Major Project
Contextual Analysis
Assignment Prompt
Contextual Analysis Assignment Prompt
First Draft
Flood Leaves African Americans on The Bread Line
Margaret Bourke-White “The Louisville Flood” February 1937
Craig Palmeri
10/20/19
English 170
Writing and Rhetoric
In 1937, Life published an article about the Louisville Flood. The Louisville Flood swept through the Ohio River valley, leaving many without shelter or food. At the beginning of this article, Life uses a photo from Margaret Bourke-White in a series of photos covering the flood. The photo had been subtitled “The Flood Leaves Its Victims on The Bread line.” Because the article was written by staff writers, the article is attributed to Life instead of a single author. The writing aspect of the article covers the flood but seems out of place next to Bourke-White’s photo. The placement of Margaret Bourke-White’s photo “The Louisville Flood” contrasts with the writing to bring attention to the treatment of African Americans and create an almost secretive support for civil rights. First, I will look at the placement of Bourke-White’s photo and the editor’s perspective. Next, I will examine the cultural and societal perspective from the period, and finally I will look at Life as a publication.
The editor plays a crucial role in the context of Bourke-White’s photo. The editor has a great deal of influence on where the photograph was positioned, as well as the ads placed around the article. The article is the first one of length in the magazine. The previous article is only two pages about a Naturalist and the pictures he took. One example of the editor affecting interpretations of the photo is the ad placed right before the article. The ad is for Heinz food products. This ad was placed directly before an article about a flood.
The caption associated with Bourke-White’s photograph states that “The flood leaves victims on the bread line”. This is a sharp contrast for the reader. The ad showcases Heinz products while the article is about not having shelter or food. This ad is strategically laced to prime the reader for the article because it reminds the reader that they have the ability to run to their local store and pick up the latest food items. The African Americans depicted in the photo have to wait in line for food. This was done to create empathy from the readers towards those affected by the flood. How a reader is primed can make a difference in their interpretation of the material they are exposed to. Priming the reader to have empathy helps with the publications support for civil rights. In Life, Bourke-White’s photo is placed on the page opposite of the Heinz ad. This causes the reader to see both the photograph and the advertisement at the same time. The editor intentionally placed the advertisment opposite the photograph in order to force the reader to associate the two together. By placing them on opposite pages, instead of after the article, the reader is primed for the article with no interuptions. This suggets that the editor placed the advertisment near the photo on purpose. The advertisment could have been printed anywhere in the article. The Heinz advertisment about food products was placed opposite a photo that depicts African Americans facing a lack of food.
Another way the editor created support for civil rights is the position of Bourke-White’s photo compared to the other photos in the series. On the next page of the article, it shows members of the press working through the flood. In the photos, the members of the prss are seem smoking, eating, and sleeping at their desks. The photos show the journalists with the basics needed for survival. They have easy acess to food, water and shelter.
This is contrasted to the African Ameicans who have to wait in a large line for food. The photos captions seem to create the idea that the press were like heros for their continuation of their work despite the flood. This calls attention to the fact that the white journalists were doing just fine while the African Americans were just barely hanging on. On the opposite page to the journalists, it shows a photo of the a tempory shelter made for victims of the flood. The shelter looks filled to capacity and quickly assembled with the bare minimum. The caption for the photo states that the refugees were sleeping snugly, but the photo does not seem to show the caption. The shelter was created for African Americans only and looks cramped. From this time period, it can be assumed that African Americans were not given equal relief from the effects of the flood. In the last secton of the article, Life has photos of the chain gangs that were working to repair flood damage. Chain gangs were often used to repair levees, highways, and railroads. Chain gangs were originally a punshment “reserved for ex-slaves or their descendants who commited crimes.”(Sellin 163) This shows tha race played a role in someone being sentenced to a chain gang. Because of significant racial tensions at the time, many African Americans were arrested unjustly and placed on chain gangs .
During the time of pubication, Margaret Bourke-White was hired as a staff photographer. This leads me to believe that she had some say in how her photograph was used in the article. This is interesting because the article does not seem to match with what would be expected for the photograph. The photograph shows a contrast between the American dream and the reality of what African Americans were facing at the time. The text that accompanies the photograph only mentions that it shows a line of African Americans standing below a propaganda poster. The text supplies only one interpretation of Bourke-White’s photo. The article pulls away from the fact that the only people seen in the bread line are African American. This would tie in with Life’s secret support for civil rights. If Bourke-White had a say in the use of the photo, then wouldn’t she object to how her photo was used in the article. The photo says a lot about civil rights, however the text only reports on the the flood and the damage caused to everyone in the area. The photo appears to be out of place in the article. It feels like an important piece of the story, but then is only briefly mentioned in the actual article. By only briefly mentioning the photo, attention is drawn away from Bourke-White’s photo. This causes the reader to analyse the photograph without the narrative of the article. Secretive support is created because it forces the reader to view the photograph and come to their own conclusion without forcing an interpretation. This prevents Life from being attributed to a pro civil rights point of view.
Later in the magazine, there is an advertisment for truck tires. It talks about how trucks rushed food to aid the people devistated by the flood. This advertisment was placed far away from the article covering the flood. This is strange because there are many articles and advertisements separating the flood article and the truck tire ad. The editor chose to space the tire ad and the flood article apart. Both are about the same topic, but were kept unconnected. This is most likely because the editor wants to keep them from being associated with each other. The Heinz ad primes the reader to have empathy, but the tire ad could diminish that feeling. The Heinz ad makes the reader realize that they have the abilty to run to the local grocery and buy the food they nned, while the tire ad shows relief efforts being provided. The tire ad mentions that food is being transported to impacted flood areas. This would take some empathy away from the reader because it suggests that there is enough food for the people and the food is being distributed to the people who need it. This advertisment would take away from the impact of Bourke-white’s photograph. Secret support is established because the editor moved an ad that would have diminshed the message of inequality. The editor wanted to preserve the hidden meaning behind the use of Bourke-Whites’s photo.
The cultural and societal views of 1930’s is important for why Life would keep their support for civil rights secret. Between 1877 and the 1960’s, segregation was widespread. Jim Crow laws structured the lives of African Americans at the time. In 1896, Plessy V. Ferguson determined the “separate but equal” principle. This case decision meant that the Jim Crow laws were constitutional and justified. This ideology was common in both the northern and southern states. Most whites in the northern states “shared with southern whites the conviction that blacks, as an inferior race, were incapable of assimilation as equals into American society.”(Litwack) The African American population was widely looked down on. This plays into Life voicing support for civil rights in a secretive manner because Life didn’t want retaliation for supporting civil rights. Life’s reader base may have prevented it from just writing the article in support of African Americans. In this time period, supporting civil rights openly could have resulted in a loss of reader base. The editors used the series of photos to voice support without taking responsibility for the idea. At the time of publication, Franklin D. Roosevelt was serving as President of the United States. FDR inplemented the New deal from 1933 to 1936 in order to provide relief and recovery from the Great Depression. Although the New deal was able to provide some relief and improvement in the lives of African Americans, there was not much being done in the area of civil rights and equaity. The New Deal did not “operate equally regardless of racial lines”(Bunche 610). This means that even if there was no racial inequality present in the lives of African Americans, the New Deal would not have helped them equally. Later in 1941, FDR would come to create the Fair Employment Practice Committee. This would be a crucial step in the pursuit of the civil rights movement, but would not help the African Americans in 1937 and before. Life magazine was trying to declare support for civil rights and the advancement of African Americans in society, while not directly comigng out and saying it. The support in the article seems pro FDR. The editors wanted to voice their support for new policies and legislation that would help African Americans while not directly mentioning it in their article about the Loiusville Flood.
Life magazine was founded in 1883 and focused pimarily on humor. In 1936, Life magazine was purchased by the owner of Time Magazine, Henry Luce. Life then was transformed into a weekly photojournalism magazine. Life magazine also became the first American magazine to be all-photograhic. Life was published as an entertainment magazine that focused on jokes, illustrations, and social commentary. This would make sense that Life would secretly voice its opinion because it was known for its social commentary. Life wanted to speak its part without the reprocussions of its controversial take during the 1930’s. Life being bought out by TIME changed the course of the magazine. The February, 1937 issue of Life has Japanese General Senjuro Hayashi on the cover, who was briefly serving as Prime Minister of Japan. This particular issue of Life does not seem to be focusing on a particular issue. Based upon the fact that segregation was still a major factor in education in the 1930’s, it an be concluded that the reader base of Life in 1937 were educated white families. Life secretly voiced support for civil rights to its reader base of White Americans because at the time of publication, White Americans possesed power in politics through voting. African Americans were nt given the right to vote or participate in politics at the time. African Americans lacked the ability to voice their thought and opinons to advance their rights.
The Editor, the cultural and societal policies, as well as Life itself played a role in the message behind Margaret Bourke-White’s photo. Life magazine used the photo to show a clear example of racial inequality while not openly suppoerting the advancement of civil rights. This has to do with the dominence of segregation thorugh Jim Crow. Life understood its reader base and voiced its opinion accordingly. If Life magazine had a different reader base, maybe it would have been a little more open on its support for African Americans rights.
Bibliography
Bunche, Ralph J. (Ralph Johnson). The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR. University of Chicago Press, 1973.
Life. The Flood leaves its victims on the bread line February 15, 1937
Litwack, Leon F. “Jim Crow.” Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, edited by Colin A. Palmer, 2nd ed., vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 1176-1178. Gale eBooks, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3444700674/GVRL?u=newpaltz&sid=GVRL&xid=c5e6cd35. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.
Sellin, Thorsten. Slavery and the Penal System. Elsevier, 1976.
Reflection
After completing the contextual analysis, I learned about the process of research. I discovered how to conduct true research for a topic. I found the difference between just looking up the answer to a question on google and looking into related topics and themes using scholarly sources. The contextual analysis changed the way I looked at the original photograph because I looked to see the meaning created by the accompanying part of the article. In the compositional analysis, I looked at how the photo developed a meaning just by itself, but in writing the contextual analysis I was able to see how the aspects of the photograph interacted with the surrounding article to give the photo an almost new meaning. The most difficult part of writing this contextual analysis was trying to find new meanings for the photograph. This is because I had already developed a meaning from writing the Contextual analysis, so it was harder to see how the context of the article produced a different meaning. Because I had already developed a meaning, it was a little difficult to try to visualize a different meaning created by the context. My writing demons have stayed relatively consistent over the three analysis papers. I needed to improve my clarity as well as my sentence structure. I also needed to work on some of my transitions because they were a little abrupt. The aspect of the contextual analysis I was most confident about was using the information I had collected from writing the compositional analysis. This made it easier to understand the photos intensions from the photographer. The elements of the research process I will take with me into the next writing project are finding scholarly sources and finding overlapping themes and related objects. Finding scholarly sources is important for establishing the ethos of the writer. In the next project, finding overall themes and related objects widens the information you can find instead of just finding he answer for one question.
Final Draft
Flood Leaves African Americans on The Bread Line
Margaret Bourke-White “The Louisville Flood” February 1937
Craig Palmeri
10/20/19
English 170
Writing and Rhetoric
In 1937, Life published an article about the Louisville Flood. The Louisville Flood swept through the Ohio River Valley, leaving many without shelter or food. At the beginning of this article, Life uses a photo from Margaret Bourke-White in a series of photos covering the flood. The photo had been subtitled “The Flood Leaves Its Victims on The Bread line.” Because the article was written by staff writers, the article is attributed to Life instead of a single author. The writing aspect of the article covers the flood but seems out of place next to Bourke-White’s photo. The placement of Margaret Bourke-White’s photo “The Louisville Flood” contrasts with the writing to bring attention to the treatment of African Americans and create an almost secretive support for civil rights. In order to examine the impact of this discrepancy I will first look at the placement of Bourke-White’s photo and the editor’s perspective. Next, I will examine the cultural and societal perspective from the period in order to discover the publics feeling s towards the material, and finally I will look at Life as a publication in order to understand the reader base and typical message.
The editor plays a crucial role in the context of Bourke-White’s photo. The editor has a great deal of influence on where the photograph was positioned, as well as the ads placed around the article. The article is the first one of length in the magazine. This is because it is a feature article in this issue of life magazine. The previous article is only two pages about a Naturalist and the pictures he took. One example of the editor affecting interpretations of Margaret Bourke-White’s photo is the ad placed right before the article. The ad is for Heinz food products.
The caption associated with Bourke-White’s photograph states that “The flood leaves victims on the bread line.” This is a sharp contrast for the reader. The ad showcases Heinz products while the article is about not having shelter or food. This ad is strategically placed to prime the reader for the article because it reminds the reader that they have the ability to run to their local store and pick up the latest food items. The African Americans depicted in the photo have to wait in line for food. This was done to create empathy from the readers towards those affected by the flood. How a reader is primed can make a difference in their interpretation of the material they are exposed to. Priming the reader to have empathy helps with the publications support for civil rights. In Life, Bourke-White’s photo is placed on the page opposite of the Heinz ad. This causes the reader to see both the photograph and the advertisement at the same time. The editor intentionally placed the advertisement opposite the photograph in order to force the reader to associate the two together. By placing them on opposite pages, instead of after the article, the reader is primed for the article with no interuptions. This suggests that the editor placed the advertisement near the photo on purpose. The advertisement could have been printed anywhere in the magazine.
Another way the editor created support for civil rights is the position of Bourke-White’s photo compared to the other photos in the series. On the next page of the article, it shows members of the press working through the flood. In the photos, the members of the press are seen smoking, eating, and sleeping at their desks. The photos show the journalists with the basics needed for survival. They have easy access to food, water and shelter.
This is in contrast to the African Americans who have to wait in a large line for food. The photo’s captions seem to create the idea that the press were like heroes for their continuation of their work despite the flood. This calls attention to the fact the white journalists were doing just fine while the African Americans were just barely hanging on. On the opposite page to the journalists, the article has a photo of the a temporary shelter made for victims of the flood. The shelter looks filled to capacity and quickly assembled with the bare minimum. The caption for the photo states that the refugees were sleeping snugly, but the photo does not seem to show the caption. The shelter was created for African Americans only and looks cramped. From this time period, it can be assumed that African Americans were not given equal relief from the effects of the flood. In the last section of the article, Life has photos of the chain gangs that were working to repair flood damage. Chain gangs were often used to repair levees, highways, and railroads. Chain gangs were originally a punishment “reserved for ex-slaves or their descendants who commited crimes”(Sellin 163). This shows race played a role in someone being sentenced to a chain gang. Because of significant racial tensions at the time, many African Americans were arrested unjustly and placed on chain gangs.
During the time of publication, Margaret Bourke-White was hired as a staff photographer. This creates the possibility that she had some say in how her photograph was used in the article. This is interesting because the article does not seem to match with what would be expected for the photograph. The photograph shows a contrast between the American dream and the reality of what African Americans were facing at the time. The text that accompanies the photograph only mentions that it shows a line of African Americans standing below a propaganda poster. The text supplies only one interpretation of Bourke-White’s photo. The article pulls away from the fact that the only people seen in the bread line are African American. This would tie in with Life’s secret support for civil rights. If Bourke-White had a say in the use of the photo, then wouldn’t she object to how her photo was used in the article. The photo says a lot about civil rights, however the text only reports on the flood and the damage caused to everyone in the area. The photo appears to be out of place in the article. It feels like an important piece of the story, but then is only briefly mentioned in the actual article. By only briefly mentioning the photo in the article, attention is drawn away from Bourke-White’s photo. This causes the reader to analyse the photograph without the narrative of the article. Secretive support is created because it forces the reader to view the photograph and come to their own conclusion without forcing an interpretation. This prevents Life from being attributed to a pro civil rights point of view.
Later in the magazine, there is an advertisement for truck tires. It talks about how trucks rushed food to aid the people devastated by the flood. This advertisement was placed far away from the article covering the flood. This is strange because there are many articles and advertisements separating the flood article and the truck tire ad. The editor chose to space the tire ad and the flood article apart. Both are about the same topic, but were kept unconnected. This is most likely because the editor wants to keep them from being associated with each other. The Heinz ad primes the reader to have empathy, but the tire ad could diminish that feeling. The Heinz ad makes the reader realize that they have the ability to run to the local grocery and buy the food they need, while the tire ad shows relief efforts being provided. The tire ad mentions that food is being transported to impacted flood areas. This would take some empathy away from the reader because it suggests that there is enough food for the people and the food is being distributed to the people who need it. This advertisement takes away from the impact of Bourke-White’s photograph. Secret support is established because the editor moved an ad that would have taken away from the message of inequality. The editor wanted to preserve the hidden meaning behind the use of Bourke-Whites’s photo.
The cultural and societal views in 1930’s is important for why Life would keep their support for civil rights secret. Between 1877 and the 1960’s, segregation was widespread. Jim Crow laws structured the lives of African Americans at the time. In 1896, Plessy V. Ferguson determined the “separate but equal” principle. This case decision meant that the Jim Crow laws were constitutional and justified. This ideology was common in both the northern and southern states. Most whites in the northern states “shared with southern whites the conviction that blacks, as an inferior race, were incapable of assimilation as equals into American society”(Litwack). The African American population was widely looked down on. This plays into Life voicing support for civil rights in a secretive manner because Life didn’t want retaliation for supporting civil rights. Life’s reader base may have prevented it from just writing the article in support of African Americans due to a fear of retaliation and boycott of the magazine. In this time period, supporting civil rights openly could have resulted in a loss of reader base. The editors used the series of photos to voice support without taking responsibility for the idea. At the time of publication, Franklin D. Roosevelt was serving as President of the United States. FDR implemented the New deal from 1933 to 1936 in order to provide relief and recovery from the Great Depression. Although the New deal was able to provide some relief and improvement in the lives of African Americans, there was not much being done in the area of civil rights and equality. The New Deal did not “operate equally regardless of racial lines”(Bunche 610). This means that even if there was no racial inequality present in the lives of African Americans, the New Deal would not have helped them equally. Later in 1941, FDR would come to create the Fair Employment Practice Committee. This would be a crucial step in the pursuit of the civil rights movement, but would not help the African Americans in 1937 and before. Life magazine was trying to declare support for civil rights and the advancement of African Americans in society, while not directly coming out and saying it. The support in the article seems pro FDR. The editors wanted to voice their support for new policies and legislation that would help African Americans while not directly mentioning it in their article about the Louisville Flood.
Life magazine was founded in 1883 and focused primarily on humor. In 1936, Life magazine was purchased by the owner of Time Magazine, Henry Luce. Life then was transformed into a weekly photojournalism magazine. Life magazine also became the first American magazine to be all-photographic. Life was published as an entertainment magazine that focused on jokes, illustrations, and social commentary. This would make sense that Life would secretly voice its opinion because it was known for its social commentary. Life wanted to speak its part without the repercussions of its controversial take during the 1930’s. Life being bought out by TIME changed the course of the magazine. The February, 1937 issue of Life has Japanese General Senjuro Hayashi on the cover, who was briefly serving as Prime Minister of Japan. This particular issue of Life does not seem to be focusing on a particular issue. Based upon the fact that segregation was still a major factor in education in the 1930’s, it an be concluded that the reader base of Life in 1937 were educated white families. Life secretly voiced support for civil rights to its reader base of White Americans because at the time of publication, White Americans possessed power in politics through voting. African Americans were not given the right to vote or participate in politics at the time. African Americans lacked the ability to voice their thought and opinions to advance their rights.
The Editor, the cultural and societal policies, as well as Life itself played a role in the message behind Margaret Bourke-White’s photo. Life magazine used the photo to show a clear example of racial inequality while not openly supporting the advancement of civil rights. This has to do with the dominance of segregation through Jim Crow. Life understood its reader base and voiced its opinion accordingly. If Life magazine had a different reader base, maybe it would have been a little more open on its support for African Americans rights.
Bibliography
Bunche, Ralph J. (Ralph Johnson). The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR. University of Chicago Press, 1973.
Life. The Flood leaves its victims on the bread line February 15, 1937
Litwack, Leon F. “Jim Crow.” Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, edited by Colin A. Palmer, 2nd ed., vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 1176-1178. Gale eBooks, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3444700674/GVRL?u=newpaltz&sid=GVRL&xid=c5e6cd35. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.
Sellin, Thorsten. Slavery and the Penal System. Elsevier, 1976.