Now, Mr. Lincoln?

Race and Political Cartoons in The Trail

As the Now, Mr. Lincoln? campaign started to take off, race was becoming a more integral part of the University of Puget Sound curriculum, and speakers were invited to campus to discuss racial issues, the campus community started to respond to the newfound conversations about race in their campus publications, notably school newspaper The Trail.

This response included a plethora of political-style cartoons, such as the one (above) published in 1969 [A&SC 25]. Some appeared independently of an accompanying article, while others served as accompaniment to larger pieces. This cartoon accompanied Barb Clements' article "Hamer Speech Sparks Action," which covered black voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer's visit to the University of Puget Sound on February 21, 1969 [A&SC 25]. The inclusion of political cartoons and Hamer's (at the time) recent presence on campus are both indicative of political involvement on campus being an important and ongoing subject of discussion. Interestingly, it's not much different from the discussions that universities are having in the (at time of writing) present day of the  2010s.

Though the cartoons covered many subjects—not just race—the one above serves as just one example of a political commentary that is decidedly racially charged. The political cartoon, though it is next to an article, doesn't have an obvious connection to the source material other than a brief mention in the article of the university's new Black Studies program [A&SC 25]. In the spirit of open dialogue, the cartoon is somewhat left up to interpretation, despite its arguably specific message.

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