"This short story, illustrated with pop-up versions of Walker’s famous silhouettes, appears to be a vintage children’s book but is actually a contemporary tale of racism and gender discrimination. Set in the Civil War era, Freedom: A Fable tells the story of a female slave who is granted emancipation but still experiences oppression, discovering that freedom is indeed a fable. Walker’s tale addresses the persistence of negative stereotypes that emerged in the minstrel shows, novels, and artworks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By presenting her work as a book—an intimate object meant to be held, read, and paged through—Walker implicates us in the never-ending story of troubled race relations." – Princeton University Art Museum