The Family of Man and Human Rights

Growing up in the United States, some things you know by the time you can talk. One of those things being that every human has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It says so in the Declaration of Independence. As we look back on the history of our country, we see that this has not always been true for everyone. Two of the examples that jump out immediately are slavery and the Civil Rights Era. The argument continues to be made in 2017 that everyone does not have the same rights. The human rights discussion has always brought controversy with it.

The Family of Man photo gallery came at a crucial time during the human rights movement. Pictures and video of the destruction caused by World War II were not to be seen by the general public for many years. When Edward Steichen filled the second floor full of these photos in New York in 1955, he was making a difference. He wanted to use this form of media to construct a different identity than the one the media was at that time creating. The media is a very powerful thing. There is a reason it is called the fourth branch of the government. Steichen gathered pictures of families from all over the country, whether it was in the Appalachian Mountains or on the coastline somewhere, he wanted to show how different families across the country lived. After looking through some of the Family of Man gallery, I thought of photographer Shelby Lee Adams and his work within the region of Appalachia. There were families on their front porch just living what they knew as everyday life, just as the subjects of Adams’ work. Just like Adams, Steichen’s work has been praised while it has also been criticized for the depictions of race and class. The old saying may be cliché, but a picture is truly worth a thousand words. In a time when people needed to be informed about what was going on in their own land, Steichen and company went above and beyond with the amount of content that they put out to the public. The exhibit may no longer be in New York City, but it still makes an impact across the pond.

The path of human rights has been a strange one. In Mark Mazower’s The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950, he wastes no time to establish that feeling. The quote he uses from a 1977 New Republic really sets the tone. “Who can bad-mouth human rights?” He goes on to tell us that the issue is barely a half a century old and that between these two great wars, there was little to no talk about human rights (Mazower, 379). Mazower also goes on to say that it would be nice to see the good break through the bad and be able to reign through the acts of a few selfless people. He mentions that this, however, is unsatisfactory (Mazower, 381). I think that this line in itself speaks volumes. It also seems to follow the suit of the themes throughout the blog posts so far. It didn’t really matter to the country how these people were living or what their rights were, it just mattered how it would benefit the country. Whether it is in the page of Mazower’s article or Fred Turner’s “The Family of Man and the Politics of Attention in Cold War America”, two of the larger influences when it came to human rights were politically and racially. I think that a lot of this could have resulted from fear after World War II and the thought always looming in the back of your head of Hitler and the Jews. With the Cold War on the cusp and World War II just in the rear view mirror, countries all across the globe wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. With the catch being, said country wanted to be the one to make that change. Whether it was a democracy like in the United States or an authoritarian society in the Soviet Union, both countries thought they were doing things the right way, which is what led to the Cold War. Could the though of human rights be one of the main causes for this debacle? The United States during this time had a problem during the Civil Rights Era, how could they deal with humanitarian problems elsewhere?

Overall, everyone showed up late to the human rights party. With the written statements, not only in the United States, but all over the globe that people had rights that you and I take for granted, and that this was not carried out nor discussed until the late 1940s and early 1950s is something that just blows my mind. People who took an initiative to make a difference and paint a picture that not everyone lives the same type of life, went above and beyond the initiative. I think that this is still applicable today. I know I don’t know what it is like to be an Islamic American or an African American. Others do not know what it is like to be from an area in this country where the only industry is dying and as a result, people live below the poverty line. The situation varies, no matter who or where you are. It is important that no matter what, we keep these things in mind. No matter what the circumstance, we all do have basic human rights. One thing is for sure and for certain, and we are witnessing it right now in America. People will always fight for their rights. We will continue to see this for decades to come. It will always be a topic for discussion, and it will be ever changing.