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Fighting For Recognition: The Role African Americans Played In World Fairs, Andrew R. Valint

Andrew Valint

ABSTRACT OF THESIS Fighting for Recognition The Role African Americans played in World Fairs In the years following the Civil War African Americans were locked in a struggle for equality. Persevering through racism and the institution of Jim Crow laws, African Americans made advancements socially, economically, politically, and educationally. As the U.S. ushered in the dawn of the 20th century, World Fairs became the altar on which blacks could showcase their progress since Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. From the 1889 fair in Paris to Buffalo’s Pan American Exposition of 1901 African Americans fought for a ‘Negro Exhibit’ to factually portray …