Deconstructing Power Dynamics in Ringgold's Civil Rights Triangle

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Faith Ringgold's 'The Civil Rights Triangle,' created in 1963, as a representation of social stratification and the accumulation of religious and social power in the hands of white individuals through political propaganda. It explores Ringgold's background, her upbringing in Harlem during a time of intense racism, and how her personal experiences influenced her art. The essay delves into the symbolism within the painting, including the pyramid structure, the characters' expressions, and the use of color to highlight the contrast between the white and black communities. It further discusses Ringgold's activism and her contributions to the Civil Rights movement, emphasizing how her art served as a catalyst for social change and challenged racial supremacy, gender equality, and women empowerment in America. The essay concludes by recognizing the lasting impact of Ringgold's work in raising awareness about social justice and promoting equality.

Running head: ART AND LITERATURE
ART AND LITERATURE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

1ART AND LITERATURE
Research Paper 2
Art of painting is a form of expressing the thoughts into paper with colours and
shades. Through ages the artists have used art as a medium of expressing their emotions, a
genuine social message, or a tool for protesting against the oppressions of the social system.
Art has been the medium which has no boundaries of politics faith or any other factors. The
artists have created masterpieces throughout history and recorded important events and also
stated philosophical discourses. The classical art of the pre renaissance and renaissance
period, and following that the modernism, impressionism, Dadaism, surrealism, post
modernism and all other forms of art has inspired millions of people to appreciate the
intricacies of human mind and the need to express the mind in creative ways. The era which
saw the discrimination of human beings on the basis of colour and race also inspired the
artists to create masterpieces which are reflective of the social scenario and protest against the
discrimination towards the “black people” (Chang, 2014). The art which is taken for this
paper is “The civil Rights Triangle” by Faith Ringgold created in 1963. The theses statement
of this paper is that the painting “The Civil Rights Triangle” represents the social
stratification and accumulation of the religious and social power in the hands of the
“white” through political propaganda.
“The Civil Rights Triangle referred to the church as both the power structure for
change and its association with the white male establishment—which together made up the
top structure of the Civil Rights Movement. By the time I came home at the end of the
summer, these paintings were finished, and I was planning to do many more in this series.
Now I knew where my art was going. I had so many ideas that I barely had time to execute
them.” This was the statement made by Faith Ringgold the artist of the work “The Civil
Rights Triangle”, when speaking about conceiving the particular work. Faith Ringgold was
born in 1930 in New York hospital and she was daughter to parents who were from low

2ART AND LITERATURE
income working class groups separated from their place of ancestry during the great
depression. She had the problem of Asthma from the very early stage of her life. Therefore
she instead of cultivating her interest on outdoor activities she had started experimenting with
colours and paintings. She stated “I grew up in Harlem during the Great Depression. This did
not mean I was poor and oppressed. We were protected from oppression and surrounded by a
loving family”. “Harlem” is a region in New York City which was the centre of residence of
the African American Community. People living in this region were discriminated and had to
face severe social stratification. It was the centre of many of the cultural and social
movements led by the Afro American Community.
Being raised in the Harlem area of New York at a time when the phenomenon of
racism was at its most, and being inflicted with the problem of Asthma and nurturing painting
due to the problem, she in future became a prominent artist who created many masterpieces
which led to the recognition of her as a famous artist of the era (Weatherford, 2014). Her
future works were greatly influenced by the “people, poetry, and music” she had encountered
in her younger age, also the effects of “racism, sexism, and discrimination” also had
influenced many of her works, which were created in the motive of spreading awareness
about social equality and justice. Her education happened in the “City College of New York”.
She had visited Europe for a tour where she visited France and had experienced several
artefacts and artworks at the Louvre museum, which had later inspired her to take up the
work called the “French collection”. The French collection was a renowned work of the artist
and one of her most acclaimed works. The artist also took up the art of quilt making, which
was traditionally connected to the slave culture, however she use this as a metaphor and used
the art of quilt making to depict the stories of discrimination and unequal status of the
“blacks” in the western society (Ringgold, 2012). According to her contemporary
commentator “She combines her African heritage and artistic traditions with her artistic

3ART AND LITERATURE
training to create paintings, multi-media soft sculptures, and "story quilts" that elevate the
sewn arts to the status of fine art.”
The paintings done by the artist has been the subject of scholarly discussions among
the experts because of their rich properties which are very thought provoking and worthy of
discussions. The paintings done by the artist had been figurative playing with several subjects
and they give a meaning that ultimately indicates the power balance of the society with the
black and the whites engaging in racial wars. Unordinary for that time, Ms. Ringgold's works
demonstrated working class blacks and whites together in control circumstances, however
unequal the power really was. In one picture, "The Civil Rights Triangle" (1963), three men
in matching suits, two dark and one white, frame a pyramid, with the white man to finish
everything, recommending that to the degree the civil rights development was white-
endorsed, it was additionally white-controlled (Meskimmon, 2012). In "The Cocktail Party,"
from the following year, a horde of white faces presses together in discussion, while a
solitary dark figure, crushed down into a corner, gazes out mutely. The pyramid of the “The
Civil Triangle” is a strong graphically rich picture with the characters giving a blunt look at
the audience. The light and shadow creates an environment of enigmatic aura and the
superiority of the white characters trails as he raises his head at the top of the painting
abruptly breaking the balance. The eyes of the characters are strangely blunt and movement
less.
Five men show up in a gathering, with three in the center masterminded to frame a
triangle. The trio in the inside wear matching suits, while the two men who flank them, as
though barred from control, brandish a sweater and a tank top, maybe proposing center and
lower-class America. Be that as it may, the two men at the base of the power pyramid are
dark, while the white man at the best gives off an impression of being the shot guest. The
focal point of the painting is the white man staring at the audience. The composition of the

4ART AND LITERATURE
painting is dominated by circular figures and the heads of the character along with the
background is dominated and filled with circle shaped objects. The artist has painted the
picture with intentions to create a contrasting effect that would shoe the contrast of the lives
of the “whites” and the “blacks”, this contrasting effect is created by using warm and cool
colours in contrast with each other. The warm and red faces and the cool blue background is
evident prove about this contrast. All the lines make the ayes go towards the centre of the
picture where the superior white character is situated. The brush strokes are bold and straight.
The use of colours are non esoteric and creates a distinct effect in the mind of the audience.
The blunt and expressionless eyes of the people reflect the agony and helplessness of the
characters in their face. This is proper representation of the situation of the contemporary
times when people from the “black” community were sidelined and they were helpless in the
face of such discrimination and racial inequality.
For Ringgold, an awesome piece of the straggling leftovers of that decade and the
beginning of the accompanying were given to hands-on activism and formal experimentation.
In 1968 she began a display against the Whitney Museum's nearby dismissal of dull
authorities, and formed another at the Museum of Modern Art. For a movement of aesthetic
manifestations called Black Light, she discarded white from her palette and added dim shade
to tones in a gathering of African-American pictures. By 1969 she was making expansive use
of words in aesthetic manifestations and in eye-getting sees planned to scavenge up help for
the Black Panthers, the detainees at Attica and the confined Angela Davis. By then Ms.
Ringgold considered racial administrative issues and ladies' freedom unbreakable, and hurled
her essentialness into getting detectable quality for women. Then, in what wound up being
the continue going oil-on-broadened canvas painting she'd enhance the circumstance years,
she made a minimized divider painting for the Women's House of Detention on Rikers Island,
directing with the prisoners in any case, asking them what they expected to see. Right when,

5ART AND LITERATURE
years afterward, the association was changed over to a men's prison, crafted by workmanship
scarcely avoided being lost. Secured and spared, it is appearing to be a long way from a
correctional facility setting all of a sudden. It's the ending up at ground zero work in a show,
formed by Tracy Fitzpatrick, a Neuberger gatekeeper, that could hardly be better. Flawlessly
laid out, with a couple of pictures joined by sections from the skilled worker's gathering of
journals, "We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold" (Bulfinch Press,
1995), it's an extraordinary visual difficulty and a fundamental piece of American
workmanship history. That Ms. Ringgold proceeded to do as such much else seems to be,
clearly, superb. That the Neuberger did this show is a gift.
The fight for social freedoms had described the '60s as far back as four “black
students” sat down at a “whites-only” lunch counter in “Greensboro, North Carolina”, in
February 1960 and declined to get out. Their improvement spread: Hundreds of
demonstrators retreated to that lunch counter every day, and a large number impeded
disconnected restaurants and shops over the upper South. The nonconformists pulled in the
nation's astuteness in regards to the bad form, wildness and slant that depicted Jim Crow
(Robertson, 2016). Overall, the national government stayed out of the social equity fight until
1964, when President Johnson pushed a “Civil Rights Act through Congress” that limited
isolation out in the open spots, gave the “Justice Department” approval to sue communicates
that abused women and minorities and ensured ascend to conditions in the workplace to all.
The next year, the “Voting Rights Act” discarded overview charges, instruction essentials and
diverse gadgets that southern whites had by and large used to shield blacks from voting
(Smith, 2012). In any case, these laws did not deal with the issues standing up to African
Americans. They didn't execute bias or desperation and they didn't improve the conditions in
various “black” urban neighbourhoods. Various “black” activists began to revaluate their

6ART AND LITERATURE
targets, and some got a handle on a more attacker conviction arrangement of insubordination
and self-protection.
To conclude it can be said the particular artistic work has contributed in the process of
raising the issue of social justice to the people of America and helped in establishing equality
of the people from all colour, creed, and nationality. These works by Faith Ringgold during
the 1960’s has been pioneering works on gender equality, women empowerment, racial
equality and these catalysed the rights movement of the people of America. This particular
work chosen in this paper has been one important work that raises the question of racial
supremacy of the whites even in the field of religion and social rights movement
(Fredrickson, 2015). These movements and religious activities has been predominantly
occupied by the people of the “white” race, this is questioned and highlighted by the author in
this pioneering work titled the “The civil Rights Triangle”.
Research Paper 3
Introduction
The paper will take a close look at the two famous artists from different genres of art.
In the whole course of the discussion the artistic work of the two artists August Wilson and
Faith Ringgold have been discussed respectively. While August Wilson belonged from the
sphere of playwriting, Faith Ringgold was a famous painter. However, the most common
aspect of both of the artists is theme of their work that is racism. Through their work racism
and discrimination has been raised again and again. The discussion exclusively sheds light on
their life as well as their work. In this regard, it must be mentioned that both of the artists
have some way or the other experienced racism or discrimination in their life (Chang, 2014).
The study will exclusively shed light on the artist by compare and contrast their life and

7ART AND LITERATURE
mainly their works which the paper sates as its thesis statement. In the course of the
discussion, the study elaborates the similarities between the life August Wilson ad faiths
Ringgold from different perspective. At the same time, the study also focuses on the
differences between their lives. However, the study did not limit its focus by discussing the
similarities between the artists’ life and works. Rather the study further discusses the
differences between August Wilson and faith Ringgold’s life and work. Finally the study
concludes by summing up the whole discussion.
Similarities between the life of the artists
Born in the year of 1945, August Wilson was a famous playwright who has been
faced racism and discrimination in his life. The artist was brought up in Pittsburgh, in the hill
district. The hill district was poor neighbourhood, where people had to struggle to earn a
living. Wilson later used this as the setting in many of this plays. Since his childhood he saw
that her mother being black was the victim of racism. Not only was his mother, rather his
whole family victimized by the racism (Levinson, 2012). Wilson and his family was the
target of the white of the suburb area, Hazelwood. The white of Hazelwood made him to quit
his school after he was been alleged to have plagiarized. However, the incident could not stop
him to achieve his aim of life. He started educating himself by self-learning process. He also
started visiting his native place hill district on order to enrich his knowledge by learning from
the practical experiences. Similarly, the life of Faith Ringgold was crucially influenced by
racism. Ringgold was an activist, civil right activist, author, women’s’ rights activist and
most importantly an educator. Born in the New York City in the year of 1930, Ringgold
started her career as a teacher in the field of art. She started painting a series of paintings
named American People. The series of paintings portrayed the image of civil right
movement from the perspective of a woman. Like the Wilson, Ringgold also experienced

8ART AND LITERATURE
racism at a very early stage of life. Her mother was a fashion designer and father was a
storyteller which infused in him a strong sense of creativity.
Differences among the life of the two artist
Beside similarities, the two there are some differences among the lives of August
Wilson and Faith Ringgold. While Wilson was a self-learner after quitting his school,
Golding was academically educated. After completing her school, Ringgold enrolled herself
in at the City College and received B.S. in Fine Arts and education in the year of 1955
(Sayre, 2013). She also did her M.A. However, Wilson after being victimized by the white
people left his school and started learning by himself. More than theoretical work he
proffered educating himself through learning from the practical experiences. Wilson opt play
as the weapon against racism of his time whereas Ringgold used painting and quilting as her
voice of protest against the discrimination. It must be noted that Wilson was exclusively a
playwright but Ringgold had expertise on many other fields such as in painting, education,
social activities and many more (Millman, 2005). As a result, Ringgold had been exploring
different other aspects which Wilson could not get the chance. Ringgold joined the Civil
Right movement and became the voice of the protest. Wilson however could not get the
opportunity to join the movement.
Similarities of the work of the artists
In the latter half of 1960s, the he joined the Black art Movement and in the year of
1968 he established himself as the director and the c0founder of the Black Horizons Theatre
located in Pittsburgh. He also had written much poetry on the aspect of racism and
discrimination. During the early 1980s, Wilson started penning down several plays after he
moved to Minnesota. His first produced novel was Jitney in the year of 1982. In the year of
1984, his first major play which gained massive success financially was Ma Rainey’s Black

9ART AND LITERATURE
Bottom. The play also achieved massive attention from the audience as well as from the
critics. The theme of the play revolves around the plot of racism. The play portrays a blues
singer who is verbally abusive towards his fellow musicians. In this regard, it must be
mentioned that his fellow musicians were black. His remarkable play was Fences which was
produced in the year of 1985. The play received award for and the story of the play was
adopted to be filmed in the year of 2016. Wilson continued to project the theme of the racism
in his later plays like The Piano Lesson and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Elkins, 2013). His
plays were the combination of the comedy as well cruel reality of the society. Ringgold, the
social activist conveyed the message of unity through her painting and arts which had a close
relevance to the time. She had created several masks in African style which conveys the
message of protest against the discrimination (Deniston-Trochta, 2013). Besides, she also
painted political posters which depicted the hullabaloo of the then society by raising the issue
of racism. In the 1980s, she started creating a series of quilts that gained massive applause
from the critics and from the art-lovers. In the latter half of her career, she started her career
as a successful teacher of children’s book and as an illustrator.
Dissimilarities among the work of the artists
Like the similarities between the works of the two authors, there are certain
differences also. However Wilson and Ringgold aimed at raising the issue of racism through
their work, the way of the conveying the message of unity was to some extent different.
Through plays, Wilson tried to bring out the real life experience of racism. His form of
portraying the character as well as the theme barely invites the audience to interpret. Rather a
direct form of interaction was followed in his works which clearly showed that how the
people has been victimized by racial discrimination (Gantt, 2009). On the other hand, the
Ringgold used several forms of arts in order to depict the theme of racism. Sometimes
through her painting, sometimes through quilting Ringgold highlighted the issues of racism

10ART AND LITERATURE
that the country of America was suffering from. Unlike Wilson, Ringgold’s work invites
interpretation from the audience.
Impact of their work
Wilson’s plays and Ringgold’s paintings focused on conveying the message of unity
against racial discrimination so that the social can be eliminated. Their work had a significant
impact n the people during the Civil rights Movement as it inspired the citizens to join the
movement. Wilson’ plays and Ringgold’s paintings depicted racism in several ways with the
aim to make the citizens and the state to realize that the issue must be eliminated (Elkins,
2013). Along with music which played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement,
Wilson’s and Ringgold’s works fueled the movement towards achieving success.
Conclusion
To conclude, it will be very apt to assert that the paper aims to give a comparison and
contrast two eminent artists, their work and their life, who are from different genres of art. In
the whole course of the discussion the artistic work of the two artists, namely August Wilson
and Faith Ringgold respectively have discussed, compared and contrasted. While August
Wilson was a popular playwright, Faith Ringgold was a famous painter. However, the most
common aspect of both of the artists is that both of them have worked on the same theme,
racism. The both of the artist through their work had been highlighting the issue of racism
and discrimination again and again. The paper critically sheds light on their life as well as the
work. The paper also revealed that the both of the artists have some way or the other
experienced racism or discrimination in their life which inspired them to take it as their theme
of creation. The study will critically analyze the artistic creation of the two artists by compare
and contrast. During the course of the discussion, the study elaborates the similarities
between the life August Wilson and Faith Ringgold from different perspective. At the same

11ART AND LITERATURE
time, the study also focuses on the differences between their lives. The study did not limit its
focus by discussing the similarities between the artists’ life and works. Rather the study
further discusses the differences between August Wilson and faith Ringgold’s life and work.

12ART AND LITERATURE
References & Biblioggraphy
Chang, J. (2014). Who we be: A cultural history of race in post-civil rights America. St.
Martin's Press.
Chang, J. (2014). Who we be: The colorization of America. Macmillan.
Deniston-Trochta, G. (2013). Unmasking ordinary experience in art. In Real-world readings
in art education (pp. 57-63). Routledge.
Elkins, M. (Ed.). (2013). August Wilson: A Casebook (Vol. 1626). Routledge.
Elkins, M. (Ed.). (2013). August Wilson: A Casebook (Vol. 1626). Routledge.
Fredrickson, G. M. (2015). Racism: A short history. Princeton University Press.
Gantt, P. M. (2009). Putting black culture on stage: August Wilson's Pittsburgh
Cycle. College Literature, 36(2), 1-25.
Hussein, S. A. B. (2012). The Image of Man in Selected Plays of August Wilson.
AuthorHouse.
Jose, S., & Raj, S. J. (2014). Generational Dissension in August Wilson’s
Fences. International Research Journal of Management Sociology and Humanity, 5(2), 568-
582.
Levinson, M. (2012). No citizen left behind (Vol. 13). Harvard University Press.
Meskimmon, M. (2012). Women making art: History, subjectivity, aesthetics. Routledge.
Millman, J. (2005). Faith Ringgold’s Quilts and Picturebooks: Comparisons and
Contributions. Children's Literature in Education, 36(4), 381-393.

13ART AND LITERATURE
Otfinoski, S. (2014). African Americans in the visual arts. Infobase Publishing.
Ringgold, F. (2012). Cassie's word quilt. Dragonfly Books.
Robertson, K. (2016). Quilts for the Twenty-First Century: Activism in the Expanded Field of
Quilting. The handbook of textile culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 197-210.
Sayre, H. M. (2013). AWorld of Art.
Shannon, S. G. (Ed.). (2016). August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle: Critical Perspectives on the
Plays. McFarland.
Smith, V. (2012). Abundant Evidence: Black Women Artists of the 1960s and 1970s.
In Entering the Picture (pp. 135-147). Routledge.
WANG, J., & ZHANG, J. (2008). Dramatic Vision of August Wilson. Journal of Harbin
Institute of Technology (Social Sciences Edition), 6, 019.
Weatherford, C. B. (2014). Sugar Hill: Harlem's Historic Neighborhood. Open Road Media.