Page 143 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

248 ● (CIVIL RIGHTS.) CHAVEZ MUHAMMAD, BENJAMIN. March on Raleigh
for Labor and Human Rights. Poster, 221⁄2 x 171⁄2 inches.
New York: National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, 1976 [400/600]
In February of 1971 Benjamin Chavis Muhammad was in Wilmington, North Carolina, to
drum up support for a school desegregation lawsuit that had been brought by the NAACP. On
a night of racial violence, Mike’s Grocery, a white-owned store in a black part of town, was fire-
bombed. A year later, the Wilmington 10 (as the nine black men, including Ben Chavis
Muhammad, and one white woman came to be known) were convicted of and were sentenced to
a combined total of 282 years in prison. The lengthiest term, thirty-four years, was given to
Ben Chavis Muhammad. The case immediately attracted worldwide attention and became a
celebrated focus of the civil rights movement. Defense attorneys pointed out 2,685 errors in the
trial, but appeals were denied. The Wilmington 10 went to prison in 1976.
249 ● (CIVIL RIGHTS—CIO.) Give Them A Break. REGISTER. VOTE! Poster,
40 x 30 inches, printed in black and white and yellow, showing a group of black toddlers at
play; dry-mounted to a large piece of heavy stock cardboard; a couple of creases where
originally folded; one small “dent.”
Congress of Industrial Organizations, circa 1950’s [800/1,200]
250 ● (CIVIL RIGHTS—EMPLOYMENT.) Wanted! Colored Women for Rag
Sorting. High Wages—Short Hours. Steady Employment. Letterpress sign, 117⁄
8 x 8
inches; some discoloration around the edges; small tea or coffee stain at bottom right cor-
ner. [Dayton, OH, circa 1940’s] [600/800]
An unusually detailed advertisement for women rag sorters for the Aetna Paper Company in
Dayton, Ohio. The sign continues: “We can arrange for quite a few that have household duties
to perform and only care to work three to four days a week.” Not as nice an offer as it sounds.
Rag sorters often became ill due to soiled linen from hospitals and other less than hygienic
sources. This was not a job that many wanted.
A RARE RELIC OF THE MFLU
251 ● (CIVIL RIGHTS.) HAMER, FANNIE LOU. STRIKE! Don’t Work For Less
Than $1.25 An Hour. Join The Mississippi Freedom Labor Union. heavy stock
paper placard, 17 x 11 inches, discolored spots at the corners where pasted to a heavier
piece of cardboard; crease where folded across the center; two pin-holes toward the upper
margin. [Mississippi, circa 1965] [1,500/2,500]
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), orator, activist, and educator who once said she was “sick
and tired of being sick and tired,” was born in rural Montgomery County, the twentieth child of
tenant farmers. In 1962, hurt and angry following a hysterectomy performed without her
approval, decided to attend a meeting in her home-town of Ruleville, where she heard James
Forman of SNNC and James Bevel of SCNC speak. Inspired by their words, she and seven-
teen others decided to register to vote. At the courthouse they were told they could only enter
two at a time, and were given a literacy test, which they all failed. On their return, they were
stopped by the police and told that the bus they were in was the “wrong color.” That evening,
B.D. Marlowe, the owner of the plantation on which they lived and worked told Hamer to
withdraw her application or move. Thus began Fannie Lou Hamer’s conversion to political
activism. Hamer supported many different progressive economic projects. One of the main pro-
jects she supported actively was the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union (MFLU, which was a
union of black domestic workers and day laborers. The MFLU placed great emphasis on home,
land and business ownership in an effort to thwart economic exploitation in Mississippi.