

The Mirror Image

board, the premise of which was "We are good Americans. . . ." (page 16). In the photos, the classroom appears well supplied and uncrowded, but the overall situation could not have altered radically in the nine months since U.S. Housing Au- thority attorney and NAACP activist Ed- ward Lovett delivered a radio address de-

crying the unrealistic school budget proposed for 1942. Lovett commented, much as Stevens did, that here was an in- stance where congressional oversight of local affairs should have been a model for

the implementation of democratic principles. Instead, allotments to black schools failed to match the proportion of black children in the District's population and would not, without adjustment, come near to supporting the target teacher- student ratio in the rapidly growing city.14

Classroom cares are soon left behind in

Marjory Collins' s series, however, as she picks up the thread of a day in the life of the black schoolteacher whose name was not recorded. We follow the teacher home to the substantial house "on the outskirts

of Washington" that she shares with her doctor husband and her children, students at Howard University. Watching her relax with her children in their basement playroom (page 17), one might conclude that, as with Jewel Mazique, we are seeing an exaggerated but not inaccurate portrayal of black middle-class women's successful, ex-

emplary lives. Their stories convey an ap- pealing message: African-American lives are not and need not be limited by the color of their skins.

photographer had reason to question that message, however. Gordon Parks had come to Stryk-

er's unit in January 1942 as a Rosenwald Fellow, eager to learn from the people who had produced the famous Farm Security

Administration photos. Under Stryker's tutelage, Parks spent weeks poring over the pictures made previously by FSA photographers - and enduring most of the racial slights and hostilities Washington had to offer, for Stryker encouraged Parks to begin his work by taking in the city, leaving his camera behind. "Suddenly," Parks later recounted, "you were down to the level of the drugstore on the corner, where I went to take my son for a hot dog or a malted milk and suddenly they're saying 'We don't serve "negroes," or "niggers" ' in some sections and 'You can't go to a picture show.' "15

Going to the office did not offer much respite. Parks recalled that he was re- proached by both white and black colleagues for lunching with the white photographers in the Department of Agriculture cafeteria, rather than sitting at the back with the other African Ameri- cans.16

Although Stryker supplied guidance and encouragement, according to Parks' s memoirs, he apparently had reservations about taking Parks on, even on a volunteer basis, because he foresaw trouble. As fellow OWI photographer Esther Bubley said in a recent interview, "The people in the darkroom were practically frothing at the mouth, they were so opposed to a black photographer. They sounded like a bunch of rednecks. It's amazing they didn't just destroy Parks's negatives."17

Although Parks notes that he later won the lab workers over, some of his images must certainly have given them pause.18 As long as Parks was not on the government payroll, Stryker probably was in- clined to give the photographer relatively free rein. As a result, the photos Parks made prior to being officially hired by the OWI are some of the most adventuresome

that appear in the file from the period. It was Parks who contributed the not-so-

exemplary but somehow personably griz- zled denizens of the waterfront (page 19). And while he was responsible for high-

15



March 1942 [right]. Son tries to persuade his mother, a school teacher, to dance in the

basement playroom of their home in the outskirts of Washington. [Both] by Marjory

Collins.


March 1942 [above]. Discussion group in a Negro grammar school.

lighting the amenities of the spanking new Frederick Douglass housing project, at the same time he made a visual tour of the

dingy houses, littered yards, unsightly privies, and half naked children housed "near the nation's capital," according to his caption.

According to Parks, his firsthand experience of life in Washington as a black man had solidified his determination to use his

camera to fight back. Stryker quickly made him see that to portray prejudice, he would need to portray the victims, not the perpetrators. Clearly Parks had absorbed other lessons from FSA/OWI experience as well. Adopting the "day in the life" technique, he, too, followed a black female government worker - one whose daily re- ality differed markedly from that of Jewel Mazique. According to Parks' s first autobiography, Stryker himself suggested a suitable candidate as they observed a black charwoman mopping the floor. "Go have

a talk with her before you go home this evening," said Stryker. "See what she has to say about life and things. You might find her interesting."

Parks followed Stryker's suggestion:

At first it was a meaningless exchange of words. Then, as if a dam had broken within her, she began to spill out her life story. It was a pitiful one. She had strug- gled alone after her mother had died and her father had been killed by a lynch mob. She had gone through high school, married and become pregnant. Her husband was accidentally shot to death two days before the daughter was born. By the time the daughter was eighteen, she had given birth to two illegitimate chil-

16



dren, dying two weeks after the second child's birth. What's more, the first child had been stricken with paralysis a year before its mother died. Now this woman

was bringing up these grandchildren on a salary hardly suitable for one person.19

Parks' s personal experiences and con- cerns played a role in guiding his portrayal of Ella Watson's life/0 While there is no direct evidence that Parks saw the Collier

and Collins photos made six months earlier, his particular choices of photo content and angle might be seen as a reaction to those series. Similarities in treatment

The Mirror Image

might also be attributable to the general trend in photojournalism towards "day in the life" portrayals that explored the im- pact of larger forces on the individual.21 Or the visual parallels may simply reflect parallels that run through women's daily lives, regardless of their station or situation. In any case, whether intentional or not, Ella Watson's story provides a coun- terpoint to the stories of Jewel Mazique and the grade school teacher.

Just about the time of day when Jewel Mazique is heading home through the massive doors of the Library of Congress

17



November 1942 [right]. "Whiskers" and Johnny Carrol, two familiar faces on the

waterfront. [Both] by Gordon Parks.


August 1942 [above]. Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman, leaves for work at

4:30 p.m.

(page 10) and the school teacher is being greeted at her front door by her fashion- ably dressed daughter, Ella Watson is pictured heading to work down a dingy stair- case on which her partially dressed grandchildren crouch, watching her leave (above). Mazique's days are spent bringing order to recorded knowledge in the company of white colleagues; Watson's nights are spent working alone, bringing order to the deserted office of a white

woman who had arrived at the agency at the same time Watson did, and with no more training, according to Parks.22

Parks does not stint on irony. He photographs Watson, mop in hand, in front of an American flag (page 25). He shows her in front of a poster exhorting workers to invest 10 percent of their salary in war bonds (the caption notes that Watson does contribute 10 percent of her meager salary of $1,080 per year; page 20). In another

image, she toils in front of a door marked "Division of Security Files," that also bears a pointed warning: "No loitering at any time. This means you." Watson clearly has little opportunity to loiter and just as little security.

At home, Watson shows herself to be just as playful and attentive with her grandchildren as the teacher and the Maziques are with their families. But Wat- son operates under much more crowded circumstances and with an ever-present air of fatigue that may be only partially attributable to her age. The Mazique bedtime offers opportunity for loving interaction in

18



The Mirror Image

the children's well-furnished bedroom

(page 13). Somewhere in the midst of her graveyard schedule Watson joins her off- spring, sagging onto the bed in the bedroom she shares with the children (page 21). Everything is in its place and takes place in its place in the Mazique and the teacher's households: Mazique cooks in a spotless kitchen, the teacher's family com- munes in the living room, the teenagers dance in the playroom. In contrast, a jum- ble of activities take place in the cramped Watson quarters: the children eat and play in the doorway of the tiny kitchen. Collins meaningfully captures the reflection of the teacher grooming herself in a mirror that also reflects her equally well-groomed bedroom (page 22). Parks employs the same

technique to more ambiguous effect - the figure of Watson, her back to the camera, appears to be mirrored by the shadowy reflection of her adopted daughter in the dresser mirror; on the dresser sits a framed portrait of a nicely dressed couple - perhaps Watson in her youth or members of an earlier generation (page 23). Is there a message here about the uncertain nature of Watson's legacy?

Mazique engages in a flurry of after- work activity as she distributes fliers at a union meeting (page 14). Watson, on the other hand, finds an outlet at the Saint Martin's Spiritual Church, where she goes, not to distribute anything, but to receive anointment (page 24). If Mazique finds satisfaction in looking outward and

19



August 1942. Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman and her

grandchildren. By Gordon Parks.


August 1942. Government charwoman who provides for a family of six on her salary of $1,080.00 per year. She puts 10 percent of her salary in war bonds. By Gordon Parks.

involving herself in an integrated world, Parks implies that Watson's response to the hardships of her world is to look in- ward, seeking spiritual comfort among other members of the black community. (Through double exposure, Watson liter- ally merges with others of the congregation in a particularly ethereal way, although the effect may not have been Parks' s intention.)

Ella Watson's story is, in some ways, just as overdrawn as Jewel Mazique's. But, in terms of the black work force, Watson can be seen as the more representative figure - in 1940 she was one of 1,815 charwomen in the city, 1,483 (81 percent) of whom were black. It would not have been

hard to find black women stooping over buckets or performing other cleaning tasks in homes and shops all over Washington, since more than 71 percent of black women were employed as charwomen, domestic servants, or laundresses.23

s visual narrative of Ella Wat- son's existence constitutes one of the

longest photo series in the FSA/OWI file and produced (not without considerable manipulation on Parks' s part, he ad- mitted) what later became one of its most famous photos: Ella Watson in front of the American flag (page 25).24 But did the FSA/ OWI photos of Washington blacks receive wide exposure at the time, and in what contexts did they appear? It is not easy to say with any certainty: images distributed to the press were used at a publication's prerogative and no systematic record of usage was kept by the OWI; the ephemeral nature of the OWI's own products makes them difficult to trace.

Jewel Mazique did emerge from the Li- brary of Congress onto the pages of Ne- groes and the War, a booklet produced by the Negro Press Section. The text, by re- spected black leader Chandler Owen, ac- knowledges areas where racial equality has yet to be achieved, but delivers an up- beat message about African Americans' prospects and contrasts these with Nazi racism. Jewel Mazique, however, is merely identified as a government worker, with no further comment.25 There is no evi-

dence that Parks' s more hard-hitting images were ever used anywhere but in a photo essay titled "Rim of the South," published in the unusually progressive journal, Survey Graphic.26

A few observers at the time took note of

where OWI material appeared - or didn't appear. P. L. Prattis, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, expressed apprecia- tion for the stories distributed to the black

press by the Negro Press Section. But he also chided OWI officials that they would do better to direct their material to white

newspapers. "The real job," he insisted, "is to induce in more white people a friend-

20



The Mirror Image

lier, fairer attitude toward Negroes. That is the key to improving Negro morale/'27

The Negro Press Section products were, in fact, made available to, among others, UP, AP, Wide World, the Saturday Evening Post, the New York Herald Tribune, and the Chicago Sun.28 Prattis was probably right that the material was not being carried by these news services and publications; so far there is little evidence that the photo materials, at any rate, were picked up.

Exposure in the black press may have been almost as limited. Black newspaper publishers claimed that their publications "use proportionally more illustrations than any other section of the American press" and lobbied the OWI to issue the images on photo-mat, an easily reproduc- ible medium.29 Yet a preliminary sampling of two major black newspapers, the Pitts- burgh Courier, and the Baltimore Afro- American, suggests that a surprisingly

small percentage of the OWI images that were made available were ever used, and that of the images used, few were from Washington or were identified as depicting the capital city. The newspapers were not without photo illustration, but the proportion supplied by the OWI was negligi- ble. For all extant issues of the newspapers published between January 1942 and mid- 1944, the Pittsburgh Courier carried seven OWI photo stories. These concentrated on Washington-area facilities for female war workers and their children, as well as the work of Freedmen's Hospital and the visit of the Liberian president. During the same period, only one photo story recognizably from the OWI and about Washington appeared in the Baltimore Afro- American.30

There are some practical explanations for the low usage of these photographs. The Afro-American had its own black photographers and probably had little need for

21




free government photographs, which smaller newspapers may have used more regularly. As paper and photographic sup- plies became scarce, probably most newspapers cut down on photo coverage. In ad- dition, failure to use the OWI photos does not appear to have been a matter of photographic style; images produced by staff photographers and commercial photo services are strikingly similar to the OWI out- put in their subject matter and optimistic tone, often posing a jarring contrast to the accounts of racial strife carried in neigh- boring text.

If the OWI photos were not reaching domestic readers, did they receive more exposure abroad? While the OWI Domes- tic Branch produced raw materials intended for exhibits and publications devel- oped by others, the Overseas Branch provided more finished packages. Yet images of African Americans were no more prominent in the OWI's own products than they were in the non-OWI products. Out of 124 "Portrait of America" sets (sets of about 15 photos with accompanying captions) distributed abroad for use in allied publications, only one featured Afri-

22



March 1942 [left]. Teacher in a Negro grammar school in her bedroom at home. Her husband is a doctor. By Marjory Collins.

The Mirror Image

August 1942 [above]. Adopted daughter and two grandchildren with Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman. By Gordon Parks.

can Americans - a relatively neutral look at Southern University in New Orleans. Only a scattering of black images shows up in the small photo sets sent overseas by the News and Features Bureau, mostly ac- knowledging the achievements of black individuals.31

With respect to the OWI's own publications distributed - and sometimes produced - in allied and neutral nations, the record is, paradoxically, spotty (some propaganda products may never be traced) and at the same time too voluminous to

survey comprehensively. But a trend may be evident in photo usage of the three best-known OWI overseas publications: Victory, USA (a Reader's Digest-size magazine), and Photo Review (a 32-page picture magazine). A scanning of these publications does not turn up any photos of black Washingtonians; in fact, African Ameri- cans appear very rarely, with the occasional exception of black military units. Al- though Victory ran a feature on an American ethnic group in almost every issue, African Americans were never included. The occasional Washington article focused solely on architecture and the federal government.32

Perhaps propagandists reasoned that stories about African Americans would not

appeal to foreign populations; interest in the Washington situation probably de- creased with distance, both at home and

23




August 1942. Mrs. Ella Watson, a government charwoman, receiving anointment from Rev. Clara Smith during the Flower Bowl Demonstration, a service held once a year at the St. Martin's Spiritual Church. Rev. Vondell Gassaway is the pastor. By Gordon Parks.

24



The Mirror Image

August 1942. Government charwoman. By Gordon Parks.

abroad. More likely, it was determined that the best propaganda strategy was to avoid drawing attention to discrepancies between American ideals and American

practice by simply not dealing with the issue, even in the most deliberately positive light.

Ultimately, the photographic campaign carried out by the OWI and its predeces- sors was marked by contrasts and contradictions. There were contrasts in content:

the hardships of Ella Watson's existence represent almost the mirror reverse of the apparent promise of Jewel Mazique's life. There were contradictions in production

and distribution; despite the extensive OWI photo-documentation of black Wash- ington, few of these images, or of black Americans generally, appeared in domestic and foreign news and propaganda. These seeming contradictions are partly explained by considering the context of the wartime propaganda effort as a whole. Propaganda strategy shifted in response to global developments as well as changing agency structure and personnel. Even after the OWI became the official government information and propaganda agency, other government organizations, including branches of the military service, continued to issue their own propaganda materials.

The photos gathered or produced by the OWI, then, may be seen as products both of an overall propaganda strategy that was not necessarily consistent over time and in all its details, and of a propaganda effort that was not easily coordinated. The war provided motivation for conveying a vision of what life in a democratic society would look like. It also provided for those who had reason to know the opportunity to record a lasting reminder that elements were still missing from the picture in the nation's capital.

Barbara Orbach, a reference specialist in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, is pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Maryland. Nicholas Natanson holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa. He is an archivist in the Still Picture Branch of the National Archives.



^ NOTES ^

The Mirror Image Barbara Orbach and

Nicholas Natanson, pp. 4-25 1. Alden Stevens, "Washington: Blight on Democ-

racy/' Harper's Magazine 184 (Dec. 1941): 50-58. 2. Lawrence W. Cramer to Judge M. Landis, direc-

tor, Office of Civilian Defense, May 22, 1942, entry 221, Record Group 208, Records of the Office of War Information, National Archives. Expres- sions of intent to strengthen Negro morale in the war effort appear regularly in documents related to the Office of War Information Negro Press Sec- tion; see memo, Ted Poston to George Lyon, "Functions and Operation of the Negro News Section/' July 24, 1942, entry 175, folder 2, box 969A, RG 208, NA.

3. FSA/OWI lot descriptions are found in the Li- brary of Congress Prints and Photographs Divi- sion's Divisional Catalog. For descriptions of Washington lots, see also Kathleen Collins, Washingtoniana Photographs: Collections in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Con- gress (Washington: Library of Congress, 1989), 59-86.

4. On telephone communications see John Vachon to Roy Stryker [late May-early June] 1942, and Stryker to John Collier, Apr. 16, 1942, Roy Stryker Papers, 1912-1972 (Sanford, N.C.: Micro- filming Corporation of America, 1982), ser. I, Correspondence, 1924-1972, reel 3 (1941-1945).

5. Poston to Lyon, July 24, 1942, RG 208, NA. 6. Quoted in Constance Green, The Secret City: A

History of Race Relations in the Nation's Capital (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 238.

7. Poston to Lyon, memo, "Possible Racial Conflicts in Washington's Transit Situation," Dec. 4, 1942, entry 175, folder 2, box 969A, RG 208, NA.

8. Council of Social Agencies of the District of Co- lumbia and Vicinity, The Social Survey: A Report on Racial Relations (Washington: n.p., Nov. 1946), II- C-15; Green, Secret City, 260.

9. Undated report, entry 175, folder 2, box 969A, RG 208, NA. Photographs of Mazique are found in microfilm reel 21, lot 296, FSA/OWI Collec- tion, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

10. Undated report, entry 221, "Negro Morale"

folder, box 1079, RG 208, NA. Report does not mention total employee figures for the Library of Congress. The library's annual report shows staffing in considerable flux and divides the total of 1,862.5 staff into various permanent and tem- porary categories. In its report to the FEPC, however, library administrators must have been us- ing a somewhat lower figure. Library of Congress, Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1943 (Washing- ton: GPO, 1944), 73; Bureau of the Census, Six- teenth Census of the U.S., 1940 (Washington: GPO, 1943), vol. Ill, 587; Green, Secret City, 252.

11. On segregation in federal cafeterias, see Green, Secret City, 261; on Red Cross segregation of blood, see Green, Secret City, 264, and John A. Davis, "The Negro Outlook Today," Survey Graphic 31, 2 (Nov. 1942): 503.

12. Stryker to John Collier, [late 1942 or early 1943], Roy E. Stryker Papers, microfilm reel NDA 25, Archives of American Art, Washington.

13. Nicholas Natanson telephone interview with Jewel Mazique, Jan. 7, 1992. Mazique remem- bered the photo sessions with Collier, but recalled little of the resulting pictures and until the interview had not known of their final disposi- tion.

14. "Educational Facilities for Negroes in D.C. under the Proposed 1942 Budget," quoted in Washing- ton Tribune, May 10, 1941, folder: "Blacks- 1940- 1948, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Li- brary. Photographs of the school teacher, reel 14, lot 216, FSA/OWI Coll., P&P, LC.

15. Gordon Parks interview with Richard Doud, Dec.

30, 1964, transcript at Archives of American Art, quoted in Nicholas Natanson, The Black Image in the New Deal: The Politics of FSA Photography (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992), 177.

16. Gordon Parks, Choice of Weapons (1966; reprint, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986), 228-30.

17. Parks-Doud interview, Dec. 30, 1964, quoted in Natanson, The Black Image in the New Deal, 177; Esther Bubley interview with Nicholas Natanson, Feb. 26, 1987, quoted in Natanson, The Black Im- age in the New Deal, 49.

18. Gordon Parks, Voices in the Mirror (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 86.

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Notes

19. Parks, Choice of Weapons, 230-31. In his more recent autobiography, Voices in the Mirror, Parks gives a slightly different account in which he ap- proached Watson on his own initiative, following general instructions from Stryker to "talk to other black people who have spent their lives here." Parks, Voices in the Mirror, 83.

20. Parks, Choice of Weapons, 231, and Voices in the Mirror, 82-83. Photographs of Watson, reel 11, lot 156, FSA/OW1 Coll., P&P, LC.

21. John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman, The Magazine in America, 1741-1990 (New York: Ox- ford University Press, 1991), 237.

22. Parks-Doud interview, Dec. 30, 1964, quoted in Natanson, The Black Image in the New Deal, 178.

23. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the U.S., 1940 (Washington: GPO, 1943), vol. Ill, 587.

24. Parks, Choice of Weapons, 231. 25. Negroes and the War (Washington: Office of War

Information, [1942]). 26. Parks, "Rim of the South," Survey Graphic 32, 2

(Nov. 1943): 444U45. Survey Graphic often tapped FSA/OWI sources. Marjory Collins's black classroom and other FSA/OWI images appeared in a special issue on African Americans, Survey Graphic 31, 2 (Nov. 1942): 468, 490, 499.

27. P. L. Prattis to Gardner Cowles, March 31, 1943,

entry 20, "P folder," box 14, RG 208, NA. 28. Memo, Poston to George McMillan, "Progress

Report, Negro News Section," [n.d.], entry 175, box 969A, RG 208.

29. Poston to Sutherland Denlinger, memo, Feb. 2, 1943, entry 175, folder 2, box 969A, RG 208, NA.

30. Pittsburgh Courier, Jan. 23, 1942; Apr. 1, May 1, May 29, June 6, June 17, June 19, 1943; Baltimore Afro-American, Jan. 9, 1943.

31. Photographs of World War II Allied and Ameri- can Activities, Portrait of America picture sets, RG 208-N, NA; Photographs Used in News and Feature Stories (photo sets), RG 208-FS, NA.

32. Entry 462, boxes 1-9, RG 208, NA.

"The Memory of the Community" Abby Arthur Johnson, pp. 26-45 1. History of the Congressional Cemetery (Washington:

GPO, 1906), 35. 2. Nancy C. Taylor, National Capital Planning

Commission, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form for Congressional Cemetery, Statement of Significance, April 3, 1969.

3. Vestry of Christ Church, Rules and Regulations of the Washington (Congressional) Cemetery (Washing- ton: Terry Brothers, 1897), 7.

4. History of the Congressional Cemetery, 10. 5. Ibid., 5, 7. 6. John Hanley interview with author, Washington,

D.C., Feb. 4, 1992.

7. History of the Congressional Cemetery, 33. 8. David Charles Sloane, The Last Great Necessity:

Cemeteries in American History (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 116-19; Thomas Bender, Toward an Urban Vision: Ideas and

Institutions in Nineteenth Century America (Lexing- ton Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1975) 80- 82.

9. John C. Loudon, On the Laying Out, Planting, and Managing of Cemeteries (London: Longman, 1843), 1, 12-13, quoted in Stanley French, "The Ceme- tery as Cultural Institution: The Establishment of Mount Auburn and the 'Rural Cemetery7 Move- ment," American Quarterly 26 (March 1974): 55.

10. "Thoughts Connected with Rural Cemeteries," Christian Review 13 (March 1848): 11, quoted in Sloane, The Last Great Necessity, 65.

11. Blanche Linden- Ward, "Strange but Genteel Pleasure Grounds: Tourist and Leisure Uses of

Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemeteries," in Cem- eteries and Gravemarkers: Voices of American Culture, ed. Richard E. Meyer (Ann Arbor: U.M.I. Re- search Press, 1989), 321.

12. Ibid., 318. 13. Constance McLaughlin Green documented this

expansion of the city's population in Washington: A History of the Capitol, 1800-1950 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), vol. 2, 77-88.

14. Vestry of Christ Church, Rules and Regulations, 19, 20.

15. Ibid., 12, 23-24. 16. Loudon, On the Laying Out, 1, 12-13, quoted in

French "The Cemetery," 55. 17. James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten: The Arche-

ology of Early American Life (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1977), 69-71.

18. Sloane, Last Great Necessity, 78. 19. James M. Goode, The Outdoor Sculpture of Wash-

ington, D.C. (Washington: Smithsonian Institu- tion Press, 1974), 89.

20. Ellen Marie Snyder, "Innocents in a Worldly World: Victorian Children's Gravemarkers," in Meyer, Cemeteries and Gravemarkers, 11-28.

21. John Ruskin, "Of Queen's Gardens," Sesame and Lilies (New York: Metropolitan Publishing Co., 1871), quoted in Ellen Snyder, "Innocents in a Worldly World," 13.

22. Goode, Outdoor Sculpture, 92. 23. John Hanley interview with author, Dec. 13,

1991.

24. Brian C. Kates, "Forsaken Heritage: The Neglect and Ravishment of Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C," American Cemetery 51 (June 1978): 26-27.

25. Ibid., 27-28.

26. Vestry of Christ Church, Rules and Regulations, 7. 27. Linden-Ward, "Strange but Genteel Pleasure

Grounds," 324. 28. Sloane, Last Great Necessity, 80.

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