Throughout
the 1960s, racial tensions exploded in riots throughout America, as the
gap widened between the powerful and the powerless. Generations clashed
over new fashions and attitudes, popular culture, drugs and music. Students
and political activists took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War
and numerous controversial social issues. Herb Block lent clarity, reason,
and focus to a time filled with confusion, anger, and anxiety, and exerted
a strong influence on a new generation of younger cartoonists.
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Animal farm
By 1960, electoral reapportionment in many states had failed to
keep up with population shifts, with the result that some rural
districts with few inhabitants had greater representation than urban
ones. Critics argued that "the integrity of representative government
was in many cases endangered." Herb Block's cartoons on this inequality
show farm animals getting greater representation than humans. Here
he makes reference to George Orwell's Animal Farm,
in which a "more equal" pig is dominant. In a 1964 decision, which
Chief Justice Earl Warren regarded as one of the most important
of his tenure, the Supreme Court issued a "one-man, one vote" ruling
designed to correct the imbalance in representation.
Animal farm,
April 2, 1961
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (47)
LC-USZ62-127074
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"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
who's the fairest one of all?"
In this cartoon from the beginning of 1960, Herb Block shows Vice-President
Richard Nixon preparing to run for the presidential nomination that
year. He depicts him on the basis of his past record as the witch-like
character from Snow White. Nixon won the Republican
nomination and lost to Senator John F. Kennedy that fall.
"Mirror,
mirror, on the wall,
who's the fairest one of all?"
January 2, 1960
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (44)
LC-USZ62-127079
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"It's all right to seat them.
They're not Americans"
President John F. Kennedy called for southern governors to assure
"a friendly and dignified reception" for foreign diplomats visiting
the United States, amid widespread discrimination against blacks
in restaurants and other public places. The governor of Virginia,
where "massive resistance" to desegregation originated, promised
to provide southern courtesy, but coupled his response with the
suggestion that diplomats identify themselves as official representatives
of their governments. Herb Block's cartoon, based on an actual occurrence,
expressed the outrageousness of black Americans in the United States
being held as less worthy of respectful treatment than foreigners.
"It's all
right to seat them.
They're not Americans," April 27, 1961
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (48)
LC-USZ62-127069
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"I help to support the establishments
I have mentioned; they cost enough, and
those who are badly off must go there."
--A Christmas Carol
President Kennedy proposed legislation to use payroll taxes to
support medical care for the aged. Dr. Leonard Larson, president
of the American Medical Association (AMA), spoke against what would
eventually become Medicare, predicting that it foretold the complete
socialization of medical care in the United States, echoing the
AMA's earlier charges against President Truman's health care plans.
He reminded Herblock of the miserly Scrooge in Dickens' A
Christmas Carol.
"I help
to support the establishments I have mentioned; they cost enough,
and those who are badly off must go there." --A Christmas Carol,
November 29, 1961
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (49)
LC-USZ62-127070
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"What do they expect us to do -- listen to
the kids pray at home?"
The separation of church and state has long been the subject of
political controversy in the United States. On June 17, 1963, the
Supreme Court held that state and local rules providing for recitation
of the Lord's Prayer or verses from the Bible by children in public
schools violated First Amendment rights. President John F. Kennedy
said: "We have in this case a very easy remedy, and that is to pray
ourselves. And I would think that it would be a welcome reminder
to every American family that we can pray a good deal more at home,
we can attend our churches with a good deal more fidelity, and we
can make the true meaning of prayer much more important in the lives
of our children."
"What do
they expect us to do--listen to the
kids pray at home?" June 18, 1963
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (53)
LC-USZ62-127087
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"Sorry, but you have an incurable
skin condition"
In many areas, black doctors were excluded from practice in medical
facilities. This not only deprived them of opportunities, but deprived
many patients of all colors of treatment they might otherwise have
received. In 1963, the AMA and a black medical association agreed
to form a joint committee to halt injustices toward African American
doctors.
"Sorry,
but you have an incurable
skin condition," July 4, 1963
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (54)
LC-USZ62-127084
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"And remember, nothing can be accomplished by taking to the streets"
Herb Block applauds the growing activism of the civil rights movement
in this cartoon. Here he shows the Catch-22 situation of an African-American
practically pushed into the street by a white man, while signs on
all the buildings that line the street speak of restrictions on
African Americans.
"And remember,
nothing can be accomplished
by taking to the streets," September 6, 1963
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (55)
LC-USZ62-127088
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"Kindly move over a little, gentlemen"
After being elected president in his own right, in his 1965 inaugural
address President Lyndon B. Johnson called for the creation of a
"Great Society," supporting new social programs, including anti-poverty
projects. In his "guns and butter" policies, the butter projects
at home did better than the gun policies in Vietnam. By the end
of his term in office, his growing budget for "Health, Education,
and Welfare" represented the greatest social advances since the
New Deal.
"Kindly move
over a little,
gentlemen," January 26, 1965
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (56)
LC-USZ62-127078
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"I got one of ‘em just as she almost made it back to the church"
In 1965, Alabama became the focus of an intense effort to register
blacks to vote. On March 7, 1965, over 600 marchers for voting rights
left Brown's Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma
on their way to Montgomery, fifty-four miles away. On this "Bloody
Sunday," state troopers attacked the marchers as they reached the
Edmund Pettus Bridge at the Alabama River. Nearly 100 of the marchers
were hurt as they ran back toward the church. Television cameras
captured the violence, making Selma an overnight symbol of racial
oppression. It led President Lyndon Johnson to push for the Voting
Rights Act of 1965.
"I got
one of em just as she almost made it
back to the church," March 9, 1965
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (57)
LC-USZ62-127073
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Jericho, U.S.A.
Herb Block compares the civil rights marches around the exclusionary
walls of segregation to the Biblical march of the exiled ancient
Israelites around the walled city of Jericho. The Israelites marched
around Jericho seven times and the walls came tumbling down.
Jericho, U.S.A.,
March 21, 1965
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing on layered
paper
Published in the Washington Post (58)
LC-USZ62-127076
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