Social Settlements: United States. Alabama. Calhoun. "Calhoun Colored School": Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training Negro Girls in Domestic Science. Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.: Cooking Class 1901

Curator: This photograph, attributed to Frances Benjamin Johnston, is titled "Social Settlements: United States. Alabama. Calhoun. 'Calhoun Colored School': Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training Negro Girls in Domestic Science. Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.: Cooking Class." Editor: It's stark, but oddly luminous. The light filtering through the window really softens the harsh reality of the scene, doesn’t it? Curator: It's a carefully constructed image, part of a series documenting social reform efforts. The Calhoun Colored School aimed to provide vocational training to African American students. Editor: Training, yes, but within very specific, limited roles, wasn’t it? Domestic science. It feels more like enforced conformity than empowerment. Curator: Precisely. The composition, with the girls in white dresses learning to cook, speaks volumes about the era's expectations and the constraints placed upon them. The photo’s purpose was to legitimize this “assimilation.” Editor: It's unsettling, the way it tries to frame oppression as progress. But in their eyes, I also see a quiet defiance, a refusal to be completely defined by the narrative imposed upon them. So much is unsaid in this frame. Curator: It's a reminder of the complexities of history, of the ways in which images can both reveal and conceal. Editor: Yes, and how looking closely can sometimes reveal even more than was intended.