Social Settlements: United States. Alabama. Calhoun. "Calhoun Colored School": Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Development of Social Standards Among the Negroes. Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.: The Kindergarten. 1901

Curator: This photograph, attributed to Frances Benjamin Johnston, is part of a series titled "Social Settlements: United States. Alabama. Calhoun. 'Calhoun Colored School'." It shows a kindergarten class at the Calhoun Colored School. Editor: The starkness of the setting is striking. It really brings home the difficult conditions of the school. Curator: Indeed. What we see is an intentional image, constructed to convey a specific narrative about the assimilation and education of Black children in the post-Reconstruction South. Consider the implications of "social standards." Editor: Right. This photograph, and ones like it, were tools of social engineering. The very earth the children work upon, the labor they perform, and the teacher's dress—all speak to the material culture enforced upon them. Curator: It presents a complicated intersection of race, labor, and gender within the context of institutionalized education. It compels us to look closer at these historical visual documents. Editor: It leaves me reflecting on the unseen hands that shaped these children's lives—literally and figuratively.