Races, Negroes: United States. Virginia. Hampton. Hampton Normal and Industrial School: Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training for Commercial and Industrial Employment. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va. 1899 - 1900

Curator: This photograph, taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston, presents the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, a school established to educate formerly enslaved people. Editor: The composition is stark, almost clinical. The grayscale flattens the depth, emphasizing the industrial machinery and the regimented figures of the students. Curator: Johnston’s lens offers two distinct scenes: a machine shop and an engine room. Consider the labor involved, the materials they worked with – iron, steel, wood – and how these skills were intended to integrate Black Americans into the industrial economy. Editor: Yet, the high contrast captures a sense of starkness, doesn’t it? The figures are somewhat anonymous, blending into the machinery, suggesting a loss of individuality within this push for assimilation. Curator: It does raise questions about the very nature of progress and the constraints placed upon these individuals. Editor: A complex image, indeed, that demands a critical look at the past and its impact on the present.