Kerry James Marshall, Our Town, 1995, acrylic and collage on canvas, 101 x 143 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.3. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Equality

The lighter the skin, the more acceptable you are. The darker the skin, the more marginalized you become. I want to demonstrate that you can produce beauty in the context of a figure that has that kind of velvety blackness. It can be done.

–Kerry James Marshall

Classroom Image Set and Discussion Prompts

Equality Image Set
(.ppt 3.4MB)

Additional Teaching Resources

Civil Disobedience Across Time
Bill of Rights Institute

Voting Rights
iCivics

First Amendment Speech and Press Part 1
National Constitution Center

The 19th Amendment and the Road to Universal Suffrage
National Archives

Japanese American Incarceration during WWII
National Archives

Commemorating Courage: 40th Anniversary of the Desegregation of Central High
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution makes everyone born in the United States a citizen, entitled to equal protection in every state. How have notions of equality shifted with the recognition and intersection of race, class, and gender in American society?

We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed.

–Abraham Lincoln

The notion of equality has been simplified to mean treating everyone the same. Equality aims to promote fairness, but it can only work if everyone starts from the same place and needs the same things in order to enjoy full, healthy lives. Art is an invitation to freely talk about issues of inequality and our different needs and wants. It is a powerful tool for advocacy and equality by promoting communication, inclusion, and cultural transformation. Because visual images transcend barriers of spoken and written language, they connect us to our common humanity.

In this collection, you will find artworks that:

tell untold stories and give voice to the underrepresented
share narratives of survival and resistance from individuals and communities facing fear, violence, and repression
defend human rights and democracy in an ever-evolving, diverse, twenty-first-century America

Explore the ways American art addresses justice through the questions and artworks below.

How does social and/or economic equality impact artistic practice?
How can the arts advance issues of equity in communities?
Has the meaning of equality looked the same during different time periods throughout history?
What is the difference between equality and equity?