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PHIL FOSTER: BIRTH OF CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT

May 12, 2015

Phil Foster created four dramatic illustrations for Marquette Law to accompany an account of the landmark case, "Screws v. United States and the Birth of Civil Rights Enforcement" from  January 29, 1943. The case involved the beating death of Robert Hall, a black man, by deputies of Sherriff Claude Screws.

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Charged with "stealing a tire", Hall was handcuffed, driven to the town square where Screws awaited him, and the three police officers then proceeded to beat Hall unconscious. Hall's limp body was dragged into a jail building; he was later taken to the hospital, but died shortly after arriving.

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"In the morning, on their way to the market or the post office, the townsfolk of Newton all saw the pool of blood in the middle of the town square, and the trail leading from that spot up to the courthouse and on to the jail." 

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Within the Ku Klux Klan saturated southern culture of 1943 Georgia, no charges came to Screws and his boys from the state of Georgia ... so it was later in 1945 that the Federal Supreme Court got involved in this case. 

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As the case finally concluded, Screws and his deputies were absolved of the charges, but the case nevertheless stirred up civil rights discussion & clarification, and played a seminal part in continued civil rights evolution in the 1950's and 60's.

Tags: Phil Foster, Editorial, Illustration, Promotional Design

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