Siegler - Signs of resistance: a visual history of protest in America

It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.

Thomas Paine

1877
E. & H.T. Anthony

The disembodied hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty is a reminder that America has always been a work in progress. Its beliefs, its struggles, and even its icons. This piece of Lady Liberty was on display in Madison Square Park in New York City for six years, beginning in 1876. It was sent to America to inspire donations so we could eventually get the rest of her.

Introduction

2003
Robbie Conal

Conal has made more than 100 street posters, many satirizing politicians and bureaucrats, but this one was created to honor his personal idols: Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Six months after Donald J. Trump was sworn in as forty-fifth president of the United States, I got a call from a conference planner, inviting me to speak at a big creativity conference in Las Vegas. She asked me to talk about the future of design.

I am a graphic designer and have owned my studio for twenty-five years, but I had no idea what the future of design held. Thanks to the election of a president who seemed to be systematically dismantling American democracy as we knew it, I had no idea what the future of anything held. She asked me what I would like to talk about, and I immediately replied, All I can think about is the resistance.

In the months leading up to the 2016 election, I worked to spread the word about the dangers of a Trump presidency, fund-raising and creating media for Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates. It didnt work, and along with a majority of Americans, I was angry. On the day after Trumps inauguration, I joined 400,000 protesters at the Womens March in Washington, DC. It was inspiring and empowering, but I was still angry.

I was also scared. For as long as I can remember, my grandfather told me about his escape from Nazi Germany, the day before Kristallnacht, with my grandmother and my mother, who was two years old. Most of his family remained in Berlin, convinced that Hitlers hate speech was simply rhetoric. They perished in the Holocaust.

Growing up under the weight of this history, it was impossible not to ask myself, What would I do in a similar circumstance? Would I have been able to see Hitler for who he really was? And more important: Would I be able to act on my convictions? Or would I stand by and watch as one group of people was isolated and identified as the root of all evil?

Its hard not to draw parallels with Trumps America today, and I have a difficult time believing that his fearmongering and racist, inflammatory words are just rhetoric. When the conference planner called me, I had already been researching what Americans had done in the past when they were angry, and in the process, uncovered protest art that was so compelling, so inspiring, it stirred something in me decades, even centuries, later. So I proposed a presentation on the design of resistance in America.

The resulting 140-image presentation led to impassioned debate in the audience, and when it was over, conference attendees kept approaching me, requesting copies. I have to show this to my husband, my kids, my colleagues, they told me, picking up on the urgency and passion of the protesters throughout history, and no doubt inspired by our countrys resilience when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges. I was inspired, too, and decided to turn my presentation into what youre holding now.

This book is a collection of visual expressions of resistance throughout American history. They include broadsides, postcards, posters, greeting cards, sculptures, paintings, ads, book covers, magazine covers, handmade signs, projections, and the back sides of scrap paper. They were created by artists, designers, and everyday men, women, and children (!) who might not have had a lot of creative background but certainly had a lot to say. (In fact, as youll see often in these pages, sometimes the cruder the art, the more powerful the response.) People used the weapons they had at their disposal: paper and pen. Their only client was their conscience. Every protest image was made because someone felt compelled to act out of a belief in what they felt was right.

Hopefully we can learn from these past movements, and apply those lessons to our resistance today. While I was compiling this book, I went back and forth between rage and hoperage because, to quote a favorite sign at the Womens March, I cant believe we are still protesting this shit. And hope because looking at these images reminded me that there have been other dark, shameful chapters in American history, and yet somehow democracy survived. Because we did what we do best: We kept fighting.

chapter 1

The Early Years

America First

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.

thomas jefferson

For Americans in the revolutionary era, the art of dissent was dictated by the technology available. With limited development of design tools, it was all about the words themselves, rather than persuasion through style.

1765

The Sons of Liberty was a group formed in response to the Stamp Act, a law of Parliament that taxed all official documents and marked the beginning of the end of Americas relationship with England. The Sons placed these small (approximately 5-by- 7-inch) notices all over Boston to announce their first act of protest: a meeting to call for the public resignation of Andrew Oliver, the American official in charge of enforcing the Stamp Act. It worked. Oliver watched as the colonists hoisted his effigy, then resigned in front of all assembled.

1829

An engraving memorializing this history-altering act of resistance.

1765

Protests come in all sizes: This parody stamp was created to mock the Stamp Act; the skull and bones symbolized the death of the free press.

1766
Paul Revere

Revere, a silversmith by trade, was so thrilled by the success of the Stamp Act resistance, he celebrated by designing an obelisk to honor all the players involved.

Two approaches, same basic message: Behave!

1775
King George III

The king issued this proclamation telling the colonists they were subject to severe penalty should they protest, forgetting the allegiance which they owe to the power that has protected and sustained them. Naturally, the document achieved the exact