Thomas Nast Political Cartoon, 1874

This drawing by political cartoonist Thomas Nast depicts Columbia, the mythical embodiment of American values, beating back a White League member who has beaten a Black man attempting to vote. Appearing in Harper’s Weekly in 1874, it was his response to the widespread intimidation of and violence against Black voting and campaigning, such as the election riots in Eufaula, in the states of the former Confederacy during Reconstruction.