Crate Label, "Black Joe Brand Juice Grapes," 1930-1950

Lithographers created colorful, eye-catching labels to help sell products. Designs often featured popular themes or motifs; some also reflected the prejudices of the time. To early 20th-century white consumers this seemingly innocuous image of an elderly African-American idealized nonexistent times when whites believed they ruled benevolently, and blacks were perceived as non-threatening. These images dehumanized African-Americans and affirmed the discriminatory biases many white Americans held.