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  • 2018-11-25 (xsd:date)
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  • Does This Photograph Show a Black Couple Accepting a Gift from KKK Members? (en)
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  • A photograph dating from 1948 depicting an apparent show of charity on the part of the Ku Klux Klan towards an elderly black couple in Alabama continues to circulate online, although details behind the actual encounter are sparse. The photograph shows 106-year-old Jack Riddle and his wife, Rosie, both former slaves, seated in front of a group of Klansmen (including one dressed as Santa Claus), flanking a radio the group had reportedly given to the couple as a gift: The image, which was published in newspapers in California and Pennsylvania (among other states), has resurfaced periodically on social media platforms, although it is typically accompanied by little in the way of information about how and why the Klansmen approached the Riddles with their gift. John Giggie, an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama, told us that the photograph is the type of image that Klan members would dream of at the time: Giggie added that the photograph also screams hyperbole: Time magazine also published a brief item about the pictured meeting on 3 January 1949 under the heading Manners and Morals: A separate photograph of the encounter was collected in the book From the Picture Press, published by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1973: The museum's caption for the photograph stated that Green and his cohorts publicized the 'good will' visit ten days before it occurred. However, at least one related clipping posted online has, at the very least, been misattributed. Some blog posts concerning the Riddles' photograph cite a brief op-ed attributed to the Milwaukee Journal newspaper on 26 December 1948: In 1995, the Journal merged with the Milwaukee Sentinel to become the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. When we contacted that successor newspaper regarding the 1948 clipping, assistant managing editor for visual journalism Sherman Williams told us that This article does not appear in the 12/26/48 edition of The Milwaukee Journal. The article does not match the typography or style of the newspaper then. The photograph was also copyrighted by Getty Images, who told us that it was originally shot by a photographer from the Keystone Press Agency. At least two phone numbers listed under that name are invalid, while emails sent to addresses listed under Keystone did not produce responses prior to publication. According to an obituary published in Jet magazine in January 1953, Jack Riddle died at the age of 111. (en)
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