A Visual Discourse Analysis of the Historic and Photographic Constructions of the Black Teacher Body

• In Event: Black Bodies: Visuality, Discourse, and Antiracist Justice

Abstract

In the late 1800s, African Americans were enrolled in vocational institutions in order to acquire industrial skills such as shoemaking and sewing. Through federal grants, photographers were hired to document these educational practices. On the surface, these photographs present Blacks as mundane and calm. However, a deeper examination of these images reveals unsettling notions because they address larger issues concerning a political economy of race, philanthropy, and education. Drawing on Ian Hacking’s (1995) “human kinds” concept and a methodology of visual discourse analysis, this paper explores the visual, disciplining measures enacted upon this Black body and its intersection with the production of teacher education at Southern institutions.

Author

• Karla R Manning, University of Wisconsin - Madison