Robert Lee Vann - Lawyer, Editor, Crusader
A profile portrait of Robert Lee Vann sits among vignettes of a newspaper office, a Liberty ship under construction and a tower, each with a short caption. The tell is transfer: the honour of a ship naming and a tower renaming is attached to a public figure in a biographical panel for the press.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information (cartoon artwork; artist Charles Alston)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Media and information, Race and ethnicity, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 208, Artworks and Mockups for Cartoons Promoting the War Effort (NAID 535594), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-198 (NAID 535681).
Text on the object
AS THE EDITOR OF THE PITTSBURG COURIER, ONE OF THE LARGEST NEGRO NEWSPAPERS IN THE WORLD, VANN WIELDED A DECISIVE INFLUENCE FOR THE WELFARE AND PROGRESS OF AMERICAN NEGROES AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. ROBERT LEE VANN LAWYER, EDITOR, CRUSADER. IN RECOGNITION OF HIS CONTRIBUTIONS AS JOURNALIST, PUBLIC SER- VANT, AND JURIST, THE MARITIME COMMISSION IS NAMING A MERCHANT- MAN OF ITS LIBERTY FLEET IN HIS HONOR. WHEN THE TOWER OF THE BELGIAN PAVILION AT THE WORLD'S FAIR WAS PRESENTED TO HIS ALMA MATER, VIRGINIA UNION, IT WAS RENAMED "THE ROBERT LEE VANN TOWER," AS A TRIBUTE TO HIS ARDENT INTEREST AND PHILANTHROPIES IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION. ROBERT LEE VANN PITTSBURG COURIER Alston OWI
