Stereotyped to the Margins: A History of Black Characters in Comic Books 

February 3rd - March 14th, 2025
Curated by Dr. Eric Atkinson

Come join us Monday February 3, 2025 to celebrate the opening of the Santa Rosa Junior College Multicultural Museum’s newest exhibit for Black History month, Stereotyped to the Margins: A History of Black Characters in Comic Books. The exhibited pieces, the personal artifacts of Dr. Eric Atkinson of the English Department, feature comic book artwork from the platinum (1900?-1935), golden (1938-1954), silver (1954-1970), bronze (1970-1986), and contemporary age (1986-present) of comics by Caucasians, African Americans, women, and those who have passed as white. The exhibit invites the viewer to challenge the monolithic interpretation by asking viewers to look through a critical, thoughtful, and open lens. The point and purpose of the exhibit is not to elicit shock or moral outrage, but simply to create a setting to examine ourselves and culture so that we can move forward by understanding the antiquated and fixed traditions, and hopefully creating new, helpful, and uplifting relations with the images of African Americans. It is my hope that the exhibit will inspire a deeper examination of our culture(s), and through an examination of the pieces we will understand ourselves more honestly.