Representation as a Form of Resistance: Documenting African American Spaces of Leisure during the Jim Crow Era

FAIN: FEL-288467-23

Elizabeth Patton
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD 21250-0001)

Research and writing of a book about Black leisure and tourism in the Jim Crow era.

This research project examines the history of Black leisure and tourism in the US through the lens of media, primarily focusing on the Jim Crow era, to put into context lingering forms of racism that affect African American leisure practices today. Previous studies on race and leisure take a historical or ethnographic perspective but do not consider media as a primary archival source and the cultural work of images in shaping our understanding of the relationship between African American identity formation, acts of resistance and leisure. Specifically, this research focuses on how media, such as advertisements, photographs, and home videos have been used to document and promote leisure practices as a form of covert resistance. This research provides a counter-narrative to consumption-based and white-washed popular representations of leisure.

Associated Products

Home Movies as Technologies of Belonging and Resistance (Article)
Title: Home Movies as Technologies of Belonging and Resistance
Author: Elizabeth A. Patton
Abstract: This article examines the significance of home movies as tools of resistance and belonging, particularly for African American families during the Civil Rights era. Focusing on archival collections from the South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), African American Home Movie Archive (AAHMA), and the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC), the study reveals how African American families, through their cinematic documentation of visits to national parks and other leisure activities, challenged prevailing narratives of national identity. Despite encountering rampant discrimination, these families captured moments of joy and relaxation, highlighting their resilience and assertion of their rightful place within the American narrative. These historical home movies are profound testimonials of Black identity, resilience, and belonging in the face of adversity. Examining these films enriches our understanding of cultural memory, national identity, and the role of African American home movies in presenting a more nuanced American history.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: http://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.26.06
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media

The Paradox of Inclusion and Exclusion at the 1964 World’s Fair: Photography, Leisure, and Racial Inequality (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Paradox of Inclusion and Exclusion at the 1964 World’s Fair: Photography, Leisure, and Racial Inequality
Author: Elizabeth Patton
Abstract: The 1964 World’s Fair in New York City aimed to showcase technology’s role in promoting peace and universal understanding. One of the most notable exhibitors at the fair was Eastman Kodak. An explosion of leisure and tourism marked the postwar period in the US. Americans had more disposable income and leisure time than ever before, and photography helped capture and promote the experiences and destinations available to them, such as the World’s Fair. However, the 1964 World’s Fair presented to African Americans a paradox of inclusion and exclusion. Publications such as Ebony promoted the World’s Fair as an opportunity for African Americans to participate in shared experiences like their white, middle-class counterparts and think about the possibility of a future where technological progress benefitted everyone. Companies like Kodak used the World’s Fair to reach new customers. Overall, the 1964 World’s Fair served as a showcase of technological and social progress but also highlighted the ongoing inequality issues for minority groups.
Date: 10/26/2023
Conference Name: Society for the History of Technology

Home Movies as a Form of Resistance (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Home Movies as a Form of Resistance
Author: Elizabeth A. Patton
Abstract: This paper argues that the documentation of leisure, specifically tourism during the 1960s, is an important form of resistance to systemic inequality. How do the experiences of African Americans, whose worth historically was equated with labor, help us reevaluate our understanding of leisure as a fundamental human right? Specifically, I will discuss home movies from The South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP) at the University of Chicago, which collects, preserves, and digitizes home movies (8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm) by residents from historically black neighborhoods of the South Side of Chicago. The archive includes films from the 1920s to the 1980s. Of the twenty-eight collections available online, this paper will focus on three home movies (silent 8mm film) from the Lynette Frazier collection that were filmed in New York City, Memphis, TN and Washington, DC during the late 1960s. I chose these films because of their temporal, spatial and historic significance to argue that the experiences of African Americans, whose worth historically was equated with labor, help us reevaluate our understanding of leisure as a fundamental human right. Home movies have “power and significance for African Americans whose experience was, for so long, undocumented and negated” and can provide an alternative narrative of Black life in the absence of conventional historical documents (Klotman and Cutler, Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video, p. xix). African American home movies provide a counter-narrative to the prevailing understanding as tourism as purely consumption-driven and challenges what the dominant culture through film, television and advertising imagine leisure and tourism to be and who it is for.
Date: 04/04/2023
Conference Name: Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies

Frames of Freedom: Capturing the Spirit of African American Leisure and Empowerment Through Media (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Frames of Freedom: Capturing the Spirit of African American Leisure and Empowerment Through Media
Abstract: In the US, black leisure and tourism have long been means of resistance against entrenched systemic racism. Professor Patton dives into a rich tapestry of archival materials—from photographs, documentary films, and guidebooks to advertisements and personal home movies—to shed light on the multifaceted ways African Americans harnessed media and cultural memory to document leisure. Central to this research is the exploration of the intersections of media, racial geographies, and the collective memory of a community that used leisure as a practice to assert their humanity, challenge prevailing stereotypes, and counteract pervasive negative portrayals.
Author: Elizabeth A. Patton
Date: 11/06/2023
Location: Vassar College
Primary URL: https://www.vassar.edu/news/events/2023/frames-freedom-capturing-spirit-african-american-leisure-and-empowerment-through

Leisure as Resistance (Web Resource)
Title: Leisure as Resistance
Author: Elizabeth A. Patton
Abstract: “Documenting Places of Resistance: Black Tourism and Leisure during the Jim Crow Era” is a narrative-based research project and part of the Interdisciplinary CoLab Internship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This project originates from Dr. Elizabeth Patton’s archival research for a new book project, “Representation as a Form of Resistance: Documenting African American Spaces of Leisure during the Jim Crow Era.” This project is a travel guidebook that features mapped locations and archival sources such as photographs, home videos, and historical travel guides in order to portray what it was like to travel, vacation, and relax as Black individuals and families during the Jim Crow era.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://leisureasresistance.org/

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