"The Tattooed Man" Billy Morrow Jackson, Civil Rights, Political Poster, 1964

Description

These posters make me sad, but wer cannot forget the past...we do need to move forward...these posters deserve to be properly displayed in a special spot. The 1960's were turbulent times. Civil Rights Movements were a major turning point in our history.
I borrowed and copied the following discription form "Kneal" magizine August 2018 for your history lesson.
Tattooed Man
This image of Uncle Sam with a Top Hat partially (half) covering his face implies a degree of
“shadiness”
. Uncle Sam has multiple tattoos on his arms and completely covering his torso. The tats on his torso have the faces of four little girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson who were killed September 15th, 1963 at the 16th Baptist Church bombing.
The Uncle Sam figure suggests that the government and the country are complicit and
“inextricably linked”
to their murder and are indelibly marked by the
“stains”
(tattoos) of violence and racism.
Their deaths were the result of an organized terrorist effort. Jackson has the name of a terrorist organization –
“Nacirema”
—American spelled backwards on his right forearm. This was a group that recruited and trained terrorist cells in bomb making and bombing techniques(2). Though this group was based in Georgia, it trained people from all over the south and had numerous sympathizers, acolytes, and fellow travellers.
Robert Chambliss, Ku Klux Klan member, placed the bomb at the church. Chambliss was originally found not guilty of murder and only received a fine and a six-month jail time for possessing dynamite. In 1977, he was tried again with new FBI evidence and sentenced to life in prison (where he died in 1985).
The surrounding red roses denote love and grief.
The lower abdomen is imprinted with the Alabama State flag, balls of cotton, and an hourglass with apparent time running out. Sand is filling up the lower half of the hourglass and the top of the hourglass is filled with carrion birds (vultures or buzzards).
The American Flag is on his right biceps and the Confederate Flag is on his left.
Birmingham earned the
‘nickname’
of
‘Bombing-ham’
due to the large number of unsolved bombings in the city over two decades.
Uncle Sam’s upper chest tattoo has an eagle clutching several arrows and a shield with the eagle’s head turned toward the arrows. When the eagle’s head is facing the arrows this usually indicates a state of conflict or war. The traditional olive branches have been replaced by an implement of war—a shield.
The Tattooed Man is part of a series of 8 posters on the Civil Rights Movement by Billy Morrow Jackson.
Attached is and article about the artist.
I have the entire series in the original tube .
The poster has been stored in a tube, dated Nov16,1965 mailed to St Louis FOSNCC. (St Louis Friends of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)