Browse Exhibits (1 total)

This exhibit examines the content and cultural contexts of a particular issue of "Contempo," which was a short-lived but innovative and controversial journal published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This particular issue comes from December 1931, and features discussions of the Scottsboro “legal lynching,” where nine African-American teenagers were sentenced to death for the alleged rape of two white women in a hasty trial. Poetry and articles by writers such as Langston Hughes and the defense attorney for the case expose various dynamics of this case, and demonstrate how ideas of Southern pride were being harnessed to try and press for social change in the region.

The digital item is curated and photographed by Martin Groff. The original physical item is held at the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the North Carolina Collection.