Credit: Courtesy of The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Moore
Mr. Prejudice, by Horace Pippin, 1943. In the lower half of the painting, the figure groups are placed symmetrically on either side of the large "V", separating them. For African Americans, the "V" for victory referred to the winning the struggle for equality in the U.S. as well as winning the war in Europe. On the left of the painting a black Statue of Liberty, holds a flaming torch. Four African American men stand below her, each wearing a uniform: a doctor, an aviator, a sailor, and Horace Pippin himself, wearing a brown WW I uniform, with his right arm injured in battle hanging straight down at his side. On the right are white men in uniform. One of them extends his hand towards the black man on the other side and his gesture is mirrored by sailor on the left, however their hands do not touch. A grim faced white man, depicted as an executioner, hammers a wedge into the "V" The skin color of the individuals separates the black and white on either side of the painting. On the right side of the painting a white-robed member of the Ku Klux Klan hovers above a man holding a noose.
