Freedom of Speech depicts a scene of a 1942 Arlington town meeting in which Jim Edgerton, the lone dissenter to the town selectmen's announced plans to build a new school, as the old one had burned down,[9] was accorded the floor as a matter of protocol.[10] Edgerton supported the rebuilding process but was concerned about the tax burden of the proposal, as his family farm had been ravaged by disease
Something to keep in mind was this was still essentially the depression, so a farmer saying "I can't afford the taxes to build a new school" might actually be true
It probably wasn't racism cuz let's be real, Vermont on 1940 was 99.9% white. I'm not making that up, I just checked the census records
It's an old Norman Rockwell painting titled (I shit you not) "American Freedom"
Its actually got an even cringier name: "Freedom of Speech" and the subject is a real guy who was opposed to...building a new school in his town
Hot dang, my art history teacher was a liar
Was it because of racism?
Goddamn we're cynical
Something to keep in mind was this was still essentially the depression, so a farmer saying "I can't afford the taxes to build a new school" might actually be true
It probably wasn't racism cuz let's be real, Vermont on 1940 was 99.9% white. I'm not making that up, I just checked the census records