The United States Office of War Information and World War Two Propaganda: Photographic Images of Black Schooling in Washington, D.C.

La Oficina de Información de Guerra de los Estados Unidos y la Propaganda de la Segunda Guerra Mundial: Imágenes Fotográficas de la Educación de Personas Negras en Washington D.C.

This essay examines photographic images of African American schoolchildren in the racially segregated schools of Washington, D.C. during World War II. Our sample derives from a collection of images taken by the U.S. government’s Office of War Information (OWI) in 1942 intended to document how Black schools were contributing to the war effort on the American Homefront. Through a semiotic analysis of the signs and symbols embedded in visual meaning, we argue that these photographs simultaneously illustrate African Americans’ educational and civic aspirations while also foreshadowing their growing discontent and civil rights activism that would emerge a generation later.

Keywords:
Black students; school segregation; propaganda