Rose Fights Prejudice
O'Neill, while fighting for women's rights, also hated the way minorities were treated. Artists often depicted African Americans as if they were not even human. O'Neill was one of the first artists to draw African-Americans not with the ugly stereotypes used by other illustrators. She drew them like they were in life, as real human beings.
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In the picture above shows the way O'Neill felt about segregation as you can see the white woman is shoving the white children away from the black children. The black children are saddened by this. The drawing seems to point to O'Neill's concern for racial injustice. She tried to use her art to get people different backgrounds to know and understand each other better.
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O'Neill got many letters from children asking if she could make a Kewpie that they could hold in their hands. Factories asked if they could use her drawings to make molds. O'Neill was worried they would make the mold not look like O'Neill's Kewpie. O'Neill wanted all children to have a Kewpie Doll. There were 12 molds made so that every child could have one, poor or rich. This concern that all children should be able to get a Kewpie Doll included African-American children, and so she made Black Kewpies.
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