In the midst of this week of momentous change, the New-York Historical Society has opened an exhibition, Art As Activism, of graphic art from the 1930s to the 1970s that promoted various causes. Notice the first poster is for a 1938 play by Langston Hughes, “Don’t  You Want To Be Free” at “Lincoln Centre” (a different Lincoln Center than the one we now know.)

“Long before digital technology made worldwide communication possible,” the curators write, ” graphic artists used the powerful tools of modernist art to inform communities, stir up audiences and call attention to injustice.” The exhibition is drawn from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, which, judging from the sample below, apparently does not include art for gay rights. So I’ve added three from a 2013 New-York Historical Society exhibition, and two from the Marriage Equality movement, which yesterday culminated in the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Art as Activism runs through September 13, 2015.

Click on any picture to see it enlarged and read the caption.

Unidentified artist Negro Peoples Theatre Presents: Langston Hughes’ Great Play, “Don’t You Want to be Free?” Directed by Fanny McConnell, Lincoln Centre, 1938 Screenprint on paper mounted on board Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Hugo Gellert (1892–1985) Daily Worker, ca. 1935 Lithograph on paper 38 1/8 x 25 1/4 in. JF_5D_8431sm

J. Louis Engdahl Labor Defender June 1931 Lithograph on paper – magazine CASE(2/4): 12 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. JJ_60D_4765

Vera Bock (1905–73) Haiti; A Drama of the Black Napoleon by William Du Bois at Lafayette Theatre, 1938 Screenprint on board Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Unidentified artist Vote American Labor Party; Roosevelt and Lehman, 1936 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Distributed by the Robert Brown Elliott League An Attack Against One is An Attack Against All, ca.1970 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Photography attributed to Blair Stapp Composition by Eldridge Cleaver Huey Newton seated in wicker chair, 1967 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Unidentified artist Free Angela Davis, ca.1970-72 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Emory Douglas (b.1943) All Power To The People, 1969 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jay Belloli, Berkeley, California Amerika is Devouring Its Children, 1970 Screenprint on computer paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Arthur Rice Red Power, 1970 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman

Phil Ochs (1940–76), Cora Weiss (b.1934) and Dan Luce The War is Over!, 1975 Lithograph on paper Collection of Merrill C. Berman