Pictures, Progress and Raising Black Daughters in the Obama Era on the September 24^th Left of Black

One of the most endearing images from the recent Democratic National Convention was the photo of President Barack Obama and his daughters Sasha and Malia, as they sat on a couch watching the First Lady, Michelle Obama, deliver her convention address.  Whether this was a photo that captured the family in a moment of relaxation or one that was staged to project the closeness of the First Family Obama (or both), the photo elicited pride in President Obama’s supporters, particularly his Black supporters.

Photography has long been a means in which Black citizens have attempted to lay a claim on citizenship, patriotism, respectability and the fitness of the “race” for leadership.  The role of early photography and notions of Black progress are the themes of Pictures and Progress: Early Photography and the Making of African American Identity (Duke University Press), a new book edited by Duke University Professor Maurice Wallace and Shawn Michelle Smith.

Professor Wallace joins host Mark Anthony Neal in the Left of Black studios in the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University in a wide ranging conversation about the new book, raising Black daughters in the Obama era and the politics of “Professorial Style” in the contemporary academy.

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Left of Black airs at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Mondays on the Ustream channel: http://tinyurl.com/LeftofBlack. Viewers are invited to participate in a Twitter conversation with Neal and featured guests while the show airs using hash tags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive. 

Left of Black is recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University.

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Follow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackMan

Follow Maurice Wallace on Twitter: @mauricewllc