Bring a Meaner Dog May 4, 1963, 2011. 9" x 12". Acrylic, chalk, pencil, dog hair and cloth on canvas.
On May 4, 1963 the photo of two black Birmingham officers in dark aviators grabbing a white boy by his sweater as a police canine tears into the white youth's stomach was chosen for the cover of the NY Times. The boy, Walter Gadsden, a relation to the editor of The Birmingham World a white newspaper, has his eyes lowered, with a look of passive calm as the dog buries its teeth into him.
Gadsden was merely a passive observer to what was called the Children's Crusade, which was a demonstration of Birmingham, Alabama's students to bring more awareness to the civil rights campaign. Fire hoses and dogs were used on the white demonstrators to quell the gathering. Gadsden himself was jailed for 'parading without a permit'. After witnessing his arrest the police Commissioner asked the arresting officer, "Why didn't you bring a meaner dog; this one is not the vicious one."
I'm assuming this is a typo...of white instead of black? Walter Gadsden was a young black man who was attacked by white policemen during a march by black children in the heat of the civil rights movement.
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not a typo. It is meant as a case of race reversal; how would whites feel if they had been the minority fighting for civil rights?
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