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This is the coin bank that IM broke at Mary's apartment. It represents the failed attempts of abandoning the stereotypes the Black community has been labeled with.

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"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

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"Irony of Negro Policeman" by Jean-Michel Basquiat

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"Irony of Negro Policeman" by Jean-Michel Basquiat

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This painting shows the identity complex of being a black policeman in a white-dominated society. Like IM, it reflects on the overarching theme of identity

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DOB: March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, OK

DOD: April 16, 1994 in New York, NY

Ralph Ellison was named after journalist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and grew up with a single mother after his father passed away in 1917. Ellison began his career in writing after leaving Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1936 where he studied music for three years. While personally working on short stories and essays, Ellison worked on the Federal Writers' Project from 1938-1942, as well as the manager of The Negro Quarterly. He wrote and published Invisible Man, his only novel published in his lifetime, following service in WWII in 1952. IM rapidly gained popularity, earning the 1953 National Book Award and praise for incorporating classic literary motifs with Black culture and speech.

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"Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man."

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"Then in my mind's eye O see the bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decided whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place;..."

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This is the sambo doll that IM picked up from Clifton when he dropped it. This puppet symbolizes control of Black people by White people.

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This is Brother Tarp's leg chain that Tarp gives to IM as a reminder of their real cause.

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In this artwork, Lawrence highlights the contributions African-Americans had towards the building of the country. This also underlines the concepts of struggle, unity, and the concept of progress as both individuals and as a community when facing systematic oppression.

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"It was when he raised his head that I saw it. For a swift instant, between the gesture and the opaque glitter of his glasses, I saw the blinking of sightless eyes. Homer A. Barbee was blind."

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This is the slip of paper that was given to IM by the Brotherhood with his new name and new identity.

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IM's high school diploma which represents his past and his identity living in the South before he leaves for the North in search of a new job and education.

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This is the anonymous letter that IM received. He realizes at the end that this letter was from Brother Jack because the handwriting is the same as the slip of paper Jack wrote his Brotherhood name on.

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These are the glasses that IM picked up when trying to disguise himself. They made many people mistake IM for someone named Rhinehart.

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"Hollywood Africans" by Jean-Michel Basquiat

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"Hollywood Africans" by Jean-Michel Basquiat

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In this artwork, Basquait challenges the way African Americans are seen in mainstream media. Similarly, in the book Invisible Man, African-Americans are misrepresented and only seen through the lens of racial stereotypes and social expectations. This dives deeper into the fact that racial stereotypes limit individual expression.