“Unmasked: The Anti-Lynching Exhibits of 1935 and Community Remembrance”

Join us as the Orange Mound Library brings to Memphis a limited-time exhibition that offers a powerful look into two competing artistic responses to racial violence during the 1930s, with lessons for our world today. 

In 1935, two anti-lynching art exhibitions were held in New York—one organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the second by the John Reed Club. The two installations spoke to competing notions of the political function of critical artworks and the aesthetics of anti-racist protest. 

“Unmasked: The Anti-Lynching Exhibits of 1935 and Community Remembrance” unites these exhibitions in a single space accompanied by displays of current efforts to memorialize and honor the victims of this once all-too common public expression of white supremacy—including right here in Memphis. 

Curated by faculty at Indiana University, funded by the Eli Lilly and Co. Foundation, and co-sponsored by the Lynching Sites of Memphis Project, this is the exhibition’s first visit to the South.  

 Please be advised: “Unmasked” includes graphic images of racist violence, torture, and brutality, and examples of racist language. The artists represented in this exhibition frequently sought to balance their commitment to showing the horror of white supremacy and their concerns about reproducing it. 

Don't miss poet Glenn North for an afternoon of spoken word and reflection inspired by Unmasked, on September 27 from 11:00am-12:30pm. Learn more about the event here.