Political Cartoon #13

1. Historical Context
The 50s and 60s was the peak of the civil rights movement as African Americans battled against discrimination to try and gain equality. Many of these battles manifested as peaceful protests like bus boyscotts or sit ins.

2. The Message
The message that the cartoonist is trying to convey is that the civil rights crisis is growing bigger and bigger by the day and that many people just turned a blind eye and hoped that ignoring the problem would make it go away. The cartoonist depicts the civil rights movement as a raging fire that is growing bigger and consuming more and more with the chief fireman looking scared as now the problem has grow too big and cannot be avoided.

3. The Influence
This cartoon highlighted the fact that the country was not taking any action or dealing with the civil rights movement correctly. The government did not want to take action or rock the boat but clearly this movement wasn't going away anytime soon.