Robert H. McNeill Watch Your Step c. 1940

  • Not on view

In 1938 McNeill was selected to join the only all–African American research team within the Works Progress Administration, which provided employment to artists during the Great Depression. He traveled on assignment to photograph the poverty and segregation of the Jim Crow South, and his pictures appeared in a Federal Writers’ Project publication titled The Negro in Virginia. Its authors protested that in rural areas Black children “have for their only playgrounds their school yard, vacant lots of outlying regions, or the alleys.”

Gallery label from 2022
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
9 7/16 × 7 9/16" (24 × 19.2 cm)
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art and Committee on Photography Fund
Object number
934.2014
Copyright
© 2023 Heirs of Robert H. McNeill
Department
Photography

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