This study examines the themes of political cartoons in the Indianapolis Freeman from 1888 to 1893, the years of founder Edward E. Cooper's tenure at the newspaper. The Freeman regularly featured editorial cartoons that provided commentary on political and social issues from the perspective of black Americans. The newspaper gained prestige as the first illustrated black newspaper and served as a model for other newspapers during the era.
The eight-page weekly publication became a prominent black newspaper during the post-Reconstruction years, a time when blacks in the South as well the North faced disfranchisement, economic hardships, and lynching. Newspaper circulation extended well beyond Indianapolis to readers who lived in black communities all the way from Michigan, Ohio, and Kansas to Kentucky, Virginia and Mississippi. The Freeman served as a communication medium that helped shape opinions regarding issues that concerned and affected blacks in the United States.
Many of the political illustrations published in the Freeman during this period focused on two prominent themes: a growing disillusionment by blacks with the political process and commentary on issues related to the "Negro Problem." The cartoons in the Freeman provided an avenue through which blacks, ignored and overlooked by the mainstream press, conveyed their viewpoints and the way they experienced life.
Visual images provided multiple layers of meaning in which understanding was nnot limited to words or a specific time or place. Even after Cooper left the Freeman to publish a newspaper in Washington, D. C., the cartoons drawn by Henry J. Lewis and others continued to appear in the newspaper. These illustrations conveyed relevant messages because they were drawn from a point of view that spoke for and to black Americans.
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