Sunday Promenade,

1931–46, printed 1996

In documenting poverty and segregation in the American South, Woodruff exploited the stark linearity of the linocut medium to stage expressive, graphic vignettes with African American protagonists. <em>Sunday Promenade</em> and <em>Old Church</em> depict scenes of social and spiritual gathering for the African American community. These glimpses into the South take a cruel turn in <em>Giddap</em>, a lynching scene that reflects the ghastly spike in racist violence during the Great Depression. Woodruff was working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program employing artists to create images of America throughout the country; he saw art as a means to “convey a telling quality in terms of what we are as a people.”