<I>80 days</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2018; gold fingernails added 2022
name: label: Created by
content: Deborah Roberts, American, born 1962
label: Subject of
content: George Stinney Jr., American, 1929 - 1944
notes: label: Caption
content: Deborah Roberts is renowned for her collages that incorporate multiple layers and meanings to create a more expansive and inclusive view of the Black cultural experience. She challenges the criminal lens through which society often views young Black boys, whose “well-being and futures are equally threatened because of the double standard of boyhood and criminality that is projected on them at such a young age.”
label: Caption
content: Roberts created 80 Days in honor of George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old boy who became the youngest person executed in a U.S. prison. In the space of 80 days (between March and June, 1944), Stinney was unjustly arrested, charged, and executed for the murder of two young white girls without proper representation or appeals on his behalf. Seventy years following his execution, a judge vacated his conviction, ruling that Stinney had not received a fair trial, was not effectively defended, and that his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated.
label: Description
content: This is a portrait of African American teenager George Stinney, Jr., the youngest person to be executed in a U.S. prison. In 1944, 14-year-old Stinney was charged, tried, convicted, and executed for a murder he did not commit, all within 80 days. Stinney’s trial was vacated in 2014.
label: Description
content: In this portrait by Deborah Roberts, Stinney is represented full-length with his body facing forward against a stark white background. He is shown seated with his face in left 3/4ths view. Wearing a striped grey and white prison uniform and brown boots with untied shoelaces, he glances out at the viewer. His left arm bent with his hand on his left thigh and his right arm is by his side with his right hand limply resting on his right shin, which is tucked next to his body.
place: label: Place made
content: Houston, Harris County, Texas, United States, North and Central America
label: Place depicted
content: Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Justice
label: Topic
content: Prisons
label: Topic
content: Violence
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Portfolio/Series
content: Nessun Dorma
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture and National Portrait Gallery, Museum purchase through the American Women's History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and generously supported by American Express
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2022.35
objectType: label: Type
content: portraits
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Deborah Roberts
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acrylic paint, graphite pencil with collage of cut, printed paper on canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 72 1/4 × 48 1/8 in. (183.5 × 122.2 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (frame): 76 × 52 1/8 × 3 1/2 in. (193 × 132.4 × 8.9 cm)