Civil Rights! Miscegenation Allowed by Congress, Despite the Veto of the President: Museum Object and Cultural History
Civil Rights! Miscegenation Allowed by Congress, Despite the Veto of the President: Date: 1866. Created by: Unidentified. Subject of: Hiester Clymer, American, 1827 - 1884.
The object in the museum catalogue
A satirical illustrated card about the Civil Rights Act of 1866, titled "Civil Rights! Miscegenation Allowed by Congress, Despite the Veto of the President".
The illustration shows a white bride and a caricatured Black groom appearing before a minister. The groom says "Massa, you must marry us. De law says so." The minister sighs "Marriage is a contract. I must do this or be fined." Text below the illustration reads [The President vetoed the Bill in order to protect the White Man. / Congress passed it over his head to benefit the Negro.] and continues to mention three Pennsylvania state politicians who were running for office as Republicans in the 1866 election: Geary, Forney, and Cameron as being in favor of the bill. The reverse of the card continues the racist textual attack against the Civil Rights Act, beginning with the admonishment [READ THE BILL! READ THE VETO!].
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date: 1866
- Created by: Unidentified
- Subject of: Hiester Clymer, American, 1827 - 1884
- Medium: ink on wove paper
- Dimensions: H x W: 2 9/16 × 3 5/8 in. (6.5 × 9.2 cm)
- Place made: Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
- Topic: African American
- Topic: Caricature and cartoons
- Topic: Civil Rights
- Topic: Law
- Topic: Politics
- Topic: Race discrimination
- Topic: Race relations
- Topic: Reconstruction, U.S. History, 1865-1877
- Object number: 2020.26.39
- Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
Sources
More in Fandom & Collecting
Keep reading