Manhunt

John Steuart Curry designed these images to arouse sympathy, direct attention to the problem of racial violence, and effect social change. He sent the lithograph and painting of The Fugitive and the painting of Manhunt to the exhibition "An Art Commentary on Lynching," sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1935, part of their lobbying for anti-lynching legislation. The Fugitive is a powerful image of an African American in a Christ-like pose fleeing the mob intent on killing him, while Manhunt concentrates on the blood-thirsty mob itself. In both prints the outcome of the man's fate remains unresolved.