. . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? —Patrick Henry, 1775, Panel 1, 1955, Inscription: No 1 PROPHESY, Jacob Lawrence, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross, © 2019 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Attorney and orator Patrick Henry gave his 1775 speech on behalf of the educated elite at the Virginia Convention to rally the colonists’ spirit of resistance and patriotism. The words that made the speech famous are his war cry against the British, “give me liberty, or give me death!” Yet, for the title caption to Panel 1, Lawrence chose a less familiar line—the words that equated the lack of true liberty with slavery.
A new protagonist arose in the fight for human freedom and dignity amid the scorching headlines about the violent murder of Emmett Till in August 1955, his widely attended funeral, and the subsequent trial. On September 19, 1955, Till’s uncle, Mose Wright, courageously stood up in court to identify the men who came to his home on the night of August 28, 1955, to abduct the boy. Wright pointed his finger at Roy Bryant and John W. Milan and answered the judge, “There they are.” Newspaper photographer Ernest Withers captured the moment in this photograph. This ink and wash illustration shows another view from the courtroom. There is an uncanny similarity between the pointing gesture in these initially unpublished images and in Lawrence’s portrayal of attorney and speechwriter Patrick Henry proclaiming liberty.
