Gaddie-1Meta Warrick Fuller's sculpture “Ethiopia Awakening” served as a metaphorical longing for African culture, a symbolic image of emancipation, an awakening of the identity of diaspora of African Americans, rebirth of Fuller's artistic career and as a self-portrait of Fuller. The Progressive Era, 1890 to 1920, is the backdrop to Fuller's life and art. This period has become symbolic of middle class reform efforts. White middle-class progressives sought to redesign industry and government, pushing for economic and social reforms. The Progressive Era was also a time of intense contradictions and ambiguity. Race was the white progressives' blind spot. 1 In the early 20th century African Americans continued to be caricatured and stereotyped as buffoons, servile servants, comic entertainers, menacing sub-humans, which led to the objectification of African Americans.2 When white Americans confronted African Americans in a significant way , they did so through the filter of a network of racist images that they placed on the black face of humanity like a mask on an actor. African American intellectuals understood that one of their central tasks in countering the negative representation of African Americans in art would be through the reimage of African American physiognomy. The task was enormous, especially since African Americans had only minimal control over the mass production and dissemination of information. Furthermore, producing products that displayed stereotypical and derogatory images of African Americans was particularly profitable.3 In 1921, the New York State and New York City Departments of Education sponsored the America's Making Exposition. The focus of the…half of the sheet…of the sculpture is the story of the artist's life: bound, figuratively and literally, to her feet, Fuller progressively unveils her shroud and awakens to her full potential as creature artist.33In conclusion, scholars have come to identify “Ethiopian Awakening” as one of Fuller's most significant works. 34 The sculpture showed multiple and different meanings. “Ethiopian Awakening” embodied a symbolic language that signified the struggles of contemporary African Americans. Fuller's use of symbolic language demonstrated that, like music and religion, art has the power to express emotions. Today, “Ethiopia Awakening” sits in the reading room of the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. The sculpture reminds researchers to recover, document, write, and share African American history.