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

History Theses

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 20^th 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 …