Personally I thought Higginbottom's showed some interesting pieces that showed the positive and negatives views on African-Americans; especially women. Pieces included those between the 1920s and 50s that showed the social status and sexual appeal of women (mostly of color). Pieces included, "High Yaller," by Reginald Marsh which shows an African-American woman dressed in a loud yellow dress and hat walking down on the sidewalk in an urban setting with a look of confidence as a nicely dressed man observes her from the stairway. Aside from the look defining her upper class social status, it also, seeing how tightly worn it is, brings out her figure, bringing an eye to her sexual appeal. Marsh also slips in the activity of "girl watching" by the man observing as she walks on. Higginbottom also stated that Marsh puts an infuses on her dark skin complexion.
She compares this to paintings such as Archibald Motley's " The Octoroom Girl," which, even though portrays an African-American woman dressed in an elaborate clothing like "High Yaller," again concentrating on her social status, is portrayed with a woman of lighter complexion (which were classified as "mulattos" or "mixed blood").
Aside from these positive views of the black female body, Higginbottom does bring up the negative portrayles such as "Negros on Rockaway Beach," which gave the viewer the since of blacks as unruly and overtly sexual. It also exposes the displacement of the black body at a public, yet segregated, area. This pieces also shows a black woman with a lighter complexion, in red, separated by a patch of sand from the other, darker skinned beach goers.
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