Freeman’s Books and Manuscripts Auction Features WWI Enlistment Poster and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Memoir

Posters play an important role in catching people’s attention and conveying a message. A 1918 World War I masterwork designed by Chicago-based printer E. G. Renesch will soon come under the hammer at Freeman’s. Titled Colored Man is No Slacker, this original chromolithographic masterwork is a rare World War I enlistment poster. Black men were encouraged to enlist in the United States Army during World War I. The available print shows two Black lovers saying goodbye to each other as a regiment of enlisted Black soldiers marches behind them. About 20,000 Black Americans served in the US military following the declaration of World War I in 1917.

Freeman’s Books and Manuscripts Auction will also offer Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This book recounts King’s experiences during the Montgomery Bus Boycott between 1955 and 1956. The book provides evidence of King’s social and religious thoughts as well as his organizational, administrative, and rhetorical abilities. Also available in the auction is Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, an assortment of short stories and vignettes set prior to, during, and after World War I. Visit Freeman’s to view the complete catalog and register to bid online.