Way+We+Was,+The

Date: 1990
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1997/1997.124.88_1a.jpg?itok=urFa5pjU width="167" height="402" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/way-we-was-36179"]] || Title: **The Way We Was**

Artist: **Herbert Singleton** Born: New Orleans, Louisiana 1945

Medium: carved and painted wood, metal locks and hinges Dimensions: 97 x 38 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (246.4 x 97.8 x 6.4 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

Accession: 1997.124.88 ||

Singleton carved and painted this visual protest against racism in America on an old door. A black nanny cradles a white baby, a slave master holds a whip, slaves carry cotton, and a Klansman oversees a lynching. A dancing Uncle Tom in the upper right, "playing two ends against the people," is a man unafraid of his oppressor, but still the victim of injustice and hatred.
 * About the Artwork: **

“This is the way we was, take us as we are, Uncle Tom is dead." —Herbert Singleton

Singleton - Information about his Life and Work Herbert Singleton - Secular and Sacred
 * Resources: **

About the Artist SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **