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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
7808647
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
Reaping a Big Harvest
Artist
Art object
Art Movement / style
Genre
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
34 x 27.5 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1965
Country
Language
Details
Original editorial cartoon done on board in ink and crayon, 1965, published in the Brockton Enterprise, shows a figure wielding a scythe in the form of the Soviet hammer and sickle to reap the harvest of ‘US race riots’. On 11 August 1965 a series of riots, which became known as the Watts Riots broke out in the predominantly black neighbourhood of Watts in Los Angeles. They lasted for six days, resulting in 34 deaths, many injured and 4,000 arrests, and destruction totalling $40 million in damage. As part of the international response to the riots, the news agencies of Communist China and the Soviet Union exploited the situation and reported that the riots resulted from racial discrimination in housing, employment and education, as well as police violence, and it was even reported that Cuba had condemned the deliberate murder of negroes [sic] in Los Angeles as genocide. Such reactions were dismissed in the US as Communist propaganda. Board size 38.5 x 30.5 cm, image size 34 x 27.5 cm, signed and dated 8/18/65 lower right, caption in pencil in upper border. In very good condition.