Project outline

Our group will work on the exclusion of African Americans from the Chicago World's Fair, 1933. We will point out that although some achievements were accomplished, the situation remained dim before, throughout and after the Fair. Various factors contributed to this. The actual (mis)representation of African Americans, however, has its roots in the (white) planning and construction process, which we will focus on as well as the cultural theory and political history that shaped the Fair considerably.

Topics we want to focus on are:

• historical background:

  a timetable with a short explanation of the events supported by pictures. The history part of the project should portray the way leading to the exclusion/inclusion of African Americans in white American society at the world's fairs. It should contain events like the Segregation and the Civil War, the slavery and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment.
• inclusion: black movement (incl. negro day), eugenics
• exclusion: see exclusion
• photography: see photography
• dictionary