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A H M A N S O N • M U R P H Y F I N E
A R T S
I M P R I N T
has endowed this imprint to honor the memory of
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who for half a century served arts and letters, beauty and learning, in equal measure by shaping with a brilliant devotion those institutions upon which they rely.
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions to this book provided by Jan and Warren Adelson The Art Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which was established by a major gift from the Ahmanson Foundation The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund Dean’s Office, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University Society for the Preservation of American Modernists
In addition, the publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Publisher’s Circle of the University of California Press Foundation, whose members are Ariel Aisiks / Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) Marcy and Jeffrey Krinsk Bill and Michelle Lerach Judith and Kim Maxwell Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Marjorie Randolph Jamie Rosenthal Wolf, David Wolf, Rick Rosenthal, and Nancy Stephens / The Rosenthal Family Foundation Angela Westwater Peter Wiley
painting harlem modern
painting harlem modern the art of jacob lawrence patricia hills
university of california press published with the assistance of the getty foundation
University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
Every effort has been made to identify and locate the rightful copyright holders of all material not specifically commissioned for use in this publication and to secure permission, where applicable, for reuse of all such material. Credit, if and as available, has been provided for all borrowed material either on-page, on the copyright page, or in an acknowledgment section of the book. Any error, omission, or failure to obtain authorization with respect to material copyrighted by other sources has been either unavoidable or unintentional. The author and publisher welcome any information that would allow them to correct future reprints.
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© 2009 by The Regents of the University of California All artwork by Jacob Lawrence unless otherwise identified. All Jacob Lawrence art © 2009 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Frontispiece: Brooklyn Stoop, 1967. Gouache and casein on paper, 21 1 ⁄8 × 161 ⁄8 in. (53.7 × 41 cm). Tacoma Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1990.7. Photo: Richard Nicol. Langston Hughes poems: “Harlem (2) [“What happens to a dream deferred . . .”],” “Ballad of the Landlord,” “Minstrel Man,” “Silhouette,” “Lynching Song,” edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Assoc., from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., and Harold Ober Associates, Incorporated.
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First paperback printing 2019
Hills, Patricia. Painting Harlem modern : the art of Jacob Lawrence / Patricia Hills. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-520-25241-7 (cloth); 978-0-520-30550-2 (pbk) 1. Lawrence, Jacob, 1917–2000—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Lawrence, Jacob, 1917–2000—Themes, motives. I. Lawrence, Jacob, 1917–2000. II. Title. ND237.L29H55 2009 759.13—dc22 2009022224 Manufactured in the United States of America 3 2 1 0 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
to kevin
contents
Preface ix
6 Home in Harlem: Tenements and Streets 169
Introduction 1
7 The Double Consciousness of Masks
and Masking 205
part one the artist’s place in harlem 1 Harlem’s Artistic Community in the 1930s 9 2 Patrons and the Making of a Professional Artist 33
8 The Paintings of the Protest Years, 1955–70 231
Epilogue 259 Acknowledgments 271 Appendix: Jacob Armstead Lawrence
part two themes and issues
and His Family 275 Notes 277
3 African American Storytelling:
Toussaint L’Ouverture and Harriet Tubman 57 4 The Great Migration in Memory, Pictures,
and Text 97 5 Confrontations with the Jim Crow South
in the 1940s 135
Selected Bibliography 327 List of Illustrations 335 Index 341
preface
This book originated thirty years ago as part of a larger
tury. His subject matter and unique style exemplified the
scholarly project to chart the relationship of socially con-
possibilities of an engaged art—an art that brings to the
cerned twentieth-century artists to radical politics. I first
surface the underlying turmoil of the day, that does not
turned my attention to John Sloan’s socialist politics and
shy away from portraying the struggles for racial and
art in the pre–World War I years. Then, when asked to
economic equality, and that offers hope for change. As he
organize an exhibition for the Bread and Roses Cultural
matured and his style became more nuanced, Lawrence’s
Project of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care
involvement with social issues in his work did not abate—
Employees, I moved on to the art and politics of the 1930s.
not during the 1940s, the decade of World War II and the
Although this decade was one of worldwide economic de-
beginnings of the cold war, nor during the 1950s, when
pression, large-scale unemployment, and growing fascism
the civil rights movement began to gain momentum. And
in Europe, I was struck by how these artists embraced the
he remained faithful to his artistic idiom during the 1960s,
value of working together as a community and their opti-
when activists took to the streets to protest racial inequali-
mism about the future. With the help of Boston University
ties and the savagery of war. His unwavering consistency
students, I put together Social Concern and Urban Realism:
and the power of his political-humanist vision throughout
American Painting of the 1930s, an exhibition, with a cata-
these decades fascinated me. To learn more, I began to
logue, that traveled the country during 1983 and 1984
tape-record interviews with both Lawrence and Gwendo-
under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts.
lyn Knight, his lifelong companion.
Among the artists in this exhibition, Jacob Lawrence
In the 1980s and 1990s curators and scholars together
stood out as someone whose art continued to embody
began to organize and participate in exhibitions of Law-
the democratic spirit of the 1930s well past the midcen-
rence’s work, and I was fortunate to be included in these
ix
endeavors. First came the 1986 traveling retrospective
him not only for his art, but also because he never swerved
exhibition, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, organized
from his commitment to the struggle for a fair and just
by the Seattle Art Museum, accompanied by a catalogue
society. To be sure, he was not an activist, but he did sign
written by Ellen Harkins Wheat. In the early 1990s scholar-
petitions and lent his name to controversial organizations.
ship deepened with Wheat’s traveling exhibition for the
And he firmly believed he was doing his part to bring about
Hampton University Museum of Lawrence’s Frederick
social change through his art.
Douglass and Harriet Tubman series. Next, Elizabeth Hut-
I think he would have been pleased to witness the elec-
ton Turner, a curator at the Phillips Collection in Washing-
tion of Barack Obama to the presidency. I know he would
ton, D.C., organized the 1993–95 traveling exhibition of
have at least agreed with Obama’s words in his “More
Lawrence’s Migration series. Turner brought together an
Perfect Union” speech in Philadelphia on March 18,
advisory group of historians from different disciplines to
2008, on the subject of race in America: “Working to-
discuss with Lawrence the many facets of this series and
gether we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds,
its historical context. Then in the late 1990s Peter T.
and . . . in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on
Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, co-directors of the Jacob
the path of a more perfect union. For the African American
Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, convened two all-
community, that path means embracing the burdens of
day conferences of a similar scholarly group to discuss
our past without becoming victims of our past. It means
the volume of essays, Over the Line: The Art of Jacob
continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every
Lawrence, published as a companion to Jacob Lawrence:
aspect of American life.”
Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935–1999): A Cata
Indeed, Obama’s words resonate with the creed Law-
logue Raisonné. Over the Line subsequently served as
rence lived by—a creed that allowed him not to shy away
catalogue for the artist’s 2001–3 traveling retrospective,
from incorporating disturbing images in his art, especially
organized by the Phillips Collection. Thus, for the last two
when he wanted to symbolize the struggles people had to
decades Lawrence scholarship has been a collective ef-
endure to overcome adversity. However, at the same time
fort, and I, like others, am indebted to the insights of the
this creed encouraged him to embrace the joys of the
many dedicated scholars who participated.
common people and create compositions that balanced
We all agreed that Lawrence was one of the gentlest artists we knew, but also one of the toughest. I admired
x preface
colors, lines, and shapes into a transforming unity that spoke to them.
introduction The art historian will have to check what he thinks is the intrinsic meaning of the work, or group of works, to which he devotes his attention, against what he thinks is the intrinsic meaning of as many other documents of civilization historically related to that work or group of works, as he can master: of documents bearing witness to the political, poetical, religious, philosophical, and social tendencies of the personality, period or country under investigation.
erwin panofsky, “Iconography and Iconology” (1939) And if an exploration of a particular culture will lead to a heightened understanding of a work of literature produced within that culture, so too a careful reading of a work of literature will lead to a heightened understanding of the culture within which it was produced.
stephen greenblatt, “Culture” (1990)
This is a story about Jacob Lawrence and his art.
rence and guided by the words of the art historian Erwin
It is also a story about Harlem—a community that
Panofsky (see the epigraph above), I plan to interpret Law-
gave him encouragement and from which he drew his
rence’s art against the intrinsic meanings of “documents
strength as a man and as an artist. In interviews Law-
bearing witness to the political, poetical, religious, philo-
rence always acknowledged the importance of this com-
sophical, and social tendencies of the personality, period
munity to him. At a public forum in October 1991 at the
or country under investigation.”3 The complex interaction
Studio Museum in Harlem, when asked to name the “ref-
of events, of the visual and oral culture of Harlem, of peo-
erences” that inspired his art, Lawrence replied: “The
ple important to his artistic life making their entrances and
community let me develop. . . . Of course, there were
exits—together these constitute the thick context out of
books around . . . and West African sculpture. . . . I
which Lawrence created his art.
painted the only way I knew how to paint. . . . I tried to put the images down the way I related to the community. . . . I was being taught . . . to see.”1 He recalled the Harlem community as being polyphonic,
the
1930 s
moment
made up of many and often competing voices—the Garvey-
Following the stock market crash and the onset of the
ites, communists, socialists, and church people.2 Lawrence
Great Depression, many millions of men and women in
reminisced about listening to his teachers in after-school
the United States lost their jobs, walked the streets, rode
black history clubs and to street-corner orators, who told
the rails, or hitchhiked across the country to find decent
stories with “such a spirit and such a belief” that he “re-
employment (or any employment) to support their fami-
sponded with [his] paintings.” In the spirit of Jacob Law-
lies. They pooled their resources and petitioned govern-
1
ment agencies to open up jobs and provide relief. They
claim to the legacy of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance and
picketed, protested, and marched.4
inspired by its writers, poets, and musicians, the visual
For artists living in New York, never before or after has
artists in Harlem came into their own during the 1930s.
there been a decade like the 1930s. Each of these artists
As Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson characterized
can tell a story of hardships, struggles, and camaraderie.
the two decades: “What strongly differentiated this pe-
Many could not sell their artworks; many gave up art al-
riod [the 1930s] from the Harlem Renaissance was that
together. But by the mid-1930s New Deal public relief
the employment of a large number of African American
programs for artists had been put in place by both local
artists gave them self-respect, the feeling that they were
and federal governments, assisted by private agencies,
worthy of their pay and not dependent on patrons who
churches, and philanthropic organizations. Once em-
felt sorry for them. These African American artists be-
ployed, art workers—artists, arts administrators, and
lieved that art was a means through which they could win
teachers—felt a sense of purpose. They were creating the
new respect for their people.”6 Artists were in tune with
conditions for an “art of the people.” Freed of market
their community as never before. Their art captured the
concerns—of the need to adjust their work to appeal to
expressive culture at the heart of that community’s mo-
the whims of wealthy patrons—and paid regularly by local
dernity, and they began to achieve national recognition.
and federal agencies, the artists could paint, sculpt, pho-
Lawrence had the good fortune to come of age during the
tograph, and make prints for a new audience consisting
1930s as an artist in Harlem.
of their neighbors and the people in their communities. A host of librarians, administrators of nongovernmental organizations, art center directors, workshop teachers, and civic leaders helped develop an appreciation of the arts at the community level by staging exhibitions in the
the leftist politics of the 1930 s The 1930s was also the decade when many artists and
neighborhoods. A case in point is Audrey McMahon, who, as executive
writers embraced the ideas of the Left. Some became
secretary of the College Art Association in the early
independent Marxists, others called themselves socialists
1930s, initiated programs to give artists jobs and later
and communists, and many more held progressive ideas
headed the New York office of the Federal Art Project in
about the benefits of an egalitarian nonracist society, the
the late 1930s. She was one of many who advocated pub-
necessity of justice, and the urgency for collective action.
lic art but also affordable art that people could buy for
Marxism and communism seemed to them to offer per-
their own homes. “To hold art a luxury is pernicious to
suasive analyses of the causes of the Depression and the
the public and to all but a few very successful artists,”
failures of capitalism. Communist Party members were
she wrote in 1933. She felt it entirely appropriate that fine
especially respected by many on the Left for their persua-
arts artists receive wages no higher than other artisans:
sive analyses and their organizational savvy and commit-
“If, in the new economic era, the great collector who re-
ment to activism. They were in the forefront of organizing
placed the state and the church of ancient times as a pa-
demonstrations, planning strategies for work relief solu-
tron of art is vanishing and if he in turn is to be replaced
tions, and developing critical responses among the base
by the people, art must be brought within their ken finan-
of people with whom they were working.7 These activists
5
cially as well as emotionally and intellectually.” McMa-
of the Left helped create a movement—one that em-
hon and others were committed to the proposition that
braced writers, artists, actors, and musicians across a
the arts in America should be “of the people, by the peo-
spectrum of progressive political philosophies.
ple, and for the people.” Especially affected by the hard times, African Ameri-
Marxist writers on art also encouraged artists to produce an art of social content. The art historian Meyer
can artists living in Harlem welcomed the relief programs
Schapiro, in his address to the American Artists’ Congress
that offered employment in the arts. While still laying
in February 1936, observed: “Artists who are concerned
2 introduction
with the world around them, its action and conflict, who
work of a growing school of colored artists who paint and
ask the same questions that are asked by the impover-
model the beauty of dark faces and create with new tech-
ished masses and oppressed minorities—these artists
nique the expressions of their own soul-world.”16 With the
cannot permanently devote themselves to a painting com-
encouragement of writers such as Hughes and Alain
mitted to the aesthetic moments of life, to spectacles de-
Locke and art teachers such as Alston, Henry Bannarn,
signed for passive, detached individuals, or to an art of the
and Augusta Savage, young Harlem artists fought for a
studio.”8 Writing sometimes under the pseudonym John
place at the common table, confronted the racism that
Kwait, Schapiro encouraged an explicitly critical art in his
had hobbled the advancement of African Americans in
Masses.9
Louis Lozowick, writing for Art
the past, and created expressive works that incorporated
Front, the journal of the Artists’ Union, specifically urged
the faces and “typical” experiences of their community.
writings for New
artists to embrace themes of “class struggle” for their
In this way the artists were very much a part of the
art—to create a revolutionary art focused on the realities
“American scene” artistic trend of the 1920s, except that
of life under capitalism. To Lozowick, “revolutionary art
they focused on the urban life of their own community,
implies open-eyed observation, integrated experience, in-
often with a politically charged edge.17
tense participation and an ordered view of life.”10 When
In this progressive, populist decade, the audience for
Aaron Douglas, president of the Harlem Artists Guild,
art was as important as the creators of the art. Most art
spoke at the American Artists’ Congress, he praised revo-
world people then understood art as a dynamic human
lutionary art “for pointing a way and striking a vital blow at
activity in which everyone should participate. They val-
discrimination and segregation.”11 Such political art, to Af-
ued paintings that communicated an artist’s personal
rican Americans, was on the right side in their fight against
experiences with the sights and sounds of his or her own
racism, and many joined the movement for a socially pro-
life, everyday encounters as well as more disturbing inci-
gressive art.12
dents of brutality. Influential art world people, such as
It was exactly such an engaged art that Lawrence ex-
Holger Cahill, appointed national director of the Federal
emplified. The artist Charles Alston, his first mentor,
Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration
wrote several paragraphs on Lawrence for a brochure ac-
(WPA) in 1935, were inspired by the philosopher and Co-
companying an exhibition the twenty-year-old youth had
lumbia Teachers College professor John Dewey and his
at the YMCA in Harlem in February 1938: “Still a very
book Art as Experience (1934).18 Dewey was not a com-
young painter, Lawrence symbolizes more than any one I
munist, but he believed, like the communists, that art
know, the vitality, the seriousness and promise of a new
should be a communal process that involved both the
and socially conscious generation of Negro artists.”13
making of art and the appreciation of it by a democratic
Lawrence fulfilled this promise. Like Lozowick, Lawrence
citizenry. Like Audrey McMahon, mentioned above, both
believed that through his paintings he could help advance
Dewey and Cahill rejected the idea that art should serve
the movement for
change.14
Revolutionary and progressive ideas, however, would
only the wealthy. Artists would and should pay attention to the formal elements of picture making—the arrange-
not have taken hold and been the basis of a movement
ment of color, line, and mass—but they believed that the
without personal and collective experiences of the
communication of an experience was primary, whether as
Depression.15
narrative or as expression of inner emotion. Black communities of artists, however, recognized that because of race their experiences would differ substan-
experience as art During the 1930s personal experiences provided a valued
tially from those of artists in the white community. As Ralph Ellison noted in 1946: “Obviously the experiences of Negroes—slavery, the grueling and continuing fight for
source of subjects for art. Langston Hughes predicted in
full citizenship since Emancipation, the stigma of color,
1926 that he would see “within the next decade . . . the
the enforced alienation which constantly knifes into our
introduction 3
natural identification with our country—have not been
ously gleaned through reading.”22 Lawrence also listened
that of white Americans. And though as passionate be-
to the stories his neighbors told and incorporated their
lievers in democracy Negroes identify themselves with
experiences into his art. For his history series, Toussaint
the broader American ideals, their sense of reality
L’Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John
springs, in part, from an American experience which
Brown, The Migration of the Negro, and Struggle . . . From
most white men not only have not had, but one with
the History of the American People, he did research at the
which they are reluctant to identify themselves even when
New York Public Library on 135th Street.
presented in forms of the imagination.”19 Experience, to
His pictures were thus re-presentations—“typical”
Ellison and others, was contingent on one’s social and
scenes—constructed from his experiences, those of oth-
racial situation. 20
ers, what he read in books and newspapers, and his li-
The Howard University philosopher Alain Locke and
brary research. Lawrence’s need to create the structures
others encouraged young Lawrence to paint his experi-
for communicating experience impelled him to stay on
ences: to represent not only what was unique to his com-
the stylistic course he had early developed. 23 His work
munity and to himself as a black urban artist but also
quickly gained acceptance. In fact, Lawrence’s style and
what he shared with others—white men and women—
subject matter appealed to a range of contemporary art
outside his community. Locke would not waver from en-
advocates at midcentury. The expressive flat collage cub-
couraging artists to express the fullness of their experi-
ist style he forged attracted artists and critics who saw
ences. In 1950 he admonished, “Give us Negro life and
his work as modernist and concerned with form, color,
experiences in all the arts but with a third dimension of
and pattern, even if they puzzled over his insistence on
universalized common-denominator humanity.” 21 For
subject matter. 24
Locke, one could reach the universal through the specific
The very simplicity of his expressive cubism attracted
and the local, and one reached the essential American
not only the modernists but also those art world people
experience through African American experience. Locke
who valued as “authentically American” the objects and
mentored Jacob Lawrence, who absorbed these princi-
paintings made by untutored and naive folk artists. Those
ples and made them his own.
who prized folk art saw Lawrence as a “primitive”; they presumed he painted intuitively, without making the complex compositional decisions that in fact he did make. 25
lawrence’s entrance onto the art scene
Traditionalists advocating an art of racial themes found the figural and expressive elements of Lawrence’s work most appealing. Artists on the Left especially admired
Lawrence came to maturity as an artist in the right place
Lawrence’s emphasis on working-class lives, on ordinary
at the right moment. The first works he created were Har-
people struggling to better their circumstances.
lem genre scenes, using a limited palette and simple
When pinned down, Lawrence would call himself an
shapes and focusing his subjects on the comings and go-
expressionist. In an interview of 1985, he explained that
ings of ordinary people. Lawrence had great powers of
expressionism means “express [ing] yourself in a certain
concentration and an uncanny sense of design that made
manner, not necessarily working from the object or from
his compositions come alive with linear rhythms, patterns,
the scene, but expressing your feelings as to that object
and color; and his teacher Alston had the wisdom not to
or scene.”26 Lawrence’s “feelings” were inevitably com-
tamper with that inborn talent. But as he developed as an
plex and often fraught with contradictions. The result was
artist, Lawrence went beyond design and the observation
an art sometimes lucid, sometimes puzzling in its details,
of his environment. He also thought deeply about what he
and always fascinating.
was seeing and read widely. In 1943 the artist James Por-
Lawrence’s personal qualities of friendliness and po-
ter noted, “His art is founded on reality. It includes the
liteness endeared him to his elders. His background of
vivid moments of actual experience as well as those vicari-
poverty and single-minded focus on his art encouraged
4 introduction
people in the art world to reach out to help him achieve
relationship; one enhances the other. 28 When acknowl-
recognition. Among those who did so were his artist
edging the insights of these scholars, we need to substi-
teachers Augusta Savage, Charles Alston, and Henry
tute “visual language” for “literary language.” However,
Bannarn; his artist friends Gwendolyn Knight, Ronald Jo-
the extended captions that Lawrence provided for many
seph, Bob Blackburn, and Romare Bearden; the writers
of his paintings, particularly his history series, give us a
and critics Alain Locke, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes,
unique opportunity to counterpoise the visual with the
Carl Van Vechten, Arna Bontemps, and Richard Wright;
literary—to probe the potential of conjoining image and
the community arts administrators Gwendolyn Bennett,
text or to test their productive dissonance.
in New York, and Peter Pollack, in Chicago; the museum
I prefer the literary critical phrase close reading. Unlike
curators and directors Alfred H. Barr Jr., Charles Rogers,
the traditional terms invoked by art historians—stylistic
and Lincoln Kirstein (a sometime curator); the Harmon
analysis and iconographic analysis—close reading implies
Foundation director Mary Beattie Brady; leftist artists such
teasing out meanings more relevant to the historical mo-
as Harry Gottlieb, Philip Evergood, and Sol Wilson; the
ment and with deeper resonances to our actual experi-
museum film curator and historian Jay Leyda; and the
ences than the mere formal description of lines, forms,
art dealers Edith Halpert and, later, Charles Alan, Terry
colors, and motifs. 29 Like Gates, I want to show the com-
Dintenfass, Francine Seders, and Bridget Moore. These
plexity of Lawrence’s visual language and its effects on
notables all believed in the originality and authenticity of
us, the viewers.
Lawrence’s art. All, moreover, held influential positions in
And so our charge is twofold, as befits the doubleness
the world of arts and culture from which they could pro-
of “art history”: to interpret Lawrence’s art and to situate
mote his work and advance his career.
it in a coherent context of history and experience. Close
Encountering the full range of his art, we can begin to
readings of Lawrence’s art and the reconstruction of the
understand that Lawrence was painting Harlem modern
thick context of his cultural surround can move us closer
by representing the shapes and forms of modern urban
to what it must have been like for one gifted, black urban
life and by translating them into symbols of struggles,
artist to experience social, civic, and political life in the
hopes, and victories of the human spirit. And Harlem, as
mid–twentieth century in the United States.30
we will come to understand, was not just a site located north of 110th Street in Manhattan but a state of mind that nurtured and expanded creativity. n
from the 1930 s to the 1960 s: thick context
My project is not only to construct a history of Lawrence’s
Throughout this book I have attempted to offer a com-
cultural surround but also to probe that history through
plexly layered, thick context that includes the artists, writ-
close readings of Lawrence’s art and thereby suggest
ers, and educators concerned with issues of race, art,
deeper understandings of both. Literary theorists have
modernity, and the “double-consciousness,” as W. E. B. Du
proved excellent guides to art historians wanting to refine
Bois explains, of being both an American and an African
and add nuance to their interpretations. Insights that
American.31 Chapters 1 and 2 of Part I describe the Harlem
such theorists make about literature often apply with
environment of the 1930s— the people and institutions
equal relevance to the visual arts. For example, “close
that nurtured Lawrence and other young artists and their
readings,” as Henry Louis Gates Jr. has said of his own
impact on Lawrence’s development as an emerging artist
literary approach, “if utilized subtly enough, help readers
and a visual spokesperson for his community.
to understand even more fully how remarkably complex
Part II develops interpretations of the themes and ico-
an act of literary language can be.”27 As Stephen Green-
nographies of Lawrence’s art from the Great Depression
blatt notes in the epigraph above, close readings and the
of the 1930s through World War II in the 1940s and the
heightened understanding of a culture have a reciprocal
cold war of the 1950s to the civil rights movement of the
introduction 5
1950s and 1960s. During these years Lawrence contin-
translated into complex pictorial iconographies focused on
ued to work in an expressive collage style, but his art be-
the motif of masking. Chapter 8 looks at Lawrence’s return,
came more nuanced as his experiences of life and art
during the civil rights movement, to the issues of segrega-
deepened. The simple scenes of Harlem gave way to the
tion, protest, and justice; his moral compass helped to
more sophisticated imagery of his series, including Tous
guide his artistic responses.
saint L’Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, and The Migration of
In the Epilogue I examine the end of Lawrence’s career,
the Negro, discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. His travels in
briefly discussing his move to Seattle and his relation-
the South during the 1940s, discussed in Chapter 5, ex-
ship to his wife and partner of many years, Gwendolyn
panded his awareness of Jim Crow segregation and its
Knight, and assessing his stature in twentieth-century art
brutalities, and his response to racism and lynchings be-
history.
came both more subtle and more explicit. Chapter 6 fo-
Lawrence was a deeply moral artist—concerned with
cuses on how his return to Harlem after his southern
the fight for racial and social justice and with maintaining
sojourns increased his appreciation of home, street life,
a positive image of the humanity of people who constan
and the cultural geography of community.
tly struggle for those ideals. He was never self-righteous
Chapter 7 begins in 1949, when Lawrence, by then thir-
or sentimental. He was sensitive to his surroundings
ty-one and being heralded as the foremost African Ameri-
and aware of possibilities, a visual artist whose art paral
can artist, experienced a mental breakdown. He voluntarily
leled the writings of other African American artists who
entered the psychiatric ward of Hillside Hospital in Queens,
pursued the literary arts, especially Langston Hughes.
New York, where his extended stay lasted just over a year.
He spoke to the black community and painted Harlem
He emerged with a greater understanding of the inter-
modern; he spoke to the nation and painted America
section of self, sociology, and symbolic thinking, which he
modern.
6 introduction
part one
the artist’s place in harlem
1
harlem’s artistic community in the 1930 s Not to know the Negro on the group and historical level is to rob him of his rightful share in the American heritage.
j. saunders redding, On Being Negro in America (1951)
early student years Sometime during 1930 Rosalee Lawrence brought her children, Jacob and his younger siblings William and Geraldine, from their foster homes in Philadelphia to live with her at 142 West 143rd Street in New York’s Harlem. Jacob was either twelve years old or thirteen, the age he turned on September 7, 1930.1 Harlem, an area north of Central Park, had originally
only by dingy areaway entrances to the littered backyard about which the rectangle of tenements had been built. . . . Half of all the tenants are on relief and pass their days and nights lolling in the dreary entrances of the 40 apartments which house them or sitting in the ten by fifteen foot rooms which many of them share with a luckless friend or two. Unless they are fortunate their single windows face on narrow courts or into a neighbor’s kitchen and the smell of cooking and the jangle of a dozen radios is always in the air. 3
been populated by German Americans, who built elegant brownstone townhouses but then left when African Amer-
Harlem, much larger and more densely crowded than
icans began to expand into the area in the early twentieth
Philadelphia, opened the eyes of the impressionable
century. 2 By the early 1930s many of the brownstones
young Lawrence (see map, p. 10).
had been converted into one- or two-room kitchenettes
Five years before Lawrence arrived, in 1925, the writer
to accommodate the burgeoning population. The city
and educator James Weldon Johnson had spelled out
block Lawrence lived on—142nd Street to 143rd Street,
Harlem’s special qualities from an insider’s point of view,
bordered by Lenox and Seventh Avenues—was described
in sharp contrast to the New York Herald Tribune report-
in a New York Herald Tribune article in 1934 as
er’s account:
tenanted exclusively by Negroes. On its four sides the area
Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer, the
presents a front of gray and red brick fire escapes broken
pleasure-seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising,
FIG 1 Jacob Lawrence at work on a Frederick Douglass series panel, ca. 1939. Photo: Kenneth F. Space, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
W 147 St
N
4
W 137 St
15 17
11 12
10
W 135 St
W 125 St
W 123 St
14
Lexington Ave
W 127 St W 126 St
W 130 St
Madison Ave
13
Park Ave
W 134 St
18
Lenox Ave (Malcolm X Blvd)
7th Ave (Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Ave)
8th Ave (Frederick Douglass Blvd)
9
St Nicholas Ave
HARLEM HOSPITAL
W 136 St
5th Ave
8
Manhattan Ave
W 138 St
6
7
ve sA ola ch Ni St
Morningside Ave
C
St Nicholas Terr
ve nt A onve
W 141 St
ER
St. Nicholas Park
Morningside Park
5
3
R IV
City College
2
W 143 St
Edgecombe Ave
Convent Ave
W 145 St
EM RL HA
Amsterdam Ave
Hamiton Terr s Ave ichola St N e Ave comb Edge Bradhurst
1
16
19 20
Mount Morris Park
W 119 St
Central Harlem, ca. 1930s–1940s East/west blocks increase by 100 numbers per block. Walking north or south along the avenues takes about 20 minutes to cover 20 blocks. Mount Morris Park is now Marcus Garvey Park. 1 Lawrence’s temporary home in 1940, 292 W 147th 2 Augusta Savage’s first studio, 163 W 143rd 3 Lawrence’s first Harlem address, 1930, 142 W 143rd 4 Lawrences’ home, 1942–43, 72 Hamilton Terr. 5 “306” Alston/Bannarn Studio, 306 W 141st 6 Abyssinian Baptist Church, 136–42 W 138th 7 Ethiopian School of Research (Charles Seifert), 313 W 137th 8 Harlem Artists Guild, 321 W 136th 9 Augusta Savage’s second studio, 239 W 135th 10 NY Public Library, Harlem branch, 103 W 135th
11 Old Harlem YMCA, 181 W 135th 12 New Harlem YMCA (built in 1930s), 180 W 135th 13 Utopia House, 170 W 130th 14 Langston Hughes’s home, 20 E 127th 15 Braddock Hotel, site of 1943 Harlem Riot, 272 W 126th 16 Lawrence’s studio in 1940, 33 W 125th 17 Apollo Theater, 253 W 125th 18 New York Amsterdam News (office in 1930s), 2293 7th Ave. 19 Harlem Community Art Center, 290 Lenox 20 First Harlem Music and Art Center (1937), 1 W 123rd
the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world. . . .
Lawrence was fortunate to meet Alston (Fig. 4). At
Harlem is not merely a Negro colony or community, it is a city
Columbia Alston had been briefly enrolled in a pre-archi-
within a city, the greatest Negro city in the world. It is not a
tecture course but switched to the liberal arts curriculum
slum or a fringe, it is located in the heart of Manhattan and
and graduated in 1929. 8 He spent at least a year teaching
occupies one of the most beautiful and healthful sections of the city. It is not a ‘quarter’ of dilapidated tenements, but is made up of new-law apartments and handsome dwellings, with well-paved and well-lighted streets. It has its own churches, social and civic centers, shops, theaters and other places of amusement. And it contains more Negroes to the square mile than any other spot on earth. A stranger who rides up mag-
at Utopia House in the arts and crafts program originally set up by James Wells, also a Columbia graduate (class of 1925).9 Alston returned to Columbia after a year or two to complete a master’s degree at Teachers College.10 In interviews during the 1960s Alston recalled the circumstances of his first encounter with Lawrence and his
nificent Seventh Avenue on a bus or in an automobile must be
determination to let his pupil’s innate talent develop. To
struck with surprise at the transformation which takes place
Harlan Phillips, he remarked:
after he crosses One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Street. Beginning there, the population suddenly darkens and he rides
I took a job as a director of a boys’ club in a slum area in Har-
through twenty-five solid blocks where the passers-by, the
lem. It was a very small operation. . . . You had kids of ages—
shoppers, those sitting in restaurants, coming out of theaters,
five to 16, 17—which made it very hard to develop a pro-
standing in doorways and looking out of windows are practi-
gram. . . . Among the kids that I had was . . . Jacob Lawrence.
cally all Negroes.4
This kid was not the usual mischievous, hell-raising kid. . . . Jake . . . had this very curious vision that just fascinated me.
Like Johnson, young Lawrence was attracted to the magic of Harlem’s beauty and vitality, with neighbors and strangers moving past each other through the spaces of stoops, sidewalks, and streets. Lawrence would later say, in a
If I gave him crayons or whatever materials were available, there was always a very personal, strange kind of expression. I don’t think at that time he had ever seen African masks or anything like that, but he used to do these fantastic masks . . . in brilliant colors. I kept him supplied with things and sensed
remark familiar to his interviewers: “It was a very cohesive
even that early . . . that this was a kid to leave alone. Don’t let
community. You knew people. You didn’t know their
him start painting like you, don’t start cramming him with
names, but you’d pass people on the street and see the
classical ideas about art.11
face[s] over and over again. It was that kind of a community. It was a very vital, exciting community. At least it
To another interviewer, Albert Murray, Alston added, “He
was for me, and from what I hear from many other people
didn’t work like the other kids. He knew pretty definitely
my age[.] [Y]ou knew the police, you knew the firemen,
what he wanted to do and it didn’t relate to the typical
you knew the teachers, the people on the street. You knew
kind of thing that children of that age do. I’m glad I had
the peddlers. That’s what it was for me” (Figs. 2 and 3).
the sense at that time to realize that this kid had a very
Rosalee Lawrence, sometime after her children arrived
unusual, unique kind of talent, and a way of seeing things.
in Harlem, enrolled them in arts and crafts classes at the
I wouldn’t even let him watch me paint. And I tried my
after-school program of Utopia Children’s House, located
best just to protect this very unique quality in Jake.”12
at 170 West 130th Street, in Central Harlem. Founded in
At Utopia House, Lawrence was introduced to soap
1927 by Daisy C. Reed, its first director, and other social
carving, metalwork, woodwork, and painting. Painting
progressives in Harlem, Utopia Children’s House provided
particularly appealed to Lawrence; to Elton Fax he re-
activities and free lunches for the children of working
called his early attempts at making art unencumbered by
mothers.6 Jacob took lessons from the Harlem artist
rules and academic protocols: “My first paintings con-
Charles Alston, a recent graduate of Columbia College,
sisted of geometric designs, done from my imagination,
walking each day the brief distance to Utopia House from
with poster paints on paper. I was playing with forms and
PS 89, at Lenox Avenue (now Malcolm X Boulevard) and
color with no other thing in mind. Then I began painting
135th Street, where he was in the fifth grade.7
masks out of my imagination. It was only later that I began
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
11
Fig 2 View of 125th Street, looking west from Seventh Avenue, 1943. Photographs and Prints
Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Fig 3 Sid Grossman, Children Playing on Sidewalk, 1939. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
As the art historian Elizabeth Hutton Turner has pointed out, Alston no doubt conveyed to Lawrence many of the precepts of the influential artist and educator Alfred Wesley Dow, who had chaired the Fine Arts Program at Columbia’s Teachers College from 1904 until his death in 1922.15 Dow’s book Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers (1899; revised, 1913 and 1938) served as a guide for a generation of artists, particularly those trained at Columbia.16 Inspired by his own study of Japanese art, Dow taught students first to learn and experiment with the “three structural elements” of art: line (and its relationship to space), then notan (“darks and lights in harmonic relations”), and finally color. Dow described notan as the patterning of lights and darks in harmonies and contrasts, not as light and shadow or chiaroscuro. The notan was to effect a harmonious pattern, not to simulate an illusion of three-dimensional depth. Dow’s method differed from tra ditional academic art teaching that stressed representation, especially life drawing, as the basis for art. Whereas students in traditional art academies were first taught to draw as realistically as they could from still life objects, Fig 4 Charles Alston in his studio, 1930s. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
plaster casts of antique statuary fragments, or the live model, for Dow, “mere accuracy has no art-value whatever. Some of the most pathetic things in the world are the pictures or statues whose only virtue is accuracy. The bare truth may be a deadly commonplace.”17 Dow instead
working out of my own experience. I built street scenes
urged exercises for students, such as copying the lines,
out of corrugated boxes—taking them to familiar spots in
light-dark patterns, and colors in textiles and rugs, as a
the street and painting houses and scenes on them, re-
way to develop an artistic sensibility (Fig. 5).18
creating as best I could a three-dimensional image of
Pattern became an important element in Lawrence’s
those spots. And then I began to gradually work freely on
compositions, as the artist explained in a 1968 interview:
paper and with poster color.”13 To another interviewer,
“I look around this room . . . and I see pattern. I don’t see
Lawrence elaborated: “There was a lot of theatre equip-
you. I see you as a form as it relates to your environment.
ment at Utopia. I got absorbed in working on stage sets
I see that there’s a plane, you see, I’m very conscious of
and in making masks. Pictures of Persian rugs and Moor-
these planes, patterns.”19 Lawrence’s procedure as an
ish tiles fascinated me and I started to cover sheets of
artist followed the Dow method: he first drew on the sup-
paper with crayoned webs of small, complicated, geomet-
port (whether paper or a gessoed panel), then painted in
ric repeat-patterns. I was fascinated by patterns from the
the dark colors (which as a contrast to the white support
outset.”14 Even though Alston claimed not to have taught
would help construct the light-dark pattern), and finally
Lawrence academic methods, and Lawrence himself re-
filled in the lighter colors to achieve a harmony.
called his own complete freedom to create at Utopia
Besides the basic elements of line, light-dark pattern,
House, Alston’s own Teachers College training would serve
and color, Dow wanted students to “look for character . . .
the younger artist well.
and to value power in expression above success in
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
13
Fig 5 Page from Arthur Wesley Dow, Composi tion: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers, 1938.
drawing.”20 For Alston, and in fact for any teacher setting
fellows at Mike’s [Henry Bannarn’s 306 studio].” She
up lessons in a children’s after-school program, such exer-
assured her readers, “I have always prided myself that I
cises were far simpler and no doubt produced quicker and
urged Jacob Lawrence not to worry about whether his
more satisfying results than traditional perceptual studio
work was like that of others around him.”22 Lawrence’s
drawing exercises. And since Alston recognized Lawrence’s
style merged Dow’s art-for-composition’s-sake methods
uncanny sense of design, he would naturally steer the
with his own commitment to the representation of
youth toward developing his compositional skills.
content—to portraying the social life of Harlem and to
This nonacademic method of conceiving pictures first as design structures would stay with Lawrence through-
understanding “art as experience,” as John Dewey advocated.
out his career. Early on he developed his signature style
Turner was the first to make the connection to another
of working with descriptive lines, patterns of light and
Columbia Teachers College influence that filtered through
dark, and a limited palette of flat, unmodulated colors for
Alston to Lawrence: the social pragmatism of John Dew-
composing his pictures, for example, Halloween Sand
ey. 23 Dewey and his followers believed that both the pro
Bags, 1937 (see Fig. 22). When interviewers later asked
cess of making art and the appreciation of art enriched
him about his distinctive style, he would often say: “I
the lives of individuals and, by extension, the community.
didn’t think about it. It was all I could do. I couldn’t do
In 1939 Holger Cahill, director of the Federal Art Project
anything else. I didn’t know of any other way to paint. So
(FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), deliv-
it wasn’t an intellectual process. . . . I was encouraged by
ered a tribute to Dewey at the philosopher’s eightieth
various people. They didn’t try to change my style.”21 We
birthday celebration. He emphasized the high regard in
know of only one instance when he expressed doubts
which educational leaders held Dewey:
about his unique style—when he confided to the artist and poet Gwendolyn Bennett that he might be disadvantaged by not having mastered the classical techniques of academic drawing. In an article of 1947 Bennett recalled
John Dewey and his pupils and followers have been of the greatest importance in developing American resources in the arts, especially through their influence on the school systems of this country. They have emphasized the importance and
Lawrence’s words: “I’m worried about the fact that no
pervasiveness of the aesthetic experience, the place of the
matter how I try I just can’t draw like the rest of the
arts as part of the significant life of an organized community,
14 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
and the necessary unity of the arts with the activities, the
sounds, and smells of Harlem itself as he hurried from
objects, and the scenes of everyday life. They have insisted
school to the after-school program at Utopia House to
that the teaching of the arts should not be relegated to the
home, and, on Sundays, to the Abyssinian Baptist Church
frills and the extras, but that it is central in any system of
at West 138th Street, where he and his family listened to
education. They have shown that art education, like art itself,
the inspiring sermons of Adam Clayton Powell Sr. 28
involves activity, that art appreciation can best be taught through doing. 24
He confessed to the artist Elton Fax that in Harlem he seldom played with other children:
Dewey’s lectures and writings, particularly his book Art
I’d been used to more space such as we had in Philadelphia.
as Experience (1934), helped shape the discourse about
When I played marbles there, we played in large open lots.
art as an activity, a social responsibility, and a commu-
Here the tenement kids had learned to play in the cramped
nity endeavor. Indeed, Dewey’s goal in his book was “to
quarters of the gutters and I wasn’t used to that. New York
restore continuity between the refined and intensified
City games took on the character of the environment. Stick
forms of experience that are works of art and the every-
ball played in the narrow side streets, with parked cars and
day events, doings, sufferings that are universally recognized to constitute
experience.”25
He and his followers
rejected the separation of the high arts from the popular arts; the goal was to stimulate creativity in everyone. The Dow and Dewey influences coalesced in Alston’s encouragement of Lawrence to see the artistic qualities of line, light-dark pattern, and color in his everyday experience at home and in the streets of Harlem. Lawrence later recalled to Samella Lewis: My mother decorated her house with colors, we were surrounded by them. This was common for people in our economic and social level. I can’t say that it was common throughout the Harlem community—there were families in
manhole covers for bases, was strange and foreign to me. So I withdrew from much of that kind of activity. I was thirteen, and children entering adolescence find it more difficult to adjust than when they are younger. 29
Instead, he stepped back to become an observer of the Harlem environment. He saw and heard the street-corner orators (see Figs. 122 and 123), who stood atop soap boxes and ladders and harangued their audiences about communism, socialism, black nationalism, and religion. He watched kids playing in the streets, mothers and fathers hurrying to work, mourners walking to funeral homes (see Fig. 24), icemen delivering great blocks of ice to sweltering tenement residents, evictions of families for nonpayment
Harlem that were very affluent. I didn’t know those people. I
of rent, blind men tapping their way along sidewalks (see
only knew people on our economic and social level, poor
Fig. 25), prostitutes leaning against lamp posts (see Fig.
people. And like other poor people in Harlem we used a lot of
121). All these would eventually become the subjects of
color to decorate our houses. We had a lot of decorations,
his art, but at the time he focused on acquiring greater
including paper flowers and things like that. This was a part
facility in designing compositions of line, pattern, and
of my cultural experience, so it is reflected in my paintings. 26
color; painting masks; and creating the three-dimensional stage tableaux from cardboard shoe boxes at Utopia
The art historian Leslie King-Hammond, drawing on the observations of the anthropologist and novelist Zora Neale
House. When he stopped going to Utopia House after a couple
Hurston about “the urge to adorn” among working-class
of years, he spent the after-school hours helping to sup-
black families, summarizes the aesthetic prevailing in the
port his family by delivering newspapers and working in
Harlem community: “This penchant for decoration, spring-
a laundry and a print shop. 30 He nevertheless kept at his
ing from the poorer segments of the black population, was
art, as he later told the radio personality Randy Good-
one facet of the quest for an aesthetic ideal in the black
man: “I was at Utopia House for about two years. Then I
community in the 1930s.”27
went out and started to work on my own. I got to know
We can imagine that that nascent aesthetic experience for Lawrence also included taking in the forms, colors,
other young artists in Harlem . . . we sort of helped each other.”31
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
15
In 1933 Lawrence returned to study with Charles Alston.
Once basic needs were cared for, the next issue was
“I was trying my hand at everything . . . even designing
jobs. Harlem civic leaders pressed the city government to
masks. One day I ran into Alston, and he told me he was
end policies of segregation and open up jobs for African
giving a course at the library. He asked me to stop by. I
Americans; one result was that 110 subway jobs became
went around with a lot of my things. . . . He got very excited.
available when the Eighth Avenue subway began con-
He said it was original stuff. He advised me to look
struction. 36 Another concern emerged: If there were no
around . . . take the material at hand . . . and develop it.”32
jobs, what would fill the idle hours of the unemployed?
Lawrence would now take classes on a more advanced
Free classes and workshops, which had traditionally been
and institutionally organized level than at Utopia House—
offered by settlement houses, seemed a good solution,
thanks, in part, to the art workshop programs set up in
and these were set up in local churches with the help of
Harlem as partnerships, variously, of the College Art As-
organizations like the Urban League. For those concerned
sociation (CAA), committees of civic-minded citizens,
about artists, such as the staff of the CAA, art workshops
private foundations, universities, city libraries, municipal
seemed a very good solution indeed. Not only would such
and state agencies, and, eventually, the federal
a plan give teaching jobs to indigent artists, but it could
government.33
also instill in adults of all ages an appreciation for the arts. Many in favor of art workshops argued, like John Dewey, that one learns about art “by doing” and that making art enriches not only the lives of the participating
employing artists in the depression
individuals but the community as a whole.
When the Depression deepened in the early 1930s, unemployment increased sharply, especially in Harlem.34 As conditions worsened, Harlem civic leaders and organizations came to the aid of the homeless and the hungry.
organizations advocating for the arts
There are many examples of the creative partnerships
The CAA, the professional association dedicated to pro-
among the nongovernment organizations. For example, in
moting opportunities for both artists and art historians
November 1930 New York City’s Emergency Work Bureau
since its founding in 1912, was fortunate to have on staff
joined with United Neighborhood Houses to set up a
at that time the dynamic and tireless Audrey McMahon,
workshop at the Urban League headquarters to make
who was executive secretary, with Frances Pollak, a CAA
clothing for the families of the unemployed. The Abyssin-
volunteer, as her assistant. McMahon reasoned that ex-
ian Baptist Church announced that married men who
hibiting artists’ work might generate needed income for
applied at the church on Mondays would be given jobs for
them from sales. McMahon and Pollak secured grants
three days a week at the rate of five dollars a day and that
from the Carnegie Corporation to fund traveling exhibi-
the church planned to convert its community house to an
tions in the United States and Canada and to award
overnight shelter. Mayor La Guardia’s Committee on Relief
scholarships, but the Carnegie Corporation pressed the
brought packages of food to a public school near the West
CAA to take an even more active role. 37 The Carnegie
135th Street police station for distribution. The Harlem
Corporation agreed to supply the CAA with teaching
branch of the Salvation Army fed a thousand people a day
equipment; but as grateful as McMahon and Pollak were,
from its soup kitchen. By December the Abyssinian Baptist
they realized they had only limited funds to pay artists’
Church had also set up a soup kitchen. Private individuals
salaries.
pitched in when they could. One grocer gave away vege-
By this time, artists were increasingly visiting the CAA
tables to a needy family each week; a local resident, Sister
offices to bring artworks for the exhibition program, and
Minnie, pushed an old baby carriage filled with blankets
McMahon heard their stories of hardship. She became
that she distributed to families down on their luck. 35
convinced that more needed to be done.38 In 1932, ac-
16 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
cording to McMahon, the CAA “petitioned the Emergency
proposed initiatives and potential teachers to run them.45
Work Bureau of the Gibson Committee to create a depart-
She hired Harlem photographer James L. Allen to take
ment to put the unemployed artist to work.”39 Harry Knight
photographs to document the workshops’ activities for
became the supervisor for the overall CAA art program
publicity purposes and helped organize exhibitions where
and acted as liaison between the CAA and other organiza-
Harlem artists’ work could be shown.46 In 1934 Brady ar-
tions. Pollak took charge of the teaching program, which
ranged for the CAA to co-sponsor a traveling Harmon
was carried out in neighborhood houses, and McMahon
exhibition, one that subsequently antagonized many Har-
oversaw the hiring of artists to paint or restore murals.40
lem artists because of Brady’s patronizing attitudes.47
Mildred Constantine, McMahon’s young secretary in the CAA offices, worked in the exhibition program.41 All four worked out of the CAA offices.42 After President Roosevelt took office in March 1933,
the art workshops of harlem
several agencies of the federal government were estab-
In the four years or so before the grand opening of the
lished to aid the arts, with a consequent shifting of both
Harlem Community Art Center in December 1937, when
funds and personnel between private and state and fed-
workshop activities and exhibition programs were con-
eral agencies. This wreaks havoc with a historian’s desire
solidated, there were four major operations where Har-
to present a tidy chronology, but it also explains the fed-
lem’s older teenaged students seriously interested in art,
eral records of Charles Alston’s employment. Previously
such as Lawrence, could attend workshops taught by
receiving a salary through CAA for his teaching duties at
trained artists: (1) the studios of Augusta Savage, first at
the Harlem Art Workshop held at the 135th Street Library,
163 West 143rd Street and later at 239 West 135th; (2)
he became a “librarian” on the Civil Works Administration
the YMCA at 180 West 135th Street between Lenox and
federal payroll on January 19, 1934, but on April 1, 1934,
7th Avenues; (3) the Harlem Art Workshop, at the 135th
was transferred, still as a “librarian,” to the Temporary
Street branch of the New York Public Library, which held
Emergency Relief Administration (TERA).43 Nevertheless,
classes under the auspices of the Harlem Adult Educa-
to Alston’s friends and to Jacob Lawrence, it was the
tion Committee at both the library and later 270 West
CAA, as the dispensing agency, that deserved credit for
136th Street;48 and (4) Alston and Bannarn’s studio/
library.44
When the Federal
workshop, launched in early 1934 at 306 West 141st
Art Project was set up as an agency within the Works
Street.49 Almost every artist in Harlem was connected
Alston’s employment at the
Progress Administration in August 1935, with Holger Ca-
with one or another of these studio workshops, and sev-
hill as director and McMahon in charge of the New York
eral organizations and philanthropic foundations partici-
office, all the artists—whether teachers, supervisors, mu-
pated, not only the CAA, the Carnegie Corporation, the
ralists, or poster designers—were transferred to the WPA
Harmon Foundation, and the Gibson Committee working
payroll. By that time federal funds were adequate to cope
out of Mayor La Guardia’s office, but also the Urban
with the salaries of all the unemployed artists, although
League, the Progressive Education Association, and sev-
funds to cover artists’ materials and workshop spaces
eral state and federal agencies.50
still had to be obtained elsewhere.
One of the first African American artists to open a studio
Another organization working closely with the CAA was
to students in Harlem was the dynamic sculptor Augusta
the Harmon Foundation, which had mounted exhibitions
Savage (Fig. 6).51 Ever since her return from study in Europe
of art by African American artists during the late 1920s
in 1931 she had been teaching small classes in her base-
and early 1930s. During the mid-1930s, as the art historian
ment studio at 163 West 143rd Street.52 In December 1933,
Mary Ann Calo has shown, the Harmon’s director, Mary
the Carnegie Corporation gave the Urban League $1,500
Beattie Brady, took an interest in the development of the
to be regranted to Savage for “training and encouraging
workshops, often conferring behind the scenes with Alain
young artists.”53 Since her salary was already being paid
Locke or Frederick Keppel of the Carnegie Corporation on
by the State Education Department, the funds were no
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
17
Fig 6 Augusta Savage in her
studio, 1930s. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
doubt used to purchase equipment and materials. Called
Savage organized in Harlem a large exhibition of her
the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, its official status
students’ works, titled Artists and Models. Sponsored by
was “the Harlem branch of the adult education project of
the Urban League, it opened February 14, 1935, in the
the University of the State of New York.”54 With this support
auditorium of the YWCA at 144 West 138th Street.58 For
and driven by burgeoning classes, Savage moved to larger
opening night she dedicated a space to portraits of the
quarters in a former garage at 239 West 135th Street,
arriving celebrities sketched on the spot by her students.
which she transformed into a studio space.
These portraits were then considered part of the exhibi-
A forceful teacher, Savage continually championed her
tion. One notable she took special pains to recruit as a
students, who included Gwendolyn Knight, Norman Lewis,
portrait subject was Arthur Schomburg, the bibliophile,
William Artis, Ernest Crichlow, Elton C. Fax, Marvin Smith,
historian, and curator whose extensive collection of books
and, for a time, Kenneth B. Clark, who later turned to so-
on Africa and African American history and culture had
cial psychology.55 She arranged for their work to be ex-
been purchased for the West 135th Street New York Public
hibited in the spring of 1934 at the Metropolitan Museum
Library. Behind Savage’s manipulations was her resolve
of Art, where Lewis and Smith received prizes, and in the
to advance the race in the field of culture, a cause to which
fall of 1934 at New York University.56 Although Lawrence
Schomburg was most sympathetic. She wrote him one
was not her student, he and his family lived just across
month before the event: “The ‘Studio’ is planning to hold
from her first, basement studio.57 On one of his frequent
an exhibition . . . of the work of these students in an at-
visits to her studio, he met Knight, who had posed for one
tempt to gain for them the recognition and assistance of
of Savage’s sculpture busts (Fig. 7). Savage welcomed
those who are interested in the cultural advancement of
everyone, especially young Lawrence, for she recognized
the race. We will attempt to present Harlem to Harlem as
his extraordinary talent and enthusiastically promoted
seen through the eyes of the Artist.”59 No doubt she wrote
him at every opportunity.
to other potential sitters as well; since the exhibition was
18 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
called Artists and Models, she would have wanted to have potential sitters/models there. In any event the exhibition and the sketches proved a success. Savage was an expert in generating publicity and buzz for her causes. A reviewer from the New York Herald Tri bune understood her goals when reviewing the February exhibition: “The artists have confined themselves to subjects connected with their own race and have not attempted to ape the schools of their white colleagues. There are pictures of dice players, women dancers doing the ‘Lindy Hop’ and a multitude of other Harlem scenes with which the artists obviously are intimately acquainted.”60 To that reviewer, the artists had succeeded in capturing the local American scene. Savage could count on the New York Amsterdam News to document her activities and to affirm her political goal, to give agency to Harlem’s own people in constructing the image of their community. The Harlem weekly devoted three half-columns to the show, praising it and reproducing some of the sketches:
Fig 7 Augusta Savage, Gwendolyn Knight, 1934–35. Painted plaster, 181 ⁄2 x 81 ⁄2 x 9 in. (47 x 21.6 x 22.9 cm). Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence. Photo: Susan A. Cole.
At last, Harlem is going to have a chance to see itself as Harlem sees it. Anyway, as it is seen through the eyes of the threescore art students who for more than two years have been attending classes at the Augusta Savage Studio. . . . The show, the first of its kind to be given in Harlem—or, as far as is known, in any part of the city—will indeed attempt to record the life of Harlem in every respect. It will run the picto-
of classes were held. The first was a Boys’ Work Program for twenty-five younger children, instructed by William E. Artis; the YMCA exhibited their arts and crafts during both March and May 1934. A second group—totaling ninety-five older students—had an especially enriched
rial gamut from success to failure, from Striver’s Row to Beale
program. These were taught by Richard Lindsey under
Street, from the cathedral to the gin mill, from Sugar Hill to
the auspices of the Y’s Activities Department in coopera-
the breadline.61
tion with the CAA. The author of a Harmon Foundation article on the Harlem workshops described the full cur-
The article also named the “prominent Harlemites”
riculum: “Motion pictures on art and frequent trips to
sketched from life at the exhibition, but Arthur Schom-
museums and galleries help to build a background of art
burg, whom Savage had written, was not among them.
knowledge and experience which is both instructive and
This was the kind of event that the seventeen-year-old
stimulating.”64 Exhibitions of this older group’s works
Lawrence would have attended. Gwendolyn Knight was
were held at the YMCA in May 1934 and February 1935.
mentioned as one of the exhibiting students. Moreover,
Lindsey saw the classes as a balm for his students as
Alain Locke was named as one of the sponsors, along
they endured the stresses of the times: “I have been hap-
with many other notables.62 Older artists would have en-
pily surprised to find that during the several years of the
couraged the youngsters to attend such major Harlem
depression, a great number of people are turning to arts
exhibitions as a necessary stimulant for young artists
and crafts as an outlet for their mental strife. It is a pleas-
learning to make art.63
ant experience to help people find themselves, and to find
The second site for Harlem art workshops was the
pleasure in creating things to make others happy.”65
135th Street branch of the YMCA, where two categories
When the FAP was created in August 1935, as part of the
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
19
Fig 8 Display of masks at Harlem Art Workshop, 1933. Photo: James L. Allen. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Fig 9 Jacob Lawrence (center) and other students at the Harlem Art Workshop, 1933. Photo: James L. Allen. Reproduced in “Art Study through the Workshop,” in Negro Artists: An Illustrated Review of Their Achievements (New York: Harmon Foundation, 1935). U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
WPA, the YMCA teachers’ salaries began coming from
rence’s cohort: Georgette Seabrooke, who made charcoal
that agency.66
drawings and lithographs, and Walter Christmas, who
The third location, which Lawrence attended, was the Harlem Art Workshop and Studio at 270 West 136th
produced textile prints. The reviewer also praised the students’ painted papier-maché masks (Fig. 8).73
Street, established in July 1933 by Mary Beattie Brady of
When Wells returned to his teaching post at Howard
the Harmon Foundation and Ernestine Rose, director of
University in September, Charles Alston took his place at
the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library.67
the Harlem Art Workshop, teaching both children’s and
Earlier, in 1932, the Carnegie Corporation had agreed to
adult classes in the 1933–34 academic year. This was the
support an adult education project for the library that
year when Lawrence returned to studying with Alston.
would focus on music, dramatics, and creative work.68
Alston introduced clay modeling, the use of pastels, and
However, the actual library branch at 135th Street never
design and lettering.74 It was probably at the spacious
had adequate space for all the art classes and work-
270 West 136th Street location that the Harmon Founda-
shops.69 With the sponsorship of the Harlem Adult Edu-
tion commissioned photographs of the workshop activi-
cation Committee, the West 136th Street site, where for-
ties that included Lawrence with a textile instructor and
merly a nightclub had been, seemed to be a good
also in the open workshop space (Figs. 9 and 10).75
solution.70 The instructor, James Lesesne Wells, and his assistant, Palmer Hayden, offered classes in “drawing, painting, sculpture, mask making, block printing, and linoleum cut work.”71 An exhibition of the students’ work
306
west
141st
street studio
was shown at the library in September and October
In early 1934 Alston proposed the fourth major site for a
1933.72 A reviewer for the New York Herald Tribune
workshop. He persuaded his supervisors to allow him to
praised the artwork of two of the young artists in Law-
move his classes to more accommodating quarters he
20 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
Fig 10 Jacob Lawrence (standing left) and other students with teacher at the Harlem Art Workshop, 1933. Photo: James L. Allen. U.S.
National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection. Fig 11 Henry W. Bannarn, ca. 1937. Courtesy of the Federal Art Project, Photographic Division collection, 1935–42, Archives of American
Art, Smithsonian Institution.
had found, in a former horse stable, at 306 West 141st
what in awe of the older artists Ronald Joseph, who was
Street. On April 1, 1934, he was transferred to the payroll
intellectual and liked to talk, and Gwendolyn Knight, who
of TERA; on April 25 he was promoted to “art teacher.”76
had studied at one of the best private high schools in
Alston, called “Spinky” by his students and friends,
Harlem, had gone to Howard University before the De-
moved in with his friend Henry W. Bannarn, nicknamed
pression made her attendance financially impossible, and
“Mike,” a sculptor who had been living at the YMCA (Fig.
was one of Augusta Savage’s students.82 Both Joseph
11).77
Alston and Bannarn took the top two floors as
and Knight would hire Lawrence to pose for them. The
apartments, leaving the ground floor for a large workshop
three of them would talk and visit museums. Younger art-
studio.78
ists who became his good friends were Bob Blackburn
The Alston/Bannarn workshop, known as 306,
became independent of the library’s Harlem Art Workshop, although the library still paid part of the rent as late as April 1936.79
(Fig. 13) and Walter Christmas.83 The Alston/Bannarn studio—306—became not just a teaching studio but an informal gathering place for art-
For the next two years, from about April 1934 to April
ists and writers to discuss art and politics. Thirty years
1936, the 306 workshop received government support as
later Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson pointed to
a teaching workshop, presided over by Alston and Ban-
the cultural importance of 306 as “the main center in
narn, that included students such as Lawrence, Bob
Harlem for creative black people in all the arts.”84 This
Murrell.80
Because his mother had
was no exaggeration, for Harlem, even though its popula-
not been particularly sympathetic to his art interests,
tion had reached 204,000 in 1934,85 was a place where
Blackburn, and Sara
Lawrence rented a corner of Bannarn’s downstairs loft for
artists, civic leaders, and professional people moved in
two dollars a month to have a place to paint away from
the same circles and socialized.86
home (Fig. 12).81
Lawrence and the younger artists benefited from being
Although shy and somewhat taciturn, Lawrence made
in such a stimulating milieu. He later recalled with pleasure
friends with the artists and other students. He was some-
this vital environment, so important for young artists
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
21
Fig 12 Jacob Lawrence in corner of studio at 306, 1930s. Photo: James L. Allen. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection. Fig 13 Bob Blackburn working on lithographic stone, 1930s. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
soaking up experiences and hearing the stories that older
to take place in the South and the need for federal anti-
creative people told:
lynching laws.90 We can speculate that Claude McKay might have talked
During the thirties there was much interest in Black history
about his article on the 1935 Harlem riots for the Nation.
and the social and political issues of the day—this was es-
Norman Lewis might have brought back news of the
pecially true at 306. It became a gathering place for many
meetings of the Artists’ Union, held downtown. Aaron
in the arts from Harlem and other areas of New York. I re-
Douglas and Ernest Crichlow would have relayed discus-
ceived not only an experience in the plastic arts (at 306)—but
sions about the upcoming American Artists’ Congress,
came in contact with older Blacks from the theater, dance, literary, and music fields. At sixteen it was quite a learning experience—Katherine Dunham, Aaron Douglas, Leigh Whipper, Countee Cullen, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Alain Locke, William Attaway, O. Richard Reid—hearing them dis-
held in February 1936. Plans for the Harlem Artists Guild, organized in early 1935, would also have been discussed. Other events of interest in 1935 would have included Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia and the preparations of
cuss the topics of the day—as well as philosophy and creative
Joe Louis (the “Brown Bomber”) to challenge the German
processes pertaining to their own fields. Claude McKay was
boxer Max Schmeling. Exhibitions held in 1935 outside
a frequent visitor to 306. He had more than a great inter-
Harlem that would have generated talk in the 306 group
est in Africa, the philosophy of Garvey, U.N.I.A. [the United
were the two antilynching art shows—one sponsored by
Negro Improvement Association], etc. Augusta Savage was
the John Reed Club and held at the ACA galleries and the
also a strong Black nationalist and a champion of Black
other sponsored by the National Association for the Ad-
women. 87
vancement of Colored People (NAACP) and held at the Arthur U. Newton Galleries, which included the work of
In subsequent interviews, Lawrence would mention other
Alston, among others.
arts people, such as Langston Hughes.88 He clearly enjoyed being a fly on the wall: “They may not have talked to me because I was too young, but I would hear their conversations with each other. And not just blacks, but people from outside the black community—very inter-
the impact of african art The big exhibition event in 1935, besides the two anti-
ested artists. . . . There was this interchange. And, being
lynching shows, that would have interested Harlem art-
a youngster, I guess subconsciously I was influenced by
ists was the African art exhibition held that spring at the
this. They would talk about their involvement in the arts
Museum of Modern Art, which brought Harlemites down
and things like that.”89 At the age of sixteen he was learn-
to West 53rd Street. Lawrence recalls seeing the MoMA
ing that art and its making are intellectual endeavors that
show with Charles Seifert, who led a group of artists and
have a social context.
students there. Seifert, a self-taught historian with a deep
Discussions at 306 might have focused on the contro-
knowledge of African history, owned a building at 313
versial aspects of contemporary theater, the social re-
West 137th Street, which he called the Ethiopian School
sponsibility of art, art as propaganda, and race as a com-
of Research History. Here he made available to school-
ponent of culture, to name a few of the issues. Salient
teachers and students his extensive collection of African
events of 1934 and 1935 no doubt elicited heated discus-
sculpture and artifacts, books, manuscripts, and maps.91
sions: the Scottsboro Boys’ prosecution, the destruction
Like Arthur Schomburg, Alain Locke, and others, Seifert
by Nelson Rockefeller’s workmen of Diego Rivera’s Man
felt it imperative that African Americans learn about their
at the Crossroads mural at Rockefeller Center, articles in
African heritage. Lawrence later described Seifert as “a
the Crisis and Opportunity, Nancy Cunard’s controversial
black nationalist who gave lectures in black history to any
book Negro (1934), and Aaron Douglas’s murals installed
interested groups. . . . One of his projects (besides the
at the West 135th Street YMCA. Unemployment would
collecting of books pertaining to black history) was to get
have been a topic, as well as the lynchings that continued
black artists and young people such as myself who were
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
23
interested in art . . . to select as our content black history. . . . For me, and for a few others, [Seifert] was a most inspiring and exciting man, in that he helped to give us something that we needed at the time.”92 Excited by his visit to the African show with Seifert’s group, Lawrence went home and attempted to carve two sculptures out of wood.93 Alain Locke (Fig. 14) initiated the discourse among African American intellectuals that pointed to African art as the foundational source for European modernism.94 He emphasized the importance of the tribal arts of Africa in his 1924 essay “A Note on African Art” for Opportunity magazine and in his 1925 essay “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts” for the anthology The New Negro.95 Following the lead of Paul Guillaume in France and Marius de Zayas in the United States, Locke asserted that modern art had begun when French and German artists looked at and absorbed “the idioms of African art.”96 To follow the lead of the first European modernists was sufficient reason for African Americans to pay attention to African art; and besides, looking to Africa would encourage “race pride,” a term Locke often used strategically to counter feelings of second-class citizenship among black people and to boost morale. As Locke stated in “Legacy”: “There is in the mere knowledge of the skill and unique mastery of the arts of the ancestors the valuable and stimulating realization that the Negro is not a cultural foundling without his own inheritance. Our timid and apologetic imitativeness and overburdening sense of cultural indebtedness have,
Fig 14 Winold Reiss, Alain LeRoy Locke, ca. 1925. Pastel on artist
board, 397⁄8 x 215⁄8 in. (101.3 x 55 cm). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Lawrence A. Fleischman and Howard Garfinkle with a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
let us hope, their natural end in such knowledge and realization.”97 Like others who thought about modern art,
ideals; . . . it yields up, now this treasure, now that, to any-
Locke promoted creative originality.
one . . . armed with a capacity for personal choices.”98
Locke’s ideas skirt the concept of “the usable past”—a
Whereas Brooks’s idealism saw the past as a “store-
phrase Van Wyck Brooks first employed in early 1918. The
house for apt attitudes and adaptable ideals,” Locke’s
idea took hold during the 1920s among white writers urg-
thinking was tactical. He saw a way past the amateurish,
ing American artists to draw inspiration from the arts of
tepid works young artists produced in imitation of art
colonial New England, Pennsylvania Shaker communities,
school academic naturalism: encourage them to focus on
or the Spanish and Native American traditions of the
the art of the African past as “one of the great fountain
Southwest. Brooks used the concept to jump-start creativ-
sources of the arts of decoration and design.”99 African
ity at a time, World War I, when many writers and artists
art provided a model for young artists by teaching them
had become disillusioned with Western civilization and
to shun sentimentality and naive improvisation and to
modernity: “Discover, invent a usable past. . . . The past is
discipline themselves as artists: “What the Negro artist of
an inexhaustible storehouse of apt attitudes and adaptable
to-day has most to gain from the arts of the forefathers
24 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
is perhaps not cultural inspiration or technical innova-
an essay, “The Negro’s Americanism,” which declared
tions, but the lesson of a classic background, the lesson
that there was “not a trace” of African culture in Har-
of discipline, of style, of technical control pushed to the
lem.104 After considerable fieldwork, Herskovits changed
limits of technical mastery.”100 Locke wanted the Ameri-
his mind and wrote The Myth of the Negro Past (1941),
cans not only to learn from the discipline of the Africans
which argued for retentions from Africa. To Locke, how-
but also to be inspired by their art, as French artists in
ever, the role of African art as a cultural inspiration
the circle of Picasso had been.
seemed evident, and even strategically desirable, not be-
Locke has often been misread, especially by writers
cause of a biological essence but because of its formal
during the 1930s, including James Porter and Meyer
beauty. Locke’s admonition that African art be viewed as
Schapiro, and even present-day scholars continue to mis-
a useful model for African American artists became a
read him, insisting that Locke wanted to persuade young
justification for elevating Africa as a source of creativity.
African American artists to emulate—to copy—African art
Young Romare Bearden, for his part, expressed views
101
This was far from the
similar to Locke’s when he wrote in the December 1934
case, but such interpretations are understandable, given
issue of Opportunity magazine that “modern art has bor-
Locke’s maddening penchant, as the literary historian
rowed heavily from Negro sculpture. . . . Artists have
Gene Andrew Jarrett has observed, for planting “his phil-
been amazed at the fine surface qualities of the sculp-
as part of a racialized project.
osophical feet on both sides
simultaneously.”102
ture, the vitality of the work, and the unsurpassed ability
Locke’s writings are impressive, however, not so much
of the artists to create such significant forms.” The qual-
for their theories as for their tactics and strategies to
ity that most appealed to contemporary artists, Bearden
achieve recognition and stature for African American art-
continued, was that “the African would distort his figures,
ists. In his Negro Art: Past and Present (1936) he elabo-
if by so doing he could achieve a more expressive form.
rated on his views:
This is one of the cardinal principles of the modern artist.” Like Locke, Bearden also inveighed against “the ti-
So we need this historical perspective [of African art] at the
midity of the Negro artist of today.”105
very outset to get at the true values of the Negro as artist.
Gwendolyn Bennett was yet another writer of the
After achieving what is today recognized as great art and a
1930s who thought exhibitions of African art an urgent
tradition of great art in Africa, the Negro artist in America had
matter for the cultural development of Harlem artists.106
to make another start from scratch, and has not yet com-
Herself a poet, artist, and writer, she followed Locke’s
pletely recaptured his ancestral gifts or recovered his ancient skills. Of course he must do this in the medium and manner of his adopted civilization and the modern techniques of painting, sculpture and the craft arts. But when this development finally matures, it may be expected to reflect something
lead in her review of the exhibition Negro Art, held at the 138th Street YWCA from March 17 to March 30, 1935, an exhibition of contemporary Harlem art as well as African art borrowed from the Schomburg Collection and pri
of the original endowment, if not as a carry-over of instinct
vate collections. Bennett first extended generous praise
then at least as a formal revival of historical memory and the
to the sixty-five established Harlem artists plus the stu-
proud inspiration of the reconstructed past.103
dents of the workshop teachers Charles Alston, Rex Gor leigh, Richard W. Lindsey, William Artis, Louise E. Jef-
Locke makes clear that he does not really believe in es-
ferson, O. Richard Reid, Augusta Savage, and Grayson
sentialist “instincts” but instead encourages a “revival” of
Walker.107 She then observed the impact of the loans of
the usable past. At the time Locke was also responding to the debate
African art and the context it had created for Harlem artists working in an expressionist style: “This primitive
about whether aspects of African culture had been car-
African art gives more pointed meaning to the naiveté of
ried into the New World. In 1925, the anthropologist Mel-
some of the contemporary artists who have branched
ville J. Herskovits contributed to Locke’s The New Negro
away from the more academic forms of painting and
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
25
sculpture. The conscious and studied distortion in African
sponsored had rankled many; they felt it necessary to
sculpture makes similar distinction among the works of
mount their own shows, free from Mary Beattie Brady’s
Harlem artists understandable. In short, African art, which
preconceptions about what constituted good art by Af
is reputed to have influenced a great number of the Euro-
rican Americans. Bearden, in the same 1934 Opportu
pean moderns, served as a worthy ancestry to the work
nity article quoted above, spoke for many artists in crit
of American Negro artists.”108 Bennett, who in her letters
icizing the Harmon Foundation: “There are quite a few
to Alain Locke often solicited his advice, here echoed
foundations that sponsor exhibitions of the work of
Locke’s own words, quoted above.
Negro artists. However praise-worthy may have been the
In this review, Bennett had another agenda—to pro-
spirit of the founders the effect upon the Negro artist
mote the establishment of a permanent Harlem art cen-
has been disastrous. Take for instance the Harmon Foun-
ter that the sponsors of the exhibition were advocating.109
dation. Its attitude from the beginning has been of a
To underscore this need Bennett quoted from the exhibi-
coddling and patronizing nature. It has encouraged the
tion’s brochure:
artist to exhibit long before he has mastered the technical equipment of his medium. By its choice of the type
This exhibit is Harlem’s response to the question “Does New
of work it favors, it has allowed the Negro artist to ac-
York need a city [art] center?” At the same time we hope that
cept standards that are both artificial and corrupt.”112
it will serve to create a greater interest on the part of the
To artists like Bearden, the CAA’s exhibition program had
community in the endeavors of young men and women who
been severely compromised by its association with the
seek to live up to the artistic traditions of their race. These
Harmon Foundation.
traditions are among the noblest in history, coming down from the amazing sculpture of the primitive African in wood, stone, bronze and ivory to the magnificent paintings of Henry O. Tanner. Harlem, no less than other sections of the city, needs to cultivate a greater appreciation of art. If this exhibit to some
Although most Harlem artists employed by the government had joined the Artists’ Union downtown, many felt they needed another organization, based in their own neighborhood, that would more effectively represent their
degree accomplishes that end it will have served its pur-
views and lobby for a large Harlem Art Community Cen-
pose.110
ter.113 Augusta Savage spearheaded the founding of the Harlem Artists Guild in early 1935, along with Gwendolyn
Bennett then reported on the remarks made by Alain
Bennett, Aaron Douglas, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston,
Locke at the opening preview of the Negro Art exhibition,
and a handful of others. Aaron Douglas became presi-
when he had urged the community to nurture its youth in
dent, and Augusta Savage, vice president. By the sum-
the arts: “He stated that a community art center in Har-
mer of 1937 the guild had grown to about ninety mem-
lem should be a place not only for the exhibition of works
bers and had begun mounting exhibitions that included
of art but a place in which artists might create.”111 Al-
Jacob Lawrence.114
though at this time classes were being held at the various
The preamble of the guild’s constitution stated: “We,
workshops, and both the YMCA and YWCA had hosted
the artists of Harlem, being aware of the need to act col-
exhibitions on an ad hoc basis, many felt that Harlem
lectively in the solution of the cultural, economic, social
merited a single center embracing all such activities.
and professional problems that confront us, do hereby constitute ourselves an organization that shall be known as the Harlem Artists Guild.” The goals were, first, to en-
harlem artists guild
courage young talent; second, to foster “understanding between artist and public thru education toward an ap-
In 1935 Harlem might not yet have had an adequate
preciation of art” and through “cooperation with agencies
community art center, but Harlem artists realized they
and individuals interested in the improvement of condi-
needed to form their own organization. The Harmon
tions among artists”; and third, to raise “standards of liv-
Foundation’s exhibition in 1934 that the CAA had co-
ing and achievement among artists.”115
26 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
One compelling issue in 1935 was the government’s apparent refusal to assign African American artists as
ferent to high school and was not getting along with his mother, with whom he still lived.124
supervisors of the WPA/FAP projects. Guild members also
Thus on April 13, 1936, he reported to Camp Dix, New
resented the requirement that artists “go to the Harmon
Jersey, and was assigned to Company 246. After three
Foundation to be certified” as professional artists.116 Ac-
days, his company was transferred to Breeze Hill Camp, at
cording to Bearden and Henderson, the guild put in place
Wawayanda, near Middletown, New York. The camp, with
its own grievance committee and hence duplicated some
1,400 black enrollees, was involved in a flood control proj-
of the activities that concerned the Artists’ Union, but this
ect.125 In its February 8, 1936, issue the New York Amster
benefited both groups. Guild members could also be
dam News had glowingly described the camp as a
counted on to organize community protests and participate in picket lines.117 During the guild’s few years of ex-
modern mountain village of 84 buildings artistically grouped
istence it continued to advocate for African American
across the countryside. The buildings, including the five large
artists.118
ones used for educational, health, recreational and administra-
Alston, in particular, benefited from the political activism of the Harlem Artists Guild. As a result of the guild’s pressure he was promoted, in January 1936, to supervising artist on the WPA payroll, the first African American given that title, and put in charge of a team of young artists designing and painting murals for Harlem Hospital.119
tive purposes, were outfitted by the carpentry and cabinetmaking classes of the youths. An extensive educational program is being advanced at the camp. Academic, vocational and art classes are offered under the supervision of six educational advisors, six WPA instructors and nineteen Reserve Corps officers. Four Negro doctors protect the health of the enrollees.
At about the same time, in early 1936, the WPA withdrew funding from 306. Alston and Bannarn scrambled to raise
The camp also had instructors in arts and crafts and in
funds to maintain their art center, and their landlord, im-
music. The article, which ended with the names of camp
pressed with the activity there, “let the rent slide.”120
personnel, reads like a press release provided by camp officials.126 The Amsterdam News, however, would scrutinize more
lawrence’s enlistment in the civilian conservation corps
carefully the situation at Breeze Hill Camp in subsequent
In early 1936, the eighteen-year-old Lawrence joined the
claimed it had been a gun accident, but investigating au-
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a public works pro-
thorities linked the murder to a reputed loan shark ring.
issues because of a murder that had occurred there on February 1.127 The alleged perpetrator, a Harlem youth,
gram set up by the Roosevelt administration to put un-
For its next issue, the newspaper sent out its own inves-
employed young men to work on conservation projects.
tigative reporters, who discovered not so much crime as
When Roosevelt proposed the plan to Congress in March
racism. On February 22 the paper reported that “hun-
1933, he predicted that the benefits to the young men
dreds of Negro youths, many of them Harlemites, have
would go beyond their earning a paycheck: “More impor-
deserted the Breeze Hill CCC camp . . . during the last
tant . . . than the material gains will be the moral and
few weeks.” The racism and physical conditions the youth
work.”121
The program, adminis-
had encountered there encouraged their flight: “Accord-
tered by the army, provided over 2.5 million jobs from
ing to reliable information . . . hundreds of youths have
spiritual value of such
1933 until July 1942, when it was curtailed because of the
left the camp because of intolerable conditions allegedly
necessity for wartime military training.122 As of October
imposed by white officials. Many of the deserting youths
1935, 49,000 African Americans, 2,058 of them New
charge a ‘rule by intimidation,’ which includes exploita-
Yorkers, were enrolled in CCC camps.123 Lawrence most
tion at work, beating of enrollees by State Police, impos-
likely had high school classmates who were already in the
ing of heavy fines for minor infractions and unpalatable
program. Moreover, in early 1936 he was becoming indif-
food in the mess halls.” The long article details these
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
27
allegations and provides names. Working conditions were also a factor: “Thirty of the youths left in a body after they charged that they were ordered to work in water above their knees in 14 degrees below zero weather.” Another complaint was that African American WPA instructors were segregated and housed in a recreation hall with no running water or toilets. Another allegation foreshadowed the “battle royal” described in the first chapter of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: “The youths also charge that the white officers exploit them by making them go to other camps to box against each other for the amusement of white fight fans.”128 One can well imagine Harlem youths leading the desertions, since the Amsterdam News was delivering the paper to the camp. The Amsterdam News reported in the following week’s issue, on February 29, that enrollees had staged a food strike to protest a banquet held exclusively for white officers and their friends. The paper also charged the Middletown townspeople with racism, reporting that African American youths were banned from the town skating rink, restricted to the balcony of the local movie theater, and prohibited from standing inside the train station (on freezing February nights) to wait for taxis to take them back to Breeze Hill Camp. Another charge was that the enrollees were prevented from reading copies of the New York Amsterdam News! The newspaper assured its readers that it had called for a federal investigation.129 Lawrence and his mother no doubt knew of the Jim Crow conditions awaiting him at Breeze Hill Camp and
Fig 15 Chow, 1936. Graphite on paper, 16 x 20½ in. (40.6 x 52.1 cm). Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta; Gift of Catherine Waddell.
Middletown. But he had already stopped attending Commerce High School in February 1936,130 and the fate of
selves in, such as stints in the infirmary and grabbing for
the 306 classes was up in the air. This would be a new
food in the mess hall (Fig. 15). He did not stay the usual
experience for him, and the CCC would send $25 of his
six months but came home in less than four, on August
monthly paycheck back to his mother to help her meet
6, 1936.133 Nevertheless, the experience marked his pas-
expenses for the
family.131
As in all of his interviews, Law-
sage to adulthood.
rence was loath to admit to any bad experiences he had encountered. He later told Aline Louchheim Saarinen, “It was a good experience, physically hard, but I’m glad I went through it. I learned the feel of lots of things—of a
return to harlem
shovel, of how it feels to throw dirt up above your shoul-
By the time Lawrence returned from his CCC sojourn,
ders, for instance. Like any experience, it had things in it
Bannarn had taken over from Alston the duties of teaching
you never forget for painting.”132 Either at the camp or
the students—informally, one assumes, since government
later, Lawrence made several drawings that show the
funding was no longer available to pay a teaching salary
somewhat humorous situations recruits would find them-
there. At that time Bannarn did not show up on government
28 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
payrolls, perhaps because he was getting sculpture com-
which is obvious because I believe that subtleties are
missions that helped pay the bills.134 During 1936 Bannarn
more powerful.”139 By saying “All art is propaganda” Ban-
had two major commissions, one from Howard University
narn was no doubt referring to the famous dictum of
to sculpt a bust of Frederick Douglass in black marble and
W. E. B. Du Bois that “all art is propaganda and ever must
another to provide a sculpture for a Harlem housing proj-
be despite the wailing of the purists. . . . I do not care a
ect.135 Elton Fax recalled Bannarn’s impact on the younger
damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.”140
artists: “Bannarn was magnetic. Young artists gravitated
Lawrence certainly adopted Bannarn’s mission. When
toward him like bees around a hive. Jake Lawrence, Roy
in 1937 Lawrence decided to paint the narrative of Tous-
De Carava, Bob Blackburn were among them. Billye Oliver
saint L’Ouverture, he too showed determination to teach
who liked to draw and paint was a frequent visitor to the
the history of African Americans, to give back to the com-
studio and she worked seriously while her husband, Sy,
munity, and to create an art that showed his roots and
was on the road with the band of Jimmy Lunceford. School-
had universal appeal.
teacher Dorothy Funn, writer William Attaway (Let Me Breathe Thunder), painter Aaron Douglas, and Claude McKay were also habitués of the studio at 306 W. 141st Street.”136 Bob Blackburn recalled that “everyone loved” Bannarn, who was “the stronger influence as a person” and “a better artist” than Alston.137
the harlem community art center Meanwhile, during 1937 plans were unfolding for a per-
Bannarn’s insistence on studying the history of African
manent Harlem Community Art Center. Civic leaders and
Americans in the United States and his firm belief that
artists in Harlem had promoted the idea for years.141 Af-
artists should contribute their talents for the benefit of
ter Holger Cahill took the job as head of the WPA/FAP in
society as a whole would have touched a chord in Law-
August 1935, he hired Audrey McMahon to continue the
rence. In November 1937, Marvel Cooke, a reporter for
work she had done for the CAA, but now she would be
the New York Amsterdam News, was stunned to find in
director of the New York FAP office.142 As an advocate for
Bannarn’s studio sculpted heads of the Arctic explorer
artists in New York, McMahon knew that Harlemites
Matthew Henson, the author and abolitionist Frederick
wanted to establish a comprehensive cultural center that
Douglass, and the actor Richard B. Harrison, famous for
would offer free art and music classes; hold speaking
his portrayal of “de Lawd” in the popular play The Green
events for writers, artists, and cultural figures; and mount
Pastures. Bannarn commented to the reporter that he
exhibitions of the work of both students and professional
wanted to address the needs of African American chil-
artists. Such a center would offer more to African Ameri-
dren: “They know about George Washington . . . and not
cans than the art galleries that the Municipal Art Com-
about Crispus Attucks—about Admiral Peary and not
mittee had set up in midtown Manhattan.143
Matt Henson. That is not as it should be. I want to be a
Mrs. E. P. Roberts, chair of the Harlem Art Commit
means of them knowing the Attuckses, the Hensons, the
tee, spoke up for the center. She wrote to Cahill praising
Pushkins and the Douglasses. I will not rest until they
the work of African Americans at a YWCA exhibition
do. . . . I want to contribute in the field of art to the cul-
and ending with the plea, “I am writing you to ask you
ture of the Negro in the same manner that the subjects I
to make a direct Federal grant to finance this proj-
portray have contributed to Negro culture and the gen-
ect.” 144 Cahill replied on December 13, 1935, that he
eral culture of America.”138
was “very much interested in the idea” of a center in
Bannarn also let the reporter know his view on “propa-
Harlem and that he wanted to help. He explained: “The
ganda art.” He admired it but would not do it himself: “It
Federal Art Project, however, by Executive Order of the
is all right to know the realities, but we don’t always want
President is not permitted to make grants to individuals
to have them staring us boldly in the face. All art is pro-
or organizations. Our program is limited to employing art
paganda, of course, but personally, I don’t like anything
ists from the relief rolls and a certain percentage of needy
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
29
unemployed artists who may not be on the relief rolls.”
of the staff. Augusta Savage, as director, and Gwendolyn
He suggested that she try to interest Mayor La Guardia
Bennett, as assistant director, set up classes for both
and the Municipal Art Committee in the project.145 There
children and adults in “painting, drawing, sculpture, metal
was an obvious need for community art centers across
work, pottery and ceramics, hook-rug making and weav-
the country, but the movement did not get rolling until
ing, printed textile design, dress design, wood and leather
Cahill put Thomas Parker in charge of working out partner-
craft” (Fig. 16).148 Music instruction was also offered. In
ships with community groups. In 1936–37, thirty-eight FAP
May 1937 Bennett could report to the New York Amster
community centers sprang up, with four of them estab-
dam News that the center had registered 1,627 students,
lished in New York City—midtown Manhattan, Harlem,
with over half of them in the painting and drawing
Brooklyn, and Queens.146 The funding for such centers,
classes.149 The West 123rd Street space soon became
as mentioned above, was shared by various agencies. The
cramped, so a new space was found to house the art
FAP paid the artists’ wages, expenses for activities such
activities, at 290 Lenox Avenue, where 7,500 square feet
as exhibitions, and equipment. As was the case with other
could comfortably accommodate concerts, dance perfor-
WPA/FAP workshops, payments by citizens’ groups or
mances, and art demonstrations and exhibitions as well
donations by local government would cover office and art
as studios and workshops for “painting, sculpture, metal-
supplies and rent.
work, pottery, commercial and graphic art and other
By January 23, 1937, the New York Amsterdam News
crafts.”150
could report that plans were moving ahead: “School of-
During December the New York Amsterdam News re-
ficials of the city are pressing plans for a cultural center
ported weekly on the progress of the renovations of the
in Harlem, which they hope will serve as the ‘spiritual
Lenox Avenue site. After several delays, on December 20,
focus’ of the community.” Joseph M. Sheehan, associate
1937, the Harlem Community Art Center had its grand
superintendent of schools, drafted a plan for Mayor La
opening, with a special afternoon preview arranged for
Guardia’s office to move such a center into the YWCA
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt (Fig. 17), the president’s wife, also
building at 124th Street and Lenox Avenue. Sheehan’s plan
attended by Audrey McMahon and Holger Cahill. The
called for a budget of $100,000 for equipment and staffing
speakers at the opening included A. Philip Randolph,
costs. Sheehan echoed the sentiments of other civic lead-
chairman of the Harlem Citizens’ Sponsoring Committee
ers championing a community art center: “There is much
and president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters;
undeveloped talent—artistic, musical and literary—in Har-
Holger Cahill, director of the FAP, based in Washington, D.C.;
lem. . . . All that is needed to make it flourish is a suitable
the author and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson;
center, properly equipped, where capable and sympa-
and Augusta Savage, the center’s director.151 Gwendolyn
thetic leadership will foster and develop the talents of the
Bennett, the assistant director and then also president of
people, where opportunity is provided for musical, artistic
the Harlem Artists Guild, also spoke. Charles C. Seifert, the
and literary endeavor, where there may be a suitable li-
specialist in African art, was still praising the speeches
brary depicting racial ideas and progress so as to stimu-
delivered at the opening when he wrote his book The
late the population to high achievement.”147 Progressives
Negro’s or Ethiopian’s Contribution to Art, published in
like Sheehan assumed that teaching the history of African
1938. Seifert interpreted the event as marking “the cross-
American achievement was integral to advancing the
roads of the old and new philosophies in art” for African
cause of racial equality.
American artists.152
On March 10, 1937, the WPA music-art center that
The community finally had a center to answer its
Sheehan envisioned was established at 1 West 123rd
needs. Besides Savage and Bennett, the staff consisted
Street opposite Mount Morris Park. Attending the gala
of three office workers, twenty teachers, of whom ten
opening were Mrs. Henry Breckenridge, chair of the Mu-
were African American, and artists’ models.153 Savage,
nicipal Art Committee, and Ellen S. Woodward, an admin-
however, was about to embark on a leave of absence
istrator for the WPA/FAP, which was paying the salaries
from the center to work on a sculpture commissioned for
30 harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
Fig 16 Savage with her staff at the Harlem Community Art Center, 1930s. Front row: Zell Ingram, Pemberton West, Augusta Savage, Robert S. Pious, Sarah West, Gwendolyn Bennett. Back row: Elton Fax, Rex Gorleigh, Fred Perry, William Artis, Francisco Lord, Louise Jefferson, and Norman Lewis. Gwendolyn Bennett Photograph Collection, 1930s. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Fig 17 Gwendolyn Bennett, two instructors, Augusta Savage, and Eleanor Roosevelt at the opening of the Harlem Community Art Center,
December 1937. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Bennett, as energetic as
associated with the Center.” Her politics and optimism
Savage and experienced as a writer, took charge first as
come through in her conclusion that the center expresses
acting director and later as director of the center.
“a new and better world!” Bennett, like Savage, was a
In the late 1930s Bennett wrote up a report on the cen-
tireless supporter of the arts and culture in Harlem—
ter’s progress in which she bragged about its accom-
putting her work for the center above her own creative
plishments in its first sixteen months of operation. From
work.154
November 1937 through March 1939, 2,467 children and
Bennett also encouraged young Lawrence by including
adults were enrolled in art classes, and close to twenty-
his paintings in one of the first exhibitions of the Harlem
four thousand children and adults had participated in
Community Art Center, held in February 1938.155 The sup-
activities, lectures, and demonstrations, with many thou-
portive community that developed around the center, as
sands more attending exhibitions and lectures. The cen-
well as other people and institutions, constituted a move-
ter’s impact on its own staff had been especially gratify-
ment that would nourish Lawrence in the late 1930s and
ing to her: “A new understanding of the value and
1940s. In the next chapter we will turn to specific individu-
meaning of art teaching in the cultural scheme of things
als who helped him reach a professionalism in these years
has been engraved on the consciousness of every person
that would guarantee his lifetime reputation.
harlem’s artistic communit y in the
1930 s
31
2
patrons and the making of a professional artist He is particularly sensitive to the life about him; the joy, the suffering, the weakness, the strength of the people he sees every day. . . . Still a very young painter, Lawrence symbolizes more than any one I know, the vitality, the seriousness and promise of a new and socially conscious generation of Negro artists.
charles alston, brochure for Jacob Lawrence exhibition (1938) What impresses me about Lawrence is his ability to combine social interest and interpretation . . . with a straight art approach. . . . His work has a stirring social and racial appeal.
alain locke, recommendation to the Julius Rosenwald Fund (1940) I feel very strongly that Mr. Lawrence has what it takes to succeed. He has developed no attitude, is utterly interested in his work, has a definite objective toward which he is struggling, and he always is willing to give credit where he feels it is due.
mary beattie brady, letter to Charles Alston (1941) I want you to look at the work of Jacob Lawrence, a Negro painter about 23 years old—who has the most powerful and original painting talent I’ve encountered anywhere in the country.
jay leyda, letter to Richard Wright (1941)
A precocious young artist with a knack for design and a
and excitement for young Lawrence, and he absorbed the
curiosity about the life around him, Lawrence was fortu-
experiences and thrived in the artistic milieu that Harlem
nate to have mentors such as Charles Alston, Henry Ban-
offered. During the late 1930s his conceptual powers ma-
narn, and Augusta Savage. He was also welcomed by oth-
tured, he mastered his techniques, and he began to exhibit
ers as a participant in the vital art movement taking place
his art professionally.
in Harlem. At this time civic groups, journalists, church ministers, the city of New York, and the federal govern-
n
ment, along with artists and educators, realized how much
In August 1936, when Lawrence returned to Harlem from
both the individual and the community stood to gain from
the CCC camp in Middletown, New York, he moved back
the teaching, exhibition, and appreciation of art and its
into his routine of painting in his corner space at Charles
history. The early to mid-1930s had been years of struggle
Alston and Henry Bannarn’s studio at 306 West 141st
Fig 18 Moving Day (Dispossessed), 1937. Tempera on paper, 30 x 24 3⁄4 in. (76.2 x 62.9 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore
Gallery, New York.
Fig 19 Charles Alston, Magic in Medicine and Modern Medicine, ca. 1936–40. Murals, 17 x 9 ft. Harlem Hospital, Women’s Pavilion, in situ as they face outward toward the street. Collection of the City of New York, courtesy of the Design Commission. Fig 20 Artists on the WPA Harlem Hospital murals project, supervised by Charles Alston, ca. 1936. Standing, left to right: Addison Bates, Grace Richardson, Edgar Evans, Vertis Hayes, Charles Alston, Cecil Gaylord, John Glenn, Elba Lightfoot, Selma Day, Ronald Joseph, Georgette Seabrooke (Powell), O. Richard Reid. At front, left to right: Gwendolyn Knight, James Yeargens, Francisco Lord, Richard Lindsey, Frederick Coleman. Photo © Morgan and Marvin Smith. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Street. The time he had spent in a military camp sixty-four
cause “Negroes may not form the greater part of this
miles away had made him aware of the larger world; at
community twenty five years hence,” “Negroes in the
almost nineteen he was ready to become professional.
community might object to the Negro subject matter in
Alston, meanwhile, had turned his attention to finishing
the murals,” and “Harlem hospital is not a Negro hospital.”
the Harlem Hospital murals project, painting Magic in
The Harlem Artists Guild and the Artists’ Union wrote a
Medicine and Modern Medicine for the entrance lobby on
joint statement protesting that Dermody’s reasoning
136th Street (Fig. 19) and supervising the work of some
showed “a definite discriminatory policy against Negroes”
twenty other mural artists. Selma Day, Elba Lightfoot, Sara
and that he was “eminently unqualified to act either as a
Murrell, Vertis Hayes, and Georgette Seabrooke designed
judge of the murals or as spokesman for the Harlem com-
and painted their own murals for the children’s wards and
munity.”3 An appointed citizens group deliberated, they
the nurses’ quarters; others, such as Gwendolyn Knight,
approved the murals, and the project resumed.
worked as assistants (Fig. 20).1 Even though Lawrence
Government cutbacks, however, constantly threatened
was not being paid, he recalls doing some of the tracings
the progress of all mural projects. In November 1936,
to transfer Alston’s cartoons to the walls. 2 Murals by four
when many New York City FAP workers received pink
of the artists had sparked an unanticipated controversy
slips, the Artists’ Union responded with a sit-down strike
in February 1936. Although the Municipal Art Committee
at the FAP headquarters.4 More demonstrations followed,
and Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project
with Harlem Artists Guild members Vertis Hayes, Ronald
(WPA/FAP) officials had approved the designs, the super-
Joseph, and Gwendolyn Knight, who were still working on
intendent of the hospital, Lawrence T. Dermody, objected
the murals, picketing FAP headquarters on December 19,
that there was “too much Negro subject matter.” African
1936, an event captured on camera by the New York Am
American subject matter would not be appropriate be-
sterdam News.5
34 the making of a professional artist
american artists school
of affairs, when he seeks to awaken in his audience a de-
At this point Lawrence was feeling the need for further
direct observation of the world about him as well as on
instruction. Perhaps because Alston and Bannarn no lon-
his most intimate, immediate, blistering, blood-sweating
sire to participate in his fight, he is, therefore, drawing on
ger held formal classes at 306, he enrolled in the Ameri-
experience, in the art gallery, in the bread line, in the re-
can Artists School at 131 West 14th Street at the end of
lief office.”13 At the school Lawrence would meet white
1936 or early 1937. Originally called the John Reed Club
artists like Lozowick who encouraged him.
School of Art, it had been set up under the auspices of
We might consider Harry Gottlieb’s response to Law-
the John Reed Club, an organization started by leftist art-
rence as typical of the American Artists School faculty’s
ist members, many in the Communist Party, in 1929.6
antiracist social values. Gottlieb wrote to Lawrence, in a
When the John Reed Clubs folded in mid-1935, largely as
letter postmarked October 4, 1937: “I consider it an honor
a result of a new Popular Front strategy, the artist teach-
to have been of any service to you. Not only was I tre-
ers renamed it.7
mendously impressed by your work as an artist, but also
Lawrence seems to have been most active at the
knowing the difficulties that the Negro artist is confronted
American Artists School during 1937. That spring the
with, I will do what I can to eliminate that unfairness, so
school hosted an exhibition of art by Harlem Artists Guild
that we may all be treated alike[,] you and me, as artists
members, including Lawrence.8 A scholarship Lawrence
and as human beings.”14 Gottlieb was not being patron-
received for the fall of 1937 offered him free classes in
izing; he meant what he said. Lawrence later gave Gott-
either the day or the night school.9 He studied with Anton
lieb credit for arranging the scholarship.15 Gottlieb and
Refregier, Sol Wilson, Philip Reisman, and Eugene More-
his colleagues at the school knew the importance of
ley; he also posed as a model in the life classes as a
training young artists such as Lawrence to qualify them
means of earning extra money.10
as professional artists for the FAP.16
The ideas and outlook of the communist art teachers
The teachers at the school would also have given Law-
must be considered when assessing the influences oper-
rence a Marxist political education. A notice in Art Front
ating on young Lawrence at this time. As part of a mass
spelled out the school’s program:
movement these leftists protested on behalf of the Scottsboro Boys, falsely accused of raping two women,
An innovation in the curriculum of the school will be weekly
and agitated for antilynching legislation being debated in
lectures by recognized authorities planned to give the student
Congress. They also urged antiracist programs, such as
a broad picture of the artist in modern society, his position
the teaching of African American history in the public schools.11
Even during the Popular Front period, when
revolutionary class struggle began to wane as a pictorial theme, leftist artists still produced pictures of bloody
and importance, and the role he can play. These lectures will provide the student with an historical approach to his creative problems, and will introduce those great developments in the exact, natural, and social sciences which have so profoundly influenced the course of development of modern art. The
strikes and lynchings along with their antifascist pictures.
student will gain an understanding of modern society itself,
They took the position that art should comment on the
its forces, tendencies and conflicts[,] which can only serve to
conflicts, struggles, and victories of the socially and eco-
deepen his aesthetic outlook and capacities.17
nomically oppressed.12 Louis Lozowick, probably the artist most informed
The leftist artists teaching at the school, all of whom were
about Marxist theory, expressed the credo of many of the
white, reinforced Lawrence’s own predilection toward a
American Artists School teachers when he wrote in Art
social art.
Front, the journal of the Artists’ Union: “When the revolu-
Indeed, during the fall of 1937, while he was enrolled at
tionary artist expresses in his work the dissatisfaction
the school, Lawrence began to think about the role he
with, the revolt against, the criticism of the existing state
might play as an artist working for social change. He de-
the making of a professional artist 35
Fig 21 William Johnson exhibition, Harlem Community Art Center, June 6, 1939. Lawrence is at the far left, William Johnson, in a smock, left of center, and Gwendolyn Knight in the middle. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Photo courtesy Richard J. Powell.
cided that his next project would be historical and based
Turns to Art, sponsored by the James Weldon Johnson
on research—the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the eigh-
Literary Guild. Gwendolyn Bennett presided at the open-
teenth-century liberator of Haiti. No doubt his teachers at
ing, which included the performance, by other Harlem
the school encouraged him in this choice.
youth, of original piano compositions, as well as violin
Lawrence had also begun to participate in the exhibi-
pieces.19 A brochure accompanied Lawrence’s show,
tions and activities of the Harlem Community Art Center
listing the works: Bar and Grill, Halloween Sand Bags
(Fig. 21). Moving Day (Dispossessed) (see Fig. 18) was
(Fig. 22), Roof Top, Evening, Feast, Round Up, Fire, Dawn,
included in one of the first exhibitions, Paintings and
The Butcher, Woman, Family, Worker, Christmas Dinner,
Sculpture by 21 New York City Negro Artists, held at the
Woman with Veil, Rain (Fig. 23), and Junk.
center from February 4 to March 4, 1938. Gwendolyn
A preface to the brochure written by Charles Alston
Bennett, the acting director of the Harlem Community
praised the young artist for his artistic sensibility: “Hav-
Art Center while Savage was on leave to work on her
ing thus far miraculously escaped the imprint of aca-
World’s Fair Commission, wrote the catalogue.18 Law-
demic ideas and current vogues in art, to which young
rence’s inclusion in prestigious group exhibitions such as
artists are most susceptible[,] he has followed a course
this one at the HCAC, combined with his training at the
of development dictated entirely by his own inner motiva-
American Artists School, furthered his claim to profes-
tions. . . . Working in the very limited medium of flat tem-
sional status.
pera he achieved a richness and brilliance of color har-
But nothing did more to confirm Lawrence’s status in
monies both remarkable and exciting.” Alston also singled
the art world than a solo exhibition with a catalogue. Al-
out the salient qualities of Lawrence’s socially concerned
though Addison Bates, who had taken over Charles Al-
humanism: “He is particularly sensitive to the life about
ston’s studio, had held at least one informal exhibition of
him; the joy, the suffering, the weakness, the strength of
Lawrence’s paintings at the 306 studio, Lawrence needed
the people he sees every day. . . . Still a very young
a professional venue for public recognition. The Harlem
painter, Lawrence symbolizes more than any one I know,
YMCA gave him that venue. The exhibition opened Febru-
the vitality, the seriousness and promise of a new and
ary 27, 1938, when sixteen paintings by Lawrence went
socially conscious generation of Negro artists.”20 Alston
on view, under the auspices of a program called Youth
would be unflagging in his support of Lawrence.
36 the making of a professional artist
Fig 22 Halloween Sand Bags, 1937. Tempera on paper, 8 3⁄4 x
123⁄4 in. (22.2 x 32.4 cm). The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York. Fig 23 Rain, 1938. Tempera on paperboard, 281 ⁄8 x 201 ⁄6 in.
(71.4 x 51 cm). Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York.
The exhibition at the Harlem YMCA and its New York
the Federal Theatre Project, which opened at the Lafay-
Amsterdam News coverage gave Lawrence’s career a big
ette Theatre in March 1938, and was especially moved by
boost. He could now claim the status of a professional
it (see Chapter 3).
artist and be eligible for employment on the FAP. In 1937
His national visibility increased with his inclusion in
Lawrence had gone with Augusta Savage to the FAP of-
exhibitions that traveled to Dillard University, in New Or-
fices to enroll on the projects, only to be turned down
leans; Fisk University, in Nashville; and Brooklyn Col-
because of his age. She now returned with him, and this
lege. 26 Dillard’s exhibition, organized by its art faculty,
time he was accepted, even though he had not yet
opened in May 1938. The jury of selection included Aaron
reached his twenty-first birthday.
21
On April 27, 1938, the
FAP hired him as a senior artist, assigned to the Easel
Douglas, who knew Lawrence through their common involvement in the Harlem Artists Guild exhibitions. 27
Division. For the next eighteen months he would present
From February 2 to 24, 1939, the American Artists
two paintings every six weeks to the FAP in return for a
School hosted a two-artist exhibition featuring Lawrence
paycheck of $95.44 a month. 22
and Samuel Wechsler. Sol Wilson, an artist and Law-
Three decades later, the art historian Francis O’Connor,
rence’s teacher at the school, wrote a brief foreword to
the first scholar to study the FAP in depth, sent question-
the brochure that commented on Lawrence: “His work
naires to FAP artists, including Lawrence. To several ques-
on first glance appears to have a child like quality. But
tions Lawrence replied that had it not been for the FAP he
on closer examination it shows keen observation and a
would have had to work at an outside job, making it difficult
matureness of expression. Unlike the modern sophistica
to continue as an artist. He enjoyed the Easel Division, felt
ted primitives.” Three of the twenty-three works in the
creatively free, thought the FAP encouraged a “sense of
show were on loan from the WPA / FAP; the others, such
community” among artists, and appreciated being able to
as Dust to Dust (Fig. 24) and Blind Beggars (Fig. 25),
“gain experience through older and more experienced
could potentially be sold, but such outside sales might
artists who were on the project.” He felt that besides the
jeopardize his status on the relief rolls of the FAP. 28 Of
regular paycheck, the FAP’s major benefit was “coming in
the two artists in the exhibition, the reviewer for Art News
contact with those who may have had a more formal art
much preferred Lawrence and wrote at length about his
training—enabling those less fortunate to develop a knowl-
style:
edge of art history and philosophy.”23 In 1963, Lawrence told the Chicago Defender writer Mort Cooper: “My real
A style which it is easy to call primitive marks his versions of
education was the WPA Federal Arts Project. I met people
ice peddlers, the subway, the park and restaurants, but closer
like William Saroyan, just on the edge of fame. They all
inspection reveals draughtsmanship too accomplished to be
used to talk about what was going on in the world. All the artists used to go down to project headquarters on King Street in Manhattan to sign in. We’d meet each other, and talk and talk and talk.”24 He stayed on the FAP for the maximum time allowed—which was then eighteen months— and was terminated on October 27, 1939. 25 In addition to Harlem street scenes, which had earned
called naïve. The bright colors in flat areas and the literal view of the world turn out to be just his manner of expressing his very sensitive reactions to a kaleidoscopic, animated world, in which his spirit is not to be downed by the oppression and neglect of his own people which he sees on all sides. They have little of the mournfulness of spirituals. Rather are they testimony of the unquenchable joie de vivre of the Negro, his inestimable gift to repressed, gloomy Nordics. 29
him a reputation and many of which he was required to submit to FAP offices, he completed his series of panels
Like many reviewers in mainstream publications who
on Toussaint L’Ouverture. He had learned about such he-
could not resist introducing racialized stereotypes of
roes from the history clubs of the Harlem public schools,
“happy darkies” versus “gloomy Nordics,” the reviewer
from lectures by Charles Seifert, and from books he had
probably considered his remarks complimentary.
studied in the Arthur Schomburg Collection at the 135th
The reviewer also did not look carefully at the paintings.
Street Library. He also saw the play Haiti, produced by
A close reading of Dust to Dust would have shown that
38 the making of a professional artist
Fig 24 Dust to Dust, 1938. Tempera on paper, 121 ⁄2
x 181⁄4 in. (31.8 x 46.4 cm). Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Fig 25 Blind Beggars, 1938. Tempera on composition board, 201⁄8 x 15 in. (51.1 x 38.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of New York City W.P.A., 1943 (43.47.28). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
the two mourners on their way across the street hold odd
in organizing the exhibition, and Brady expended consid-
objects for a couple on their way to the funeral parlor. The
erable energy to create publicity for the show. The pho-
woman, dressed in a red coat, holds what seems to be a
tographer James L. Allen, who often worked for Brady,
washboard; the man holds a guitar and an outstretched
took photographs of Lawrence delivering his paintings to
cane, which suggests he may be blind. That the woman,
the registrar of the museum (Fig. 27).31 Alain Locke, who
like the man, wears dark glasses suggests that she may
was on the editorial board for Survey Graphic, made cer-
be blind as well. Clearly they are going to the funeral as
tain that two paintings from Lawrence’s Toussaint series
musicians. More unusual are the eyes and mouth of a
were reproduced in the journal’s March 1939 issue. 32
child, walking to the left of the man, who stares up at them.
The press was enthusiastic about the exhibition. The
Because the gray-brown values of the child’s face and
critic A. D. Emmart praised the show and Locke’s cata-
clothing are so close to the colors of the street, the child’s
logue essay in the Baltimore Sun. Of the oil paintings,
eyes and mouth seem to float in space—more like a spec-
Emmart admired Malvin Gray Johnson’s “disciplined,
ter or a memory than a person. Disembodied facial fea-
unself-conscious work,” Archibald J. Motley Jr.’s “sophis-
tures would come to characterize many of Lawrence’s later
ticated skill as well as progress toward a personal idiom,”
paintings, especially the masklike forms that inhabit his
and Palmer C. Hayden’s “technically admirable as well
paintings of the 1950s and 1960s (see Chapters 7 and 8).
as . . . distinctly individual approach.” When discussing
Blindness, as shared by the couple walking along the
the works done in tempera and watercolor, he focused
sidewalk in Blind Beggars, was also a metaphor that would
his praise on Lawrence:
recur in his later paintings. These two paintings suggest that Lawrence’s view of life was considerably more com-
But it seems to me that easily the most remarkable exhibit is
plex than the “unquenchable joie de vivre” ascribed to him
the series of forty-one tempera drawings by Jacob Lawrence
by the Art News critic.
in which he recounts the career of Toussaint L’Ouverture. These small sketches, with their economy of flat, sharply defined forms and their telling variations in a consistent color
mary beattie brady and alain locke
pattern, are charged with feeling and movement. The designs are full of swift, racing vigor and the notable mingling of realistic and symbolic elements of simplified abstract form with the quality of illustration give them a powerful impact. The
Mary Beattie Brady, the director of the Harmon Founda-
theme, moreover, is well developed and the mood finely sus-
tion and a controversial figure to some black artists,
tained, and both individually and as a series, they constitute
came to the reception at the American Artists School and
a striking and original work. 33
posed with Lawrence for her photographer (Fig. 26). She had good reason to be pleased, for she had been taking
The exhibition was the first group show of African Ameri-
an interest in the artist and he was turning out to be a
can artists in a major museum, and Lawrence was privi-
winner. Although we do not know for certain when Brady
leged to have a whole room in which to show the complete
and Alain Locke began to notice Lawrence, correspon-
series (Fig. 28).
dence between the two from 1939 to 1941 suggests that
When the works returned to the Harmon Foundation,
they shared a keen concern with Lawrence’s success as
Brady began to seek other venues where the Toussaint
an artist.
L’Ouverture series might be exhibited. Brady’s letters to
More important to both of them than the American
Locke reveal how much she depended on him for advice
Artists School exhibition was the inclusion of all forty-one
about the artistic worthiness of specific African American
of Lawrence’s Toussaint L’Ouverture panels in the land-
artists; he also served as a sounding board for her ideas
mark exhibition Contemporary Negro Art held almost si-
about promoting individual artists. Locke, in turn, con-
multaneously at the Baltimore Museum of Art from Feb-
fided in her and solicited her comments on his manu-
ruary 3 to 19, 1939.30 The Harmon Foundation participated
scripts before they went to press. In a letter to Locke of
40 the making of a professional artist
Fig 26 Jacob Lawrence with
Mary Beattie Brady at his Amer ican Artists School opening, 1939. Jacob Lawrence Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library. Fig 27 Jacob Lawrence (center), presenting a panel from his Toussaint L’Ouverture series to the registrar at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1939. Photo: James L. Allen. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection. Fig 28 Baltimore Museum installation, wall of Lawrence’s work, 1939. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
May 10, 1939, Brady reveals her dogged determination to
eager to have a Negro painter on his list. He also is to see
promote deserving artists. She first writes about Hale
Jacob Lawrence’s temperas.”34
Woodruff’s potential to do murals, then turns to Law-
Since Lawrence had been well treated by Brady and
rence’s work: “I talked with Mr. Mussey at the Arden Gal-
the Harmon Foundation, he made it a point to stay in
lery. . . . I think he would be very definitely disposed to
touch with her and to follow her advice. Brady continues
work out some kind of a plan for a one man show there
her letter of May 10 to Locke with a report on Lawrence
this next year, if Mr. Woodruff’s work satisfied him. He is
and how she intends to help him. The letter suggests the
the making of a professional artist 41
extent to which Brady was willing to manipulate people
Manhattan, did materialize. His Toussaint L’Ouverture se-
and institutions to advance her cause to help young Afri-
ries was shown there from May 22 to June 5, 1939. The
can American artists—in particular Lawrence:
New York Amsterdam News published his picture (Fig. 29), accompanied by praise from their critic Marvel Cooke.37
Mr. Lawrence was here in the office the other day and stated
Also in May Opportunity magazine published Alain Locke’s
that his Frederick Douglas [sic] work was completed. We hope
article “Advance on the Art Front,” in which Locke singled
to see it shortly. Life [the magazine] has promised to bring
out Lawrence as an “intuitive genius” and praised his “bril-
out some pictures of Mr. Lawrence’s work, as shown at the
liant” and “modernistic” Toussaint panels.38
Baltimore Museum in their issue of May 22. Mr. Lawrence went
Meanwhile, sometime about March 1939, Locke and
up there the other day with the pictures and they decided to
Lawrence were already corresponding about the disposi-
do some photographing themselves to see if they could get better reproductions than the ones Mr. Allen did for us. I believe they also were going to take some pictures of Mr. Lawrence. He is going to do some writing for us regarding his research on this subject and also on Frederick Douglas, which will be
tion of the Toussaint L’Ouverture pictures. Locke told Lawrence that the Haitian ambassador showed an interest in purchasing the series to show either at the Haitian Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair or at a museum in Port
available for reference for your use at any time you want to
au Prince. 39 Locke’s concern for Lawrence is indicated by
use it in connection with any article.
these passages:
In order to get the material into Life, we had to go out and manufacture some news. When it came time to send the ex-
Of course there would be some difficulty in case of a sale and
hibit to Dallas, Texas, they cut down their space and it seemed
your relief status. However . . . the Harmon Foundation and I
best to eliminate the Lawrence series, as we believe that they
have an idea as to how that could be managed without in any
will take the entire group as a single exhibition next year. We,
way curtailing your eventual use of the funds. But you must
therefore, had to dig up some news.
not hope too much as I take it the Haitian government is not
The Brooklyn Museum has a rule against one man shows;
on easy street just now.
the New York Public Library is not showing anything in the
I heard . . . that you were considering a donation of the work.
way of loan collections and we, in desperation, called up Fa-
I think you should not do this, as you deserve the eventual
ther LaFarge. It seems that Mr. Hunton is opening a new Inter-
returns for your own advancement, more materials, etc. I am
racial Center on the tenth floor at 20 Vesey Street on the
sure that they will be bought by some agency or other and then
22nd of the month, the day the issue of Life comes out, in
given to some collection or museum.40
which we expect these pictures to appear. The exciting news event, therefore, tying up with the pictures will be the opening of this center, the Patron Saint of which will be Saint de Porres. I understand that he is still the Blessed Martin De Porres, but it is expected he will be sanctified. He was a Negro and is buried in Lima, Peru. 35
One senses that for Brady a Haitian national hero such as Toussaint L’Ouverture was not much different from a Peruvian Dominican friar who had reputedly performed medical miracles.36 Nothing seems to have come of Brady’s plan to get a
In an undated letter, probably written in March or early April 1939, Lawrence replied: As you already know I was very glad to hear of the Haitian Minister’s interest in my work. I can easily understand the Haitian Government’s financial position at this time, however I think it means much more to an artist to have people like and enjoy his work, than it does to have a few individuals purchase his work, and it not have the interest of the masses. As I told you when you were here, selling these things was the last thing I thought of when I conceived them.41
spread of photographs of Lawrence’s work into Life magazine; the May 22 issue showed pictures of an opening at
Lawrence had also staked out another historical figure
the Museum of Modern Art, not Lawrence’s paintings at
for his next major series. In the same letter Lawrence
the Baltimore Museum of Art. But the exhibition at the De
informs Locke that he is at work on a Frederick Douglass
Porres Interracial Center, at 20 Vesey Street in downtown
series and has just transferred his drawings to gessoed
42 the making of a professional artist
panels: “I work on all 33 panels at one time, this keeps them as a complete unit and not as an individual easel painting.” He concludes by asking Locke to visit his studio when he will next be in New York.42 Lawrence wrote a short letter to Locke in September 1939 to report that he was still on the FAP’s Easel Division, had completed his Douglass paintings, and had started yet another historical series on the life of Harriet Tubman. He added that he hoped to apply for a Julius Rosenwald Fund Fellowship and concluded by saying: “I wrote Miss Brady of the Harmon Foundation asking her to get me some professional criticism on my Douglass series, she said she would. In closing I wish to thank you for the interest you are taking in my work.”43 Lawrence, ever diligent about thanking his supporters, hoped that Locke would continue to help him. In October 1939, when Lawrence was dismissed from the FAP because of the “18-month rule,” he needed to find other sources of income to support himself. Brady helped by lending him $100, and he let her keep the Toussaint series.44 With the Toussaint panels physically at the foundation, Brady could more easily have them photographed and sent out to exhibitions, an arrangement Lawrence would have liked. Lawrence also handed over to Brady the Douglass series, for on November 17, 1939, she wrote to Locke about her plans now that the series was in her possession: Jacob Lawrence brought down his thirty-one prints [sic] on
Fig 29 “An Artist of Merit: Pictorial History of Haiti Set on Canvas,” New York Amsterdam News, June 3, 1939. Courtesy New York Amsterdam News.
the life of Frederick Douglass the other day; and I am trying to get some critics down here to look at them, and have some hope that the John Hope Community Center of Providence,
In another letter, probably written in November 1939,
Rhode Island, may give the series a Premier [sic] in a Freder-
Lawrence tells Locke of his progress on the Tubman se-
ick Douglass celebration, that will include an exhibition at the
ries, which he has already begun. He hopes to submit the
Rhode Island School of Design in February. Have you any other
Tubman panels, along with the Toussaint L’Ouverture and
suggestions along these lines. I would like to have you look at
Douglass panels, to the Julius Rosenwald Fund with his
this series. It may be that you will be interested in some of
application for a fellowship. He asks Locke to serve as
them for the folio.45
a reference for his proposed plan “to interpret in a sufficient number of panels (from 40 to 50—18 x 12 [inches])
The folio Brady mentions was the elaborate picture book
the great Negro migration north during the World
on African American art that Locke was busy preparing
War.”46
for press—a book that would feature Lawrence promi-
Locke obliged Lawrence, for by this time he knew Law-
nently. Once again, Brady’s plan for exhibiting the Doug
rence’s art intimately. In his recommendation to the
lass series did not pan out.
Rosenwald Fund, Locke recalled the L’Ouverture series as
the making of a professional artist 43
“the sensation” of the exhibition in Baltimore: “What im-
he saw artists as categorized along racial lines. Carl Zi-
presses me about Lawrence is his ability to combine so-
grosser, then the director of the Weyhe Gallery, also judged
cial interest and interpretation . . . with a straight art ap-
Lawrence “one of the outstanding Negro artists of our
proach. . . . There is little or no hint of social propaganda
time.”52
in his pictures, and no slighting of the artistic problems
Ever vigilant to help Lawrence, Brady wrote to Locke on
involved, such as one finds in many of the contemporary
April 4, 1940, to make certain he would follow up with the
social-theme painters. Yet his work has a stirring social
Rosenwald Fund; perhaps she did not know that he had
and racial appeal.”47
already written his recommendation. Brady writes: “If you
Locke’s recommendation also speaks of Lawrence’s
have any influence with Mr. Reynolds at the Rosenwald
artistic development and praises the “considerable
Fund, and have not already done so, I would appreciate
growth in maturity and power” of his compositions.48 Ed-
any good word you could write in regarding Mr. Jacob
win R. Embree, director of the Julius Rosenwald Fund,
Lawrence. I am most hopeful that he may be able to get
would not have been surprised by receiving the letter, for
a grant from them to work on his researches on the mi-
he had already urged Locke the previous October to in-
grations North and interpret them in his individual way in
form artists “who may be especially qualified” for Rosen-
tempera studies. I have sent in photographs of some of
wald grants.49
his work, and have just had some snapshots taken of him
Probably because of appeals by Brady and Locke, other
so that those also could be sent.”53 Brady’s letter also
prominent art world people joined in supporting Lawrence
confides her recent activities in support of William Artis
for a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship. Charles Rogers, the
and Bob Blackburn, both friends of Lawrence.
director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Lincoln
Lawrence received a grant of fifteen hundred dollars
Kirstein, then the director of Ballet Caravan, also wrote
that April from the Rosenwald Fund. It was slightly more
recommendations that glow with admiration and provide
than he had been receiving from the FAP, and the extra
evidence that Lawrence had already developed a following
money allowed him to rent, at eight dollars a month, a
among the culturati. Rogers praised the artist as “un-
back room in a small building at 33 West 125th Street, in
doubtedly the most talented, sincere and creative” of
the heart of Harlem. Others in the building included the
African American artists and said that Lawrence’s
artists Romare Bearden, Bob Blackburn, and Ronald Jo-
“sketches of the Life of General Toussaint L’Ouverture were
seph; the dancer William Attaway; and the poet and nov-
the finest work in our exhibition and undoubtedly the finest
elist Claude McKay.54
thing of this type that I had ever seen.” It was Lawrence’s
In his new studio space, Lawrence got to know Claude
originality and the fact that he was “not influenced by aca-
McKay even better than at the gatherings at 306. McKay
demic tendencies” that Rogers found refreshing.50 Kir
encouraged him and gave him an inscribed copy of his
stein’s recommendation was also emphatic:
book A Long Way from Home (1937). Lawrence later re called:
In my opinion, Mr. Lawrence is the most capable Negro artist whose work I have ever had the opportunity to look at. His
Having Mr. McKay’s friendship was a warm and valuable
series of paintings seem to me strikingly original, and pos-
experience for me and, in retrospect, has become even more
sessed of great inherent beauty.
valuable. I have come to realize and appreciate his comments
Unlike so many others, he is not imitative, but has a genuine emotion, and is extraordinarily successful in conveying it. I feel absolutely certain that with the necessary encourage-
and insight. He was a very keen observer and critique of per sonalities and of the political and sosial scene of the world in general and of the black experience in particular. He had
ment and slight security, he could be the most important Ne-
a very wry sense of humor. He would offten take from his
gro artist this country has yet produced. 51
pocket a small pad and annoy those around him by notat- ing their comments for future reference. This act, of course,
Kirstein would have thought of himself as supportive of
was not appreciated, as comments that were being made
African Americans; indeed, he was for his time. But clearly
in regards to both personalities and foundations were
4 4 the making of a professional artist
Fig 30 José Clemente Orozco at work on
the fresco Dive Bomber and Tank, in preparation for the exhibition Twenty Cen turies of Mexican Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 1940. Photo: Eliot Elisofon. Art © 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ SOMAAP, Mexico City. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
offtimes not complimentary to those noy present. He was
matter of leaving the drawings in your hands for whatever
especially warm to black-skinned Negroes. At various time (not
strategy you find necessary.”59 It is not known to which
necessarily in this order) his leanings were toard black nation-
drawings Locke referred. The following year, 1942, Law-
alism, communist, Garveyite and Catholic. He died a Catholic.
rence thanked Leyda “for selling the painting for me.”60
I have the feeling that throughout his life he was more of an observer that a participant in political and social affairs. Knowing that his death was imminent, he requested that I serve as one of his pallbearers at his funeral. For me, it was an honor to carry out this request. [Misspellings in original.]55
McKay died of a heart attack on May 22,
1948.56
Gwendolyn Knight and Lawrence were frequent companions. She sometimes worked in his studio, where she painted several portraits of him, all of which are lost. She also helped him on his series, preparing the panels and helping him with the captions for the Migration series.57 At about this time he also met Jay Leyda, the curator of film for the Museum of Modern Art. Leyda, a scholar of Sergei Eisenstein’s films, joined Brady and Locke to work behind the scenes on Lawrence’s behalf. He wrote one of the letters of recommendation when Lawrence reapplied for a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship.58 He also seems to have
Leyda also arranged for Lawrence to meet José Clemente Orozco, in New York during 1940 to paint a fresco portable mural, Dive Bomber and Tank, on site at the Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition Twenty Centu ries of Mexican Art (Fig. 30). Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Siqueiros (“los tres grandes”) had all lived and painted in New York at one time or another during the 1930s, but most New York artists preferred the quiet dignified manner of Orozco to the verbal bombast of Rivera and Siqueiros. Orozco had already painted a cycle of five frescoes at the New School for Social Research on West Twelfth Street, called A Call for Revolution and Universal Brotherhood, which Lawrence would most likely have seen.61 Lawrence appreciated the chance to meet Orozco. Speaking of the meeting on Randy Goodman’s radio show in 1943, Lawrence recalled:
functioned as a sales agent for Lawrence, as a letter to
When Orozco was doing his Dive Bomber mural at the Museum
Leyda from Locke dated March 5, 1940, testifies: “I tele-
of Modern Art he saw my paintings in the office. That was just
phoned Miss Brady . . . and found her sympathetic on the
before they bought them. Orozco said he wanted to meet me.
the making of a professional artist 45
So I rushed down there. I wanted to meet him. When I got
manuscript for 12 Million Black Voices and staying in New
there, he was busy working. He couldn’t talk to me, but he
York to work with a scriptwriter and producer to bring to
turned around and said he would like some cherries. So I ran
Broadway his acclaimed Native Son. Years later, Lawrence
out and got some. Later, we had quite a chat over the cherries.
recalled that powerful book with admiration.67
He showed me the sketch for the mural he was working on. I was amazed. . . . I thought it would be extremely detailed. There were just a few sketchy lines. I remarked about it. Orozco said: “That’s all you need, if you know what you are doing!”62
Lawrence would also have been impressed with Orozco’s attitude about modern art, as was a reporter for the New York Times who interviewed Orozco that summer: “According to the artist, his selection of the subject has no political significance. He wished to paint an aspect of modern life. ‘That is what modern art is,’ Mr. Orozco explained when the commission was announced, ‘the actual feeling of life around us or the mood of whatever is just happening.’ ”63 In later years Lawrence would also insist that his own paintings were not expressions of political protest but evocations of what he felt was happening at the moment. And he often invoked the name of Orozco as an artist who had strongly influenced him. To Elizabeth McCausland he explained that Orozco, like Daumier and Goya, was “forceful. Simple. Human.”64 Leyda, who continued to enlist other influential people to help Lawrence, wrote to Richard Wright in April 1941:
The Harmon Foundation actively continued to support Lawrence’s work during 1940 and 1941. Mary Brady sent his Toussaint L’Ouverture panels to the Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro, 1851–1940, held in Chicago as part of the American Negro Exhibition in July 1940, where he was awarded second prize, and to Columbia University in November 1940.68 She also sent the Douglass and Tubman series to an exhibition held at the Library of Congress in December 1940 celebrating the anniversary of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment but then recalled the Tubman paintings, to send them on to Chicago in May 1941 for the opening of the South Side Community Art Center, where Peter Pollack, a good friend of Locke’s, was the director.69 In early 1941 Brady was also promoting Lawrence in other ways: she confided to Locke in January that she had encouraged a writer for Opportu nity magazine to feature articles on both Lawrence and Charles Sebree.70 In March Brady reported to Locke that the foundation’s photographer had taken pictures of Lawrence (Fig. 31) to accompany an article on the artist in a New Rochelle, New York, newspaper. Her newest project entailed sending African American artists to the Lincoln School, a pre-
I want you to look at the work of Jacob Lawrence, a Negro painter about 23 years old—who has the most powerful and original painting talent I’ve encountered anywhere in this country. Lawrence doesn’t need your financial assistance. He’s enjoyed the mixed blessing of a Rosenwald grant during the past year, and stands a pretty good chance of getting a renewal on
dominantly black school in New Rochelle, for daylong programs focused on African American artists, and Lawrence had gone to New Rochelle at her request. Brady was clearly pleased with the results: “I think it did Lawrence a lot of good to get out on this type of experience. He talked to the children in groups from the first graders
the strength of his year’s work. However a greater need is for
on up.”71 She also wrote to Charles Alston to inform him
interest and advice and encouragement from understanding
that Lawrence “was very gracious in crediting much of
and responsible persons whom he is too shy to seek himself.
his inspiration and early help to you.” She continued to be
He has indicated an enormous respect for you, and I believe
convinced of Lawrence’s prospects as an artist: “I feel
that bringing you together is the most important thing I can
very strongly that Mr. Lawrence has what it takes to suc-
attempt for him.65
ceed. He has developed no attitude, is utterly interested in his work, has a definite objective toward which he is
About a month later, Wright reported back to Leyda that
struggling, and he always is willing to give credit where
he had twice attempted to visit Lawrence’s studio but had
he feels it is due.”72 She was so enthusiastic about intro-
not found him there. He assured Leyda that he would make
ducing African American artists to grade school young-
another attempt.66 Wright was working at this time on his
sters that she wrote to Pollack, urging him to organize
46 the making of a professional artist
Fig 31 Jacob Lawrence lecturing on his art at Lincoln School, New Rochelle, New York, February 28, 1941. Photo: Ray Garner. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Harmon Foundation Collection.
along the same lines an all-day teaching and exhibition
rence proposition. At least one of his series ought to be
program for Chicago children.73
done as you suggest—silk screen process, and I’ll make soundings in New York, but why not try to have it swung eventually out your way, since the Chicago work in this
the chicago connection
medium is really superior?”76 Locke wrote again on July
Pollack, meanwhile, had his own plans for Lawrence. He
silk screen portfolios” with both Brady and Edith Halpert.
wrote to Locke on June 3, 1941, about the activities at the
They had responded enthusiastically, but Locke had in
South Side Community Center: “Pretty swell show com-
mind another “angel” who would provide enough funding
ing up next week. Lawrence, [Charles] Sebree, [Vernon]
to pay the technical artists.77 In a July 9 letter to Locke,
6, informing Pollack that he had discussed “the idea of
Winslow book illustrations. The Lawrence stuff excep-
Pollack persisted: “If your ‘Angel’ could raise enough
tional. Spoke with Arna Bontemps about interceding
dough, and it would not require much, we can easily do
with his publishers McMillan & Co. to get the pictures
the job of reproduction of his ‘Toussaint,’ in my opinion,
published. I believe captions or a lengthy foreword on
by silk screen.”78 Nothing seems to have come of this
Tubman—in the same emotional vein—is needed. Bon-
scheme either, but Pollack’s prescient suggestion that
temps seemed interested. Perhaps Harmon can work it
Lawrence’s work would adapt well to silk-screening was
out somehow. I still believe silk screen reproductions best
confirmed some forty years later.79
for his work. With care practically nothing of the original
Lawrence reapplied to the Julius Rosenwald Fund and
colors and tones will be lost.”74 Pollack knew what he was
received a fellowship for another year so that he could
talking about; prior to accepting his job at FAP, he had
research and paint twenty-two panels on the life of John
been connected with the Chicago Artists Group, which
Brown, but he seems to have been oblivious to the nego-
published original limited-edition prints.75
tiations going on between Locke and Pollack that would
Locke replied to Pollack three days later: “I am sure
affect his career. The renewed fellowship would pay only
before or by fall something will come through on the Law-
twelve hundred dollars for the second year, down three
the making of a professional artist 47
hundred dollars from the first year, but he was doubtless
soon, and hope you will still be in New York next week.”
grateful not to have to worry about funds.
He added in his last paragraph: “Have you seen the work
In the late winter Locke’s book The Negro in Art: A
of Jacob Lawrence? And then Sebree has some recent
Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro
stuff that is most interesting. I can and will bring along
Theme in Art, much anticipated by both Brady and Locke,
some photographs.”83
was published. A large picture book, divided into three
Apparently Locke did get to New York. Halpert sent
sections—“The Negro as Artist,” “The Negro in Art,” and
him a telegram, suggesting that they meet at the Harlem
“The Ancestral Arts”—it had brief essays for each section
Community Art Center on Wednesday, June 25. Perhaps
and 370 reproductions, two-thirds of them works by Afri-
it was there that Halpert and Locke viewed Lawrence’s
can European and African American artists. Eight of Law-
Migration panels.84 A few days later, on July 1, Halpert
rence’s Toussaint panels were published, a number
wrote Locke from her country home in Newtown, Con-
greater than that of works by any other artist except Hale
necticut, to report “very exciting news” from the Fortune
Woodruff, Richmond Barthé, and Malvin Gray Johnson.
magazine staff:
Brady ordered copies for the Harmon Foundation and had ideas about publicity, and Locke began sending out
Mrs. Caulkins [sic] to whom I had sent the Lawrence paintings
his own complimentary copies.80
and notes, ’phoned this afternoon to advise me that the editorial staff was equally enthusiastic about the panels, and that they are planning to use the series in the fall or winter—unless
enter edith halpert Perhaps the most important person to receive a copy of
the war situation makes publication obsolete. I suggested making a payment for an option on the material, and she is sending me a check (made in the name of Jacob Lawrence at my suggestion) for $100., as a first payment. We have not
The Negro in Art from Locke was Edith Halpert (Fig. 32),
discussed the ultimate price, but until some definite plans are
director of the Downtown Gallery, who had created one of
established by the editors, we shall let the matter ride. They
the best galleries of contemporary art in New York.81 In
will be very fair, I know, and I shall see to it that Lawrence gets
June 1941 she wrote to thank him and to discuss some
everything possible.
ideas the book had generated:
The reason I had the check sent here instead of the Harmon Foundation, is that I share your feelings about the situation.
Because so much of this was news to me, and to other persons
Would you advise me to send the money directly to the artist—
in the art world, it occurred to me to introduce Negro art in a
and if so, will you let me have his address? Do you think that
large inclusive exhibition in our new quarters—following the
it would be better to have fortune pay him in installments, etc.
outline in your book, but limiting it entirely to the work of
I should be grateful for your opinion. While the sum involved
American Negroes of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries.
at the moment is not important, my own experience with artists
Although I know I can have access to the paintings in public
is that it is better to farm it out, and Mrs. Caulkins could have
and private collections, I would not want to start any activity
the bookkeeper make whatever arrangements you suggest.85
until I consult with you. What do you think of such an exhibition? As a matter of fact, I have some elaborate plans which I have
Halpert ends the letter with a suggestion that an exhibition
discussed with several people and there seems to be a good
of the Migration series might tour the country.
deal of enthusiasm regarding this proposed exhibition.82
Lawrence must have been overwhelmed at the prospect that a number of his paintings would be reproduced in
In a letter of June 16, Locke responded that he would be
Fortune, a prestigious business magazine that would
happy to help: “I do hope you can arrange the exhibit,
target potential patrons. But he became concerned when
and will gladly help to the best of my resources. I think I
he saw the actual $150 check, dated July 3, from Time,
can steer you to private canvasses of the same artists
Inc., because it was made out to “David Lawrence.” On
whose work, for the most part, is W.P.A. property. . . . In-
the tear-off portion of the check was written: “Option on
deed I hope I can discuss this whole matter with you
reproduction rights on panels on Migration of the Negro.”
48 the making of a professional artist
Fig 32 Edith Halpert reading at the home of Charles Sheeler, ca. 1935–40. Photo: Charles Sheeler. Downtown Gallery Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Worried about the wrong name and the option clause and
going to ask Mr. Lawrence to hold up the cashing of this
wanting to resolve what his rights were before he left for
check and not to reply to Mrs. Halpert until we have had
New Orleans, where he and Knight had decided to live for
time to do a little exploring and see what the customary
a spell, Lawrence went to see Mary Brady to ask her to
practices are in matters of this sort and also to have an
advise him. She recommended that he hold off cashing
opportunity to hear from you. I feel very strongly that he
the check until she had conferred with Locke, which she
should have a limitation on this option to magazine re-
did in a letter of July 16: “Mr. Jacob Lawrence was in the
production rights, being free to use the pictures in any
office this morning with reference to his plans for going
other way that seems fair to him.” She then added archly:
to New Orleans. We have advanced him $100. in connec-
“I feel a little surprised that Mrs. Halbert [sic] has not
tion with this trip, and it is his hope that he can get
been more specific in making these arrangements. Per-
started as quickly as possible. I thought you should know
haps I am more legalistic than I should be.” She urged
of his plans for leaving in the event that you may be plan-
Locke to get in touch with Lawrence and added: “Naturally,
ning to be in New York shortly.” Brady then explained the
Mr. Lawrence does not wish to be abrupt with Mrs. Halpert,
check situation and added: “I have advised Mr. Lawrence
as he is very appreciative of what she has done. On the
not to cash this check until the option statement is clari-
other hand, he does not wish to be railroaded into some-
fied. As it now stands, the option could be considered a
thing that he may later regret.”
permanent one. There is no statement as to the terms on
Brady was evidently thinking out the solution while dic-
which the sale would be consummated and there might
tating the letter, for she continued with this question:
well be a legal argument that the sale price was up to
“Would it be better for you to write a letter to Mrs. Halp-
Time, Inc. or that the option would continue to go on. Re-
ert, bringing up these points and returning the check to
production rights might easily be indicated as reproduc-
her for correction inasmuch as it is made out to David
tion of all types.” Brady acknowledged that having Law-
Lawrence rather than to Jacob Lawrence? If you feel that
rence’s panels reproduced in Fortune was a great break
it is better for you to do this, Mr. Lawrence, who is sitting
but stated she did “not believe that it is desirable to enter
beside me as I dictate this, would be agreeable to have
blindly into such arrangements.” She continued: “I am
you do it, but we would both like to know in advance.”
the making of a professional artist 49
She emphasized that the matter was somewhat urgent
Lawrence that she planned to show all sixty paintings in
because Lawrence wanted to begin his trip to New Or-
her gallery in November to coincide with the publication
leans right away.86
of the Fortune issue that month.92
They must have decided that Lawrence should be the
On July 24, the day after Halpert wrote her letter telling
one to write to Halpert, because he did, saying that he
Lawrence he could cash the check, Lawrence and Gwen
could not cash the check because the wrong name was
dolyn Knight were married.93 Lawrence was then twenty-
on it: “Also I did not understand the terms under which
three years old, and Knight, twenty-eight. Lawrence pre-
the check was made out, namely how long a time the op-
pared to leave for New Orleans, but not before July 31, when
tion for publication rights was for.”87 Halpert replied to
he sat for Carl Van Vechten’s photograph of him.
Lawrence on July 23 and assured him that he could cash the check. She then explained the terms:
Van Vechten had photographed many of the notables of the Harlem literary scene—Zora Neale Hurston, Lang ston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and W. E. B. Du Bois—and
The sum [of $150] is in full payment of the option to reproduce
thus it was a singular honor to sit for him.94 Van Vechten
all or any of the series of paintings you left there. When a
posed him in front of a cloth backdrop with intricate geo-
decision is made to actually publish the group, you will receive further payment, the amount to be agreed on by you as well as by
fo r t u n e .
I shall handle the transaction in your interest,
but we can have a chat in advance so that the final price may be satisfactory to you before I propose it to the editors of the magazine. The option holds until November 1st, as no action can be
metric designs (Fig. 33). His camera captures the sculpted features of Lawrence’s head as the young artist stares at the camera with his arms folded across his chest. Leading up to this photo sitting was a series of earlier representations of Lawrence that help us chart his growth as an artist. In Figures 9 and 10 we see the fifteen-year-old Lawrence
taken during the summer months. As soon as I hear from the
participating with other students in Harlem Art Workshop
organization, I shall communicate with you accordingly. 88
activities; Figure 12 shows him a few years later, working
From the tone of her letter, Lawrence surmised that Halp-
company of other artists—at art openings (Figs. 21 and
ert must have concluded he was concerned only with the
26) or delivering his paintings to a museum registrar for
in his studio space at 306. In 1939 we find him in the
dollar amount of the transaction, so he wrote to her almost
exhibition (Fig. 27). Figure 31, in which he poses with New
apologetically, explaining: “My main reason for writing you
Rochelle schoolchildren, shows another side to him—the
was to find out how long the option was to last, (since then
image suggests his empathy toward the young pupils. The
both you and Mrs. Calkins have written and told me). I am
Van Vechten photograph is altogether different. Through
very sorry if I caused you any [unnecessary] trouble.”89
the pose and facial expression the photographer has
He wished to please the very powerful art broker Edith
captured Lawrence’s intensity, a sense of the young art-
Halpert, yet he was also learning lessons in the rights he
ist’s will to paint his vision and to succeed.95 It was a
should insist on as an artist. Brady was still in the picture, because the Migration
moment when he was about to embark on new adventures—marriage and a prolonged painting trip.
panels were physically in the Harmon Foundation’s office, but she knew that Lawrence had agreed to Fortune’s
n
terms. When she heard from Calkins in early September,
In New Orleans Lawrence found a temporary place to live
Brady turned the panels over to Fortune for photogra-
at 2230 Dryades Street, one block over from South Ram-
phy.90 Even though Lawrence had not yet met Halpert,
part Street. It seems that Gwendolyn stayed behind in New
then summering in Connecticut, he shifted his allegiance
York for a few weeks until Lawrence could find a more
to her, poised as she was now to give his career the most
permanent home. They eventually rented rooms in a pri-
help.91 In subsequent letters, after the arrangement with
vate home, owned by a Mrs. Jones, at 2430 Bienville Av-
Fortune had been successfully brokered, Halpert informed
enue, with enough space for the two of them to paint.96
50 the making of a professional artist
That summer, Alain Locke was corresponding with Halpert about her plan to hold, in December 1941, a large exhibition of African American art that would include Lawrence’s sixty Migration panels. She was hoping to make her exhibition the first to introduce African American art to the downtown New York art world of museum directors, curators, and patrons. During the summer Locke not only cheered her on but gave her substantial help. He assembled a stellar representation of African American artists from the East Coast and the West Coast, and he enlisted his friend Peter Pollack in Chicago to spread the word there among artists and to organize a jury to make a preliminary selection of works from the Midwest. Their suggestions would be passed along to Halpert, who would make the final choice. Locke and Pollack shrewdly asked Daniel Rich, the director of the Art Institute of Chicago, to be one of the jurors for the Midwest, along with the artist Charles White.97 As Locke, Pollack, and Halpert were making their plans, however, they learned that a potentially competing exhibition of African American art in New York was being planned for the coming October. Kathleen Carroll was in the process of contacting Chicago artists for Eleanor McMillen Brown, an interior decorator who owned the McMillen Gallery at 148 East 55th Street. Locke and Pollack surmised that the McMillen exhibition of contemporary African American artists was window-dressing for a scheme to sell the African art collection of Frank Crowninshield, the editor of Vanity Fair, who was reputedly
Fig 33 Carl Van Vechten, Jacob Lawrence, 1941. Photogravure,
printed 1983, 811 ⁄16 x 57⁄8 in. (22 x 15 cm). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, NPG.83.188.29. Photo © The Estate of Carl Van Vechten; Gravure and compilation © the Eakins Press Foundation.
short on cash.98 Both Locke and Pollack were outraged at the idea that a gallery would cynically exploit artists by promising them big sales. On July 25, Locke wrote to Pol-
I am sure you will not construe this as trying to meddle in
lack suggesting that he put pressure on the Midwest art-
or dictate to the artists. We only want them to have full infor-
ists not to show at the McMillen Gallery:
mation, so as to decide wisely in their own best interests. While there could be no financial guarantees, it does seem
As you know, Mrs. Halpert’s proposition has been planned
that an exhibition in a recognized major gallery, synchronized
primarily to introduce a representative cross section of the
with definitely assured publicity in Fortune and Time, and with
work of Negro artists, both to the art critics here in New York
an indirect connection with the Museum of Modern Art group,
and to several important museum directors. Mrs. Halpert feels
is something to command our fullest cooperation.
that any considerable showing on a commercial level before an exhibition in December would definitely take the edge off
Locke conceded that “for the less original artists or even
publicity arrangements she has in mind to make and may cause
for the less representative work of the better artists, the
abandonment of her project, whereas, if the order of the two
McMillan [sic] proposition would be worthier of consid-
shows was reversed, one would decidedly help the other.
eration, in my judgment, than it is under these circum-
the making of a professional artist 51
stances.”99 Clearly, Locke did not want the McMillen show
Alston, two by Romare Bearden, two by Ronald Joseph,
to scoop Halpert’s.
and three by Horace Pippin, as well as two sculptures by
Brady of the Harmon Foundation was also skeptical of
William Edmundson and a lithograph by Lawrence’s
the McMillen show. She reported to Locke on September 4,
younger friend Bob Blackburn. Lawrence’s works included
1941, what Palmer Hayden had told her about Mrs. Carroll:
paintings he had sent back from New Orleans: Green Table
“She made it clear [to Hayden] that her interest was a
and Catholic New Orleans, as well as the sixty panels of
purely commercial one and not in the general direction of
his Migration series.104
promoting Negro art. My reaction is that if she can per-
The opening date coincided exactly with the entry of
form miracles and get good prices, more power to her. It
the United States into World War II in response to the
would seem to me that such a plan would not in any way
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the main U.S. Navy
interfere with Mrs. Halpert’s plan for an exhibition.” But
base in the Pacific, on the morning of Sunday, Decem
in the next paragraph Brady referred to the overall project
ber 7. The next day, Halpert scaled back her plans. Al-
they were all engaged in: to bring the accomplishments
though she invited Lawrence to become one of the artists
of African American creativity to the American public.
her gallery represented, and she also represented Horace
“Here is the question, however: Can the interior decora-
Pippin, the long-range project for other major New York
tor’s ability perform miracles where the art people have
galleries to represent African American artists never
not been able to do so in all these years? I do not think
materialized.
that you nor we would want to stand in the way of any
During 1942 Brady and Locke continued to promote
progress that might be made along these lines.”100 In the
Lawrence. Locke chose four paintings (see Fig. 94) to re-
last analysis, Locke, Pollack, and Brady would have agreed
produce in the November issue of Survey Graphic, a spe-
that any exposure benefited artists; it was merely a ques-
cial issue he was editing on the impact of the war on race
tion of the best strategy for introducing and promoting
relations. Brady encouraged McKinley Helm of Boston to
them.101
acquire Lawrence’s work for a one-man show, but she
Finally, the invitations for the gala opening of Halpert’s
also worked on behalf of other African American art-
Exhibition of American Negro Art, on Monday, December
ists.105 In early 1942 Halpert persuaded Mrs. David Levy,
8, 1941, went out to art world people, the press, and pa-
the daughter of Julius Rosenwald, and Duncan Phillips, of
trons. Halpert’s star-studded sponsorship committee in-
the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., each to pur-
cluded such notables as Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
chase half of Lawrence’s Migration series.106 By then
Mr. and Mrs. Edsel Ford, James Weldon Johnson, Wil
Halpert had begun regularly exhibiting and selling Law-
liam C. Handy, Mrs. William E. Harmon, Carl Van Vechten,
rence’s work in her gallery.
Richard Wright, Archibald MacLeish, A. Philip Randolph,
The entrance of the United States into World War II,
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Countee Cullen, and
however, profoundly changed the direction of many of the
Katherine Dunham. On the invitation, credit was given to
organizations and individuals who had been working on
a coordination committee that included Alain Locke and
behalf of African American artists and Lawrence in par-
the Harmon Foundation. Music would be provided by Josh
ticular. Mary Brady steered the Harmon Foundation away
White and the Harlem Highlanders.102 According to the
from its earlier mandate to help African American artists
announcement, one of the objectives was to create a Negro
and toward a focus on Africa. Peter Pollack managed to
Art Fund in order to purchase art from African Ameri
keep the community centers going in Illinois but then, in
cans that could then be gifted to museums and public
1943, joined the war effort, working with the American
institutions.103 Another goal, not expressly articulated
Red Cross.107
but understood, was to convince the leading New York
Gwendolyn Bennett was not as fortunate as Pollack.
galleries that each should take on two African American
The Harlem Community Art Center continued to be
artists to represent. The exhibition contained seventy-
plagued by reduced finances. In June 1939 a mass meet-
eight works, mostly paintings, including two by Charles
ing was held at the Lafayette Theatre to protest cut-
52 the making of a professional artist
backs.108 In January 1940 Bennett had written to Alain
advice, but it is unlikely that he got involved with her
Locke of the grim situation: “These are undoubtedly the
problems. While she was politically on the left and there-
darkest days of the Center with the landlord coming up to
fore vulnerable to anticommunist attacks, Locke seems to
see me personally everyday [sic] as though I had rented
have felt more comfortable steering a safer, liberal path.
use.”109
The center held on,
Meanwhile, Lawrence and Knight, after living in New
however, for a year later, in January 1941, Bennett could
Orleans during the early winter, moved to rural Virginia in
the place for my personal
report to Locke: “The Harlem Community Art Center is at
early February (see Chapter 5). When they returned to New
present in [the] process of being moved into space which
York at the end of May, they lived briefly at 1851 Seventh
is leased by the City of New York until December 1942. If
Avenue. By mid-July they had moved into 72 Hamilton Ter-
the projects hold out now, the future of our work is more
race off 141st Street, near the City College of New York
or less assured.”110 In November 1941 she wrote again to
campus.112 Supported by a third year of funding from the
Locke, telling him that she had been red-baited in the
Julius Rosenwald Fund, Lawrence plunged into work on his
press and fired by Audrey McMahon, New York director of
series of Harlem pictures. In the fall of 1942 the young
the FAP. She also announced that she had taken a teaching
couple saw Harlem gearing up for a war effort that aroused
job at the School for Democracy, beginning January
new concerns among African Americans about the extent
1942.111 Bennett thought highly of Locke’s opinions and
of government-supported segregation.
the making of a professional artist 53
part two
themes and issues
3
african american storytelling Toussaint L’Ouverture and Harriet Tubman The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future. . . . For him, a group tradition must supply compensation for persecution, and pride of race the antidote for prejudice. History must restore what slavery took away.
arthur schomburg, “The Negro Digs Up His Past” (1925) His art is founded on reality. It includes the vivid moments of actual experience as well as those vicariously gleaned through reading.
james a. porter, speaking of Jacob Lawrence, Modern Negro Art (1943)
In the mid-1930s, working alongside his teacher Henry
In the next three years Lawrence would paint three his-
Bannarn at 306 (the Harlem Art Workshop at 306 West
torical series: Toussaint L’Ouverture (forty-one panels),
141st Street), Lawrence determined to expand his subject
Frederick Douglass (thirty-two panels), and Harriet Tub
matter beyond simple genre scenes of Harlemites, as sat-
man (thirty-one panels). These heroes, all former slaves,
isfying as those paintings were to both himself and his
devoted their lives to the struggle against imperialism
audience. He would paint the histories of people of Afri-
and racism. Toussaint L’Ouverture won independence for
can descent in the Americas, beginning with the Haitian
Haiti by leading a black army to defeat the English but
hero Toussaint L’Ouverture. He knew his community
was later betrayed by the French; Frederick Douglass es-
would support him.
caped from slavery and went on the abolitionists’ lecture
Bannarn no doubt influenced Lawrence’s decision, tell-
circuit to rally support for ending slavery in the United
ing an Amsterdam News reporter in 1937 that black art-
States; Tubman also escaped from slavery and returned
ists should learn about their own history and that he him-
to the South to conduct two to three hundred black slaves
self intended to help them gain that knowledge through
on the Underground Railroad from the South to the North
his own art: “I want to be a means of knowing the At-
before the Civil War. Lawrence chose the series format
tuckses, the Hensons, the Pushkins and the Douglasses.”1
because he wanted to “tell a full story.”3 This chapter fo-
The teachers with whom Lawrence studied at the Ameri-
cuses on two of the three series: the Toussaint panels,
can Artists School in 1937 would also have encouraged
the project during which Lawrence learned to paint a
him. Those leftist artists admired the historical rebels
chronological narrative, and the Tubman panels, in which
who had advocated revolutionary struggle to advance the
he refined his approach and gave the narrative a more
cause of the oppressed. 2
complex unity.
Fig 34 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 7: “Harriet Tubman worked as water girl to field hands. She also worked at plowing, carting, and hauling logs.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 177⁄8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
african americans in american history Heroes from African American history first piqued Law-
alone in encouraging pride in African American history. Nor was he a racial separatist; he was simply calling for a corrective to the Dixie historiography that then dominated the field of history.9
rence’s interest when he was in his early teens. In 1940
Arthur Schomburg was another figure important in the
he recalled: “I’ve always been interested in history, but
movement to recover a black history. A bibliophile who
they never taught Negro history in the public schools.
amassed a large collection of books and other materials
Sometimes they mentioned it in history clubs, but I never
on African and African American history that became the
liked that way of presenting it. It was never studied seri-
core holdings of the 135th Street Harlem branch of the
ously like regular subjects.”4
New York Public Library, Schomburg was famous as a
He was speaking of the early 1930s. By the late 1930s
“race man”—one who celebrates the accomplishments
black and white progressive teachers in Harlem were
of the “Negro race.” In his most famous essay, “The Ne-
challenging that neglect and pressuring white officials to
gro Digs Up His Past,” written for the Survey Graphic and
celebrate Negro History Week.5 The drive to include Af-
reprinted in Locke’s New Negro (1925), Schomburg
rican American history in the public school curriculum
stated: “The American Negro must remake his past in
became part of the movement to end segregation. The
order to make his future. Though it is orthodox to think
135th Street Harlem branch of the New York Public Li-
of America as the one country where it is unnecessary to
brary had already conceived the idea of hiring Harlem’s
have a past, what is a luxury for the nation as a whole
street-corner orators to tell passersby about African
becomes a prime social necessity for the Negro. For him,
American history and to urge them to use the library’s
a group tradition must supply compensation for persecu-
resources.6
Teachers were also lecturing in community
tion, and pride of race the antidote for prejudice. History
centers. Lawrence recalled that when he was still in the
must restore what slavery took away, for it is the social
after-school program at Utopia House, “a Mr. Allen”
damage of slavery that the present generations must
came to lecture on Toussaint L’Ouverture. The speaker
repair and offset.”10 That history had to include the con
may have been James Egert Allen, in 1934 a school-
tributions of Africans and their descendants and be
teacher and president of the New York branch of the
written with a “truly scientific attitude,” with no “bias or
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
counterbias.”11
People (NAACP).7
Lawrence absorbed Schomburg’s attitudes about black
The historian Carter G. Woodson, who initiated Negro
history by frequenting the Harlem branch of the library
History Week, the second week of February, in 1926, and
and by listening to debates at Alston and Bannarn’s studio
founded the Journal of Negro History, believed in the cen-
306. Indeed, in a statement for a 1940 Harmon Foundation
trality of African Americans to American history. He felt,
press release the artist echoed Schomburg when he said:
moreover, that history needed to emphasize their tri-
“We know little of these people’s achievements. Having
umphs and to be inspirational. On November 11, 1931, the
no Negro history makes the Negro people feel inferior to
New York Amsterdam News reported on an address
the rest of the world. I don’t see how a history of the
Woodson had delivered to the Association for the Study
United States can be written honestly without including
of Negro Life and History: “Dr. Woodson recalled the an-
the Negro.”12 In interviews Lawrence also acknowledged
cient glories of Africa, the industrial and fine arts devel-
the extensive influence of Charles Seifert, who gave lec-
oped there, the exploits of its heroes, the philosophy of
tures, took Harlem youngsters to the Museum of Modern
its sages, its development of political units and commer-
Art’s African sculpture exhibition, and maintained a col-
cial enterprise. ‘These things when properly studied,’ he
lection of African artifacts and books (see Chapter 1).
said, ‘give one a new perspective on the place of the Ne-
Lawrence was thus absorbing from various sources the
gro in world history and enable us to proudly boast of our
principle that an all-embracing revisionist history mat-
black skins and African descent.’ ”8 Woodson was not
tered to the African American community.
58 african american story telling
haiti: the eighteenth-century revolution and the 1930 s
at a brutal price.15 A headline in the New York Amsterdam News on December 25, 1929, declared, “U.S. Marines Slew Hundreds.” An editorial published February 5, 1930,
One can understand why historians, artists, and Law-
asked, “Will we get out of Haiti?” and concluded that the
rence himself would gravitate to the inspiring story of the
United States would not, because of its economic inter-
Haitian hero Toussaint L’Ouverture. Enslaved Africans
ests. African American civic leaders felt they should be
had lived and worked in the Caribbean for almost three
included in the national debates about Haiti, but the gov-
hundred years before the first stirrings of rebellion in
ernment ignored them.16 The United States began to pull
Haiti, though that history was little known. The Haitian
out its troops in 1930, ending the occupation in 1934, but
Revolution, as a major, dramatic event, secured for Haiti
even then continued to control much of Haiti’s finances.
a place in history and became an inspiration for the fu-
Lawrence was no doubt inspired by reading about Haiti
ture. It gave the lie to what some historians had called the
in the newspapers and listening to lectures, but he relied
passivity of Africans in the New World.
on the Schomburg Collection as his primary source of
Indeed, for Lawrence the point of revising history was
historical information and visual cues. As he explained in
to provide guidance for action and revolutionary change.
1940: “I do my research first: read the books and take
Lawrence’s communist teachers at the American Artists
notes. I may find it necessary to go through my notes
School would surely have reminded him of Marx’s famous
three times to eliminate unimportant points. I did all my
maxim: “The philosophers have only interpreted the
reading at Schomburg Library. Most of my information
world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change
came from [John R.] Beard’s book Toussaint L’Ouverture.
it.”13 Toussaint’s life provided a narrative to bring these
I read other books—there were more novels than anything
ideas into visual form. Lawrence already admired him
else. One book—I don’t even remember its name—told
and, like others, saw Toussaint’s story not only as a his-
me of conditions on the island, and its resources. It gave
tory lesson but also as a moral parable for the present.
a short sketch of the history of the Haitian revolution.
He did the Toussaint series, he explained in the 1940
From that, I got mostly the appearance of the island.”17
press release, not “as a historical thing, but because I
Lawrence stressed the seriousness of his project by em-
believe these things tie up the Negro today. We don’t
phasizing this research.
have a physical slavery, but an economic slavery. If these
Perhaps the most stimulating visual sources on the
people, who were so much worse off than the people to-
Haitian Revolution during the 1930s were plays, particu-
day, could conquer their slavery, we certainly can do the
larly those produced by the Federal Theatre Project (FTP)
same thing. They had to liberate themselves without any
of the Works Progress Administration at the Lafayette
education. Today we can’t go about it in the same
Theatre on 131st Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.18
way. . . . How will it come about? I don’t know. I’m not a
Orson Welles’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set
To emphasize his own role in the continuity
in nineteenth-century Haiti, opened at the Lafayette on
of history, he added, “I’m an artist, just trying to do my
April 14, 1936, and included a dance troupe from Sierra
part to bring this thing about.” He felt he could help to
Leone.19 It is not known whether Lawrence saw Macbeth,
change the world. “This thing,” to Lawrence, meant lib-
but he saw and was enthusiastic about FTP’s Haiti. Written
eration from Jim Crow segregation and, more broadly,
by William DuBois, a white southern reporter, Haiti opened
freedom for all people from economic and social
on March 2, 1938, at the Lafayette Theatre. DuBois had
oppression.
written the work as an argument against miscegenation,
politician.”
14
Haiti was very much in the news in the mid-1930s.
but the director, Maurice Clark, reshaped it into a moral
President Woodrow Wilson had sent U.S. troops there in
and revolutionary drama. The fictionalized heroine, Odette
1915, after a mob lynched the dictator Guillaume Sam, to
Boucher, a Frenchwoman married to one of Napoleon’s
protect American interests from the volatile political situ-
generals, discovers that her real father, Jacques, is not
ation. The United States put some reforms in place, but
only a former slave but one of Toussaint’s top aides spying
african american story telling 59
English when it seemed strategically necessary to his goal of freedom for the slaves. He returned to the French army when news came that the French Jacobins had abolished slavery in 1794 in all French colonies. When the Haitian slaves were finally liberated by his revolution, he continued to believe in maintaining trade and diplomatic ties with Europe, especially France. Although he is credited with establishing the first Haitian Republic, the constitution he endorsed protected the system of large plantations, which generally meant coerced labor. 21 At the 135th Street branch library, Lawrence pored over the rare books Arthur Schomburg had collected about Haiti. He relied on either or both of two books: the original history by John R. Beard, The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Negro Patriot of Hayti, published in London in 1853, or the edited version of Beard published by James Redpath in Boston in 1863. 22 Lawrence simplified the history, not mentioning, for example, Toussaint’s switching sides and not giving the details of the battles. He also ignored the roles played by Toussaint’s wife and sons in Beard’s narrative. In telling Toussaint’s story, he wanted to project a strong mascuFig 35 Rex Ingram in Haiti, 1938. WPA Federal Theatre Photos,
Theater Stills collection. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
line figure who led his troops into battle, conferred with his peers, and won. To Lawrence the narrative’s moral declared that if oppressed people fight against their oppressors, they will eventually win. The forty-one panels on Toussaint (Fig. 36) focus single-mindedly on the heroism of Toussaint and his men.
on the French while disguised as a servant. At the end she
The ambition of Lawrence’s visual chronicle exceeded
chooses not to betray her father and sides with Henri
anything an American artist had ever done on the history
Christophe and the revolution. 20
of a single hero of the New World. No painter had yet at-
The drama and excitement of seeing Rex Ingram play
tempted a forty-one-part pictorial narrative with carefully
the lead role of Christophe (Fig. 35) in Haiti made a last-
crafted texts on the life of just one figure. Moreover, the
ing impression on Lawrence, although he had already
subject of Haiti and its revolutionaries had been mined by
started planning and painting his Toussaint L’Ouverture
only a few visual artists before Lawrence. 23
series several months earlier. Of the three major generals
Lawrence carefully planned not only the drawings but
of the Haitian Revolution, Lawrence chose Toussaint,
also the extended texts, drawn from his research, for
rather than Henri Christophe or Jean-Jacques Dessalines,
each panel. He told the radio talk show host Randy Good-
because for Haitians Toussaint, though not the first to
man in 1943: “When I did my first series, on the Haitian
lead the rebellion, was its brilliant strategist, with an un-
Revolution, I found that captions gave the pictures a con-
compromising vision of a free Haiti.
tinuity and clarity that individual titles didn’t.”24 His prose
Toussaint rose through the ranks of the French colonial
tends to be straight exposition, much of it culled from the
army but switched sides to fight for the Spanish and the
two versions of Beard’s biography: for example, Panel 3,
60 african american story telling
“Spain and France fought for Haiti constantly, 1665–1691.”
By rejecting Renaissance illusionism, Lawrence elimi-
When rhetorical flourishes creep in, as in Panel 7, “Tous-
nated focus, and hence the hierarchy of values that focus
saint heard the twang of the planter’s whip and saw the
entails. The absence of light and dark modeling relates to
blood stream from the bodies of slaves,” one can find the
Lawrence’s aversion to overpersonalizing the features of
25
Lawrence did not then
his heroes in the Toussaint series. To Lawrence, heroes
consider the question of plagiarism—he was simply using
and heroines are important not as individuals but as
words almost verbatim in Beard.
written history most efficiently for his accompanying
iconic embodiments of collective struggles against
texts. 26
oppression.
Lawrence’s artistic style seems especially fitting for
With an appropriate style in place and with his re-
such a depersonalized historical epic. 27 His expressive
search completed, Lawrence developed a working method
cubism, with its flat shapes, controlled outlines, and lim-
for the series. First he made detailed drawings. Following
ited range of color, kept the emotion restrained and the
traditional techniques, he next prepared the gesso pan-
conceptual goals clear, and moved the sequences in mea-
els, transferring his designs to them. At this point he
sured cadences. He later articulated his admiration for
would line up the panels against his studio wall—from left
cubism, using phrases that could well describe his own
to right—and study them. Finally he mixed powdered
art. Delivering a speech in 1962 entitled “The African Id-
tempera—using a limited palette of red, blue, green, yel-
iom in Modern Art,” he declared: “Of all modernist con-
low, tan, brown, black, and white. First, he painted all the
cepts and styles, cubism has been the most influential.
dark colors, then the lighter ones. Using dark colors on
Because of its rationalism, its appeal has become univer-
the whitened gesso board let him work out the pattern—
sal. And because cubism seeks basic fundamental truths,
the notan—as Arthur Wesley Dow had advised in his book
it has enabled the artist to go beyond the superficial rep-
on composition (see Chapter 1). This method, which en-
resentation of nature to a more profound and philosophi-
sured that hues would have the same values and intensi-
cal interpretation of the material world.”28
ties throughout, also suggests that he considered the
Lawrence, like others, saw the origins of cubism in Af-
parts integral to the whole structure. 31
rican art. Speculating on the responses of French artists who first saw African art in about 1900, Lawrence surmised: “Here was an art both simple and complex—an art that possessed all of the qualities of the sophisticated community. It had strength without being brutal, sentiment without being sentimental, magic but not camou-
the forty-one panels of toussaint l’ouverture The first five panels cover the 250 years before Tous-
flage, and precision but not tightness.”29 His statement
saint’s birth: Columbus’s “discovery” of Haiti, the mis-
certainly echoes the words of Alain Locke, who noted the
treatment of the native Indians by Spanish soldiers, the
qualities of discipline in African art, but also perfectly de-
constant warfare between Spain and France for control of
scribes his own Toussaint L’Ouverture series.
the island, their eventual agreement to divide the island,
Lawrence’s cubist collage aesthetic suited stories of
and the peaking of the slave trade in 1730. Panel 5, “Slave
epic proportions. For one thing, Lawrence’s collage cub-
trade reaches its height in Haiti, 1730,” represents a white
ism is reductive: simplified, flat shapes have an analogue
man, accompanied by a well-dressed white woman with
in the vivid exemplary points of an epic chronicle. It is
two attendants in the background, pointing to the land
also additive: the layered shapes of collage parallel the
and a group of black slaves huddled among the leaves of
accumulation of incidents characteristic of epic narra-
the sugarcane. The black woman seated in front hugs a
tive.
30
It is nonillusionistic: no tricks fool the eye, no fe-
bundled child. The blacks occupy most of the picture.
licities of chiaroscuro obfuscate the message, and no
The whites are the intruders, the colonizers who will ex-
cast shadows divert viewers from the clarity of the story.
ploit Haiti’s resources—the land and the people.
african american story telling 61
1
2
3
1 Columbus discovered Haiti on December 6, 1492. The discovery was on Columbus’ first trip to the New World. He is shown planting the official
Spanish flag, under which he sailed. The priest shows the influence of the Church upon the people. 2 Mistreatment by the Spanish soldiers caused much trouble on the island and caused the death of Anacanca, a native queen, 1503. Columbus left
soldiers in charge, who began making slaves of the people. The queen was one of the leaders of the insurrection which followed. 3 Spain and France fought for Haiti constantly, 1665–1691.
8
9
7
7 As a child, Toussaint heard the twang of the planter’s whip and saw the blood stream from the bodies of slaves. 8 In early manhood his seemingly good nature won for him the coachmanship for Bayou de Libertas, 1763. His job as coachman gave him time to think about how to fight slavery. During this period, he taught himself to read and to write. 9 He read Rynol’s Anti-Slavery Book that predicted a Black Emancipator, which language spirited him, 1763–1776.
Fig 36 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, 1938. Tempera on paper (41 panels), 111 ⁄2 x 19 in. or 19 x 111 ⁄2 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm. or 48.3 x 29.2 cm). Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans. Captions follow the catalogue raisonné, which used the captions accompanying each image at the DePorres Interracial Center, New York, in 1939. However, in Panel 23 I have changed the number of troops to 5,000, the figure stated by the history book Lawrence used. Photos: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/ Art Resource, NY; except photos for Panels 11, 24, and 25 by Amistad Research Center.
62
4
6
5
4 Spain and France agree to divide Haiti, 1691. 5 Slave trade reaches its height in Haiti, 1730. 6 The birth of Toussaint L’Ouverture, May 20, 1743. Both of Toussaint’s parents were slaves.
10
11
12
10 The cruelty of the planters towards the slaves drove the slaves to revolt, 1776. Those revolts, which kept cropping up from time to time, finally
came to a head in the rebellion. 11 The society of the Friends of Blacks was formed in England, 1778, the leading members being Price, Priestly, Sharp, Clarkson and Wilberforce. 12 Jean Francois, first Black to rebel in Haiti.
63
13
14
15
13 During the rebellion of Jean Francois, Toussaint led his master and mistress to safety. 14 The blacks were led by three chiefs, Jean Francois, Biassou, and Jeannot; Toussaint serving as aide-de-camp to Biassou. 15 The Mulattoes, enemies of both the Blacks and the Whites, but tolerated more by the Whites, joined their forces in battle against the
Blacks, 1793.
20
19
21
19 The Mulattoes had no organization; the English held only a point or two on the Island, while the Blacks formed into large bands and slaughtered every Mulatto and White they encountered. The Blacks learned the secret of their power. The Haitians now controlled half the Island. 20 General Toussaint L’Ouverture, Statesman and military genius, esteemed by the Spaniards, feared by the English, dreaded by the French, hated by the planters, and reverenced by the Blacks. 21 General Toussaint L’Ouverture attacked the English at Artibonite and there captured two towns.
64
17
18
16
16 Toussaint captured Dondon, a city in the center of Haiti, 1795. 17 Toussaint captured Marmelade, held by Vernet, a mulatto, 1795. 18 Toussaint captured Ennery.
22
24
23
22 Settling down at St. Marc, he took possession of two important posts. 23 General L’Ouverture collected forces at Marmelade, and on October the 9th, 1794, left with 5,000 men to capture San Miguel. 24 General L’Ouverture confers with Leveaux at Dondon with his principal aides, Dessalines, Commander of San Miguel, Duminil, Commander of Plaisaince, Desrouleaux, Ceveaux and Maurepas, Commanders of Battalions, and prepares an attack at St. Marc.
65
25
26
27
25 General Toussaint L’Ouverture defeats the English at Saline. 26 On March 24, he captured Mirebalois. 27 Returning to private life as the commander and chief of the army, he saw to it that the country was well taken care of, and Haiti
returned to prosperity. During this important period, slavery was abolished, and attention focused upon agricultural pursuits.
31
32
33
31 Napoleon’s troops under LeClerc arrive at the shores of Haiti. 32 Henri Christoph, rather than surrender to LeClerc, sets fire to La Cape. Christoph, one of Toussaint’s aides, sent word that the French were in Haitian waters—that he had held them off as long as possible. 33 General L’Ouverture, set for war with Napoleon, prepares Crete-a-Pierrot as a point of resistance. Toussaint took his troops into the mountains,
deciding upon guerrilla warfare.
66
29
30
28
28 The constitution was prepared and presented to Toussaint on the 19th day of May, 1800, by nine men he had chosen, eight of whom were
white proprietors and one mulatto. Toussaint’s liberalism led him to choose such a group to draw up the constitution. He was much criticized for his choice, but the constitution proved workable. 29 L’Ouverture made a triumphant march into San Domingo on the 2nd of January, 1801, at the head of 10,000 men, and hoisted the flag
of the French Republic. Toussaint did not wish to break with the French, the largest group of Haitian inhabitants. The Blacks themselves spoke patois French. 30 Napoleon Bonaparte begins to look on Haiti as a new land to conquer. Conquest inevitably meant further slavery.
35
34
36
34 Toussaint defeats Napoleon’s troops at Ennery. 35 Yellow fever broke out with great violence, thus having a great physical and moral effect on the French soldiers. The French sought a truce with
L’Ouverture. 36 During the truce Toussaint is deceived and arrested by LeClerc. LeClerc felt that with Toussaint out of the way, the Blacks would surrender.
67
37
39
38
37 Toussaint is taken to Paris and imprisoned in the dungeon of the Castle Joux—August 17, 1802. 38 Napoleon’s attempt to restore slavery in Haiti was unsuccessful. Desalines, Chief of the Blacks, defeated LeClerc. Black men, women, and children took up arms to preserve their freedom. 39 The death of Toussaint L’Ouverture in the Prison of Le Joux, April, 1803. Imprisoned a year, Toussaint died of a broken heart.
40
41
40 The Declaration of Independence was signed January 1, 1804—Desalines, Clevaux, and Henri Christoph. These three men made up a new constitution, writing it themselves. The Haitian flag shows in the sketch. 41 Desalines was crowned Emperor October 4, 1804, thus: Jean Jacques the First of Haiti. Desalines, standing beside a broken chain, has the powers of dictator, as opposed to Toussaint’s more liberal leadership.
68
Panels 6 through 9 introduce Toussaint: his birth, his
He will appear, doubt it not; he will come forth, and raise the
witnessing of slavery’s cruelty, his good behavior toward
sacred standard of liberty. This venerable signal will gather
his owners as a young man, and the beginning of his en-
around him the companions of his misfortune. . . . Everywhere
lightenment. Toussaint’s experiences of slavery as a child
people will bless the name of the hero, who shall have rees-
in Panel 7 contrast with his growing knowledge of politi-
tablished the rights of the human race; everywhere will they
cal theory, as he sits at a table in Panel 9 and reads Abbé Raynal’s Philosophical and Political History of the Settle ments and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. Beard quotes from it: Nature speaks in louder tones than philosophy or self-interest. Already are there established two colonies of fugitive negroes, whom treaties and power protect from assault. Those light-
raise trophies in his honor. 32
This passage would have appealed to Lawrence for its description of the hero as acting for a cause larger than himself or even his immediate community. He acts for all of humanity even when redressing wrongs inflicted on a specific group of oppressed people. The caption for Panel 10 (Fig. 37) returns to the plant-
nings announce the thunder. A courageous chief only is
ers’ cruelty toward their slaves as a cause of rebellion:
wanted. Where is he? That great man whom Nature owes to
“The cruelty of the planters towards the slaves drove the
her vexed, oppressed, and tormented children. Where is he?
slaves to revolt, 1776. Those revolts, which kept cropping
Fig 37 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 10: “The cruelty of the planters towards the slaves drove the slaves to revolt, 1776. Those
revolts, which kept cropping up from time to time, finally came to a head in the rebellion.” Tempera on paper, 111 ⁄2 x 19 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm). Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/ Art Resource, NY.
african american story telling 69
up from time to time, finally came to a head in the rebel-
next few years with its extended caption: “Returning to
lion.” The painting echoes the subject of Panel 7, but the
private life as the commander and chief of the army, he
witness here is not young Toussaint but the shackled
saw to it that the country was well taken care of, and Haiti
slaves. With a few deft touches, Lawrence shows their
returned to prosperity. During this important period,
eyes; their own consciousness of their humanity helps
slavery was abolished, and attention focused upon agri-
them transcend the brutality. In Panel 11, an interior
cultural pursuits.” In Panel 28 Toussaint’s appointees are
scene, white men involved in the Society of the Friends of
writing the constitution, an event that should have followed
Blacks—Richard Price, Joseph Priestly, Granville Sharp,
Panel 29. Lawrence takes artistic license, much as a movie
Thomas Clarkson, and William Wilberforce—sit around a
scriptwriter might take liberties with historical events to
table in England in 1778.33 Here, as in his later series—
create a more seamless narrative. In other words, the
Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown—
image of Toussaint at his desk in Panel 27 serves as a
Lawrence gives credit to whites who work for the antislav-
good transition to Panel 28, with its nine figures seated
ery cause.
around a table.
Panel 12 (Fig. 38) shifts the scene back to Haiti, where
Moreover, Lawrence wanted to point out that Toussaint
the blacks, led by Jean François, actively rebel. With fierce
made a tragic mistake by not including blacks among the
expressions they charge through the sugarcane fields with
writers of the Haitian constitution: “The constitution was
swords.34
Toussaint has yet to join the revolt;
prepared and presented to Toussaint on the 19th day of
Panel 13 shows him still protecting the family that owned
May, 1800, by nine men he had chosen, eight of whom were
guns and
him.35 But in Panel 14 he stands beside a table where the
white proprietors and one mulatto. Toussaint’s liberalism
revolutionary leaders—Jean François, Georges Biassou,
led him to choose such a group to draw up the constitution.
and Jeannot Billet—sit, making plans. Panels that follow
He was much criticized for his choice, but the constitution
represent Toussaint’s capturing of the major towns and
proved workable.” Indeed, it did work—for white plantation
regions of Haiti: Dondon, Marmelade, Ennery. Halfway
owners and the mulattos who made up the class of manag-
through the series, Panel 20 (Fig. 39) offers a close-up
ers, but not for the black peasant class. 37
profile of Toussaint in dress uniform with gold braid, ep-
We see a turning point in both the historical account
aulets, and a tricorn hat, an image Lawrence copied from
and Lawrence’s narrative in Panel 29. The text reads:
a lithograph, Toussaint L’Ouverture (ca. 1832), by the
“L’Ouverture made a triumphant march into San Domingo
French lithographer Nicholas Eustache Maurin, which he
on the 2nd of January, 1801, at the head of 10,000 men,
must have seen at the library. A small engraving (reversed, but after Maurin) also served as the frontispiece of Beard’s Toussaint L’Ouverture (Fig. 40). 36 Lawrence
1794, when he and his troops switched to the French side.
Fig 38 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 12: “Jean Francois, first Black to rebel in Haiti.” Tempera on paper, 11 1 ⁄2 x 19 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm). Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
At this point in the narrative Lawrence portrays Tous-
Fig 39 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 20: “General Tous-
saint’s army as disciplined. Panel 23 (Fig. 41), with its
saint L’Ouverture, Statesman and military genius, esteemed by the Spaniards, feared by the English, dreaded by the French, hated by the planters, and reverenced by the Blacks.” Tempera on paper, 19 x 111 ⁄2 in. (48.3 x 29.2 cm). Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
hews to the basic narrative. He does not, for example, mention that Toussaint fought for the Spanish until May
repetition of men shouldering guns, represents soldiers organized under the command of a general who knows his tactics. More battles follow in Lawrence’s narrative, with Toussaint and his generals now winning for the French at Saint Marc, La Saline, and Mirebalais. Lawrence encapsulates the complicated history in Panel 27, showing Toussaint seated in his study. The text summarizes the
70 african american story telling
Fig 40 Artist unknown, Toussaint L’Ouverture, engraving. Published as the frontispiece in [John R. Beard,] Toussaint L’Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography, ed. James Redpath (Boston: James Redpath, 1863).
and hoisted the flag of the French Republic. Toussaint did
Lawrence painted four more scenes of the renewed
not wish to break with the French, the largest group of
war— invasion, in Panel 31; retreat, in Panels 32 and 33;
Haitian inhabitants. The Blacks themselves spoke patois
and victory, in Panel 34. Panel 32 represents the destruc-
French.” Historians such as C. L. R. James see Toussaint’s
tion of the landscape when one of Toussaint’s generals,
trust in the French as misplaced. When Toussaint made
Henri Christophe, ordered the burning of the town of La
his triumphal tour on horseback with his sword raised, he
Cape, an action that slowed the French army, as did the
could not have known about the imperialist ambitions of
yellow fever epidemic (see Panel 35).
Napoleon Bonaparte. Lawrence showed artistic shrewd-
As Lawrence winds down his story, he shows the
ness in placing the image of Napoleon immediately after
capture of Toussaint by General Leclerc, who feigned a
that of Toussaint on horseback. Panel 30 is captioned,
truce in order to arrest him (Fig. 42). In the 1853 frontis-
“Napoleon Bonaparte begins to look on Haiti as a new
piece of Beard’s book, titled Toussaint Captured by Strat
land to conquer. Conquest inevitably meant further slav-
agem (Fig. 43), an angry Toussaint pulls his sword on
ery.” The active image of Toussaint on horseback con-
weaponless Frenchmen. Lawrence, however, presents a
trasts with the scheming Napoleon, hand on hip, looking
more dynamic scene by organizing all the lines in the
left—to the west, toward Haiti.
composition, including the swords of four white French
Fig 41 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 23: “General L’Ouverture collected forces at Marmelade, and on October the 9th, 1794, left with 5,000 men to capture San Miguel.” Tempera on paper, 11 1 ⁄2 x 19 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm). Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
72 african american story telling
military men, to lead the eye to Toussaint in the center.
backs to WPA programs). Lawrence’s caption for the final
The French are clearly the attackers, overwhelming Tous-
panel (41) ends ambiguously: “Des[s]alines, standing be-
saint. In Lawrence’s panel, unlike the Beard illustration,
side a broken chain, has the powers of dictator, as opposed
no open door promises escape.
to Toussaint’s more liberal leadership.”
The last five panels depict a prison scene with Toussaint;
Indeed, Lawrence admired Toussaint for his belief in
blacks continuing to fight “to preserve their freedom”;
liberty as a natural right and for his democratic liberal-
Toussaint, dead in prison; a scene with high-ranking revo-
ism, compassion, and desire to work with the Europeans.
lutionaries declaring their independence, which they won
Like Alain Locke, Lawrence was not a separatist. He be-
in January 1804; and finally Jean-Jacques Dessalines
lieved in the ideal of integration—of the body politic
crowned emperor of Haiti. Lawrence sandwiches Panel 38,
blending peoples to achieve universalism. 38 Lawrence’s
the scene of men, women, and children fighting, between
series does not include the complex history of the politi-
the two prison scenes to highlight the nature of a people’s
cally stormy period after 1805, when personal ambition
war. Generals might be imprisoned, but the people united
and greed corrupted many of Toussaint’s compatriots.
would never be defeated (a slogan Lawrence might have
Lawrence’s series has a clear organization. In Panel
heard during rallies in New York against government cut-
10, we see and read about the first revolts; in Panel 20,
Fig 42 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 36. “During the truce Toussaint is deceived and arrested by LeClerc. LeClerc felt that with Toussaint out of the way, the Blacks would surrender.” Tempera on paper, 11 1 ⁄2 x 19 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm). Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
african american story telling 73
ments. He achieves spatial recession only with overlapping and the diminution of figures, not with shading or cast shadows. By overlapping forms, he sets up rhythmic motions, for example in Panel 23. The battle scenes especially achieve their dynamism with the diagonal movement of horses, troops, guns, and raised swords. Interior scenes are more static, representing men conferring about tactics for the next action or battle (see Panels 4, 11, 14, 24, 28, and 40). Battles were won, Lawrence knew, through considered thought, careful planning, and a dedicated cadre. Throughout the series leaders sit at tables to plan tactics, in contrast to troops fighting in the countryside. 39 Both theory and planned action are crucial. The images set outdoors usually include tall grasses that animate their scenes and represent the sugarcane fields, the profits from which led European nations to compete so fiercely for control of the island.40 The three portrait panels (20, 30, and 41) offer iconic images of Toussaint the general, Napoleon the ambitious conqueror, and Dessalines the dictator. Not surprisingly, Christophe’s rule falls outside the chronicle Lawrence has developed. During Toussaint’s reign, the fight was clear— blacks against the European colonizers. After Toussaint, civil war pitted black brother against black brother. Even though such fights were part of Haiti’s tragic history, they would not have conformed to Lawrence’s agenda to express in art uplifting narratives of revolutionary Fig 43 Artist unknown, Toussaint Captured by Stratagem, engrav-
ing. Published as the frontispiece in John R. Beard, The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Negro Patriot of Hayti (London: Ingram, Cooke, 1853).
struggles.
pictorial strategies for the harriet tubman series Toussaint appears in a state portrait as the hero general;
When Lawrence finished the Toussaint series, in 1938, he
in Panel 30, the sinister portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte
launched into another series, focused on Frederick Doug-
indicates that the revolution will have a setback; and in
lass. Whereas the Toussaint series seems to be a linear
Panel 41, the state portrait of Dessalines, the next hero,
history of Haiti and its revolutionary leaders that gives
has an ambiguous caption. By assigning Dessalines’s
only a general sense of parts or chapters, the Frederick
panel the number 41, Lawrence suggests a possible sequel
Douglass series has three parts, based on Lawrence’s
to the narrative.
reading of Douglass’s narrative: the slave, the fugitive,
Lawrence’s panels are like storyboards for a movie,
the freeman.41 Harriet Tubman would be similarly struc-
with his style giving each panel its dynamism—his flat
tured according to the phases of Tubman’s biography but
simplified forms, limited palette, and diagonal move-
would feature more varied settings, brighter colors, more
74 african american story telling
subtle harmonies, and more lyrical rhythms than the
nected reality.”45 And Levine observes that slaves’ story-
Douglass series. Lawrence’s running text, as well as the
telling “allowed them to reach back to relive the victories
pictures, continues to draw on historical texts, as well as
of the past, and drew them into the rich future where the
a variety of other sources. This intertextuality indicates
justice and goodness that their ancestors had experienced
Lawrence’s growing consciousness of the artistry of
would exist again; it also made them realists who under-
storytelling.
stood the world as it operated in the present.”46 This
Whether aware of it or not, Lawrence was becoming a
merging of past and present typifies oral traditions. In that
pictorial griot—telling stories of his own African American
of African Americans, as in others, the oral mode rallied
community.42 What linked him to his community’s story-
a community, gave it self-esteem, and kept alive old tradi-
telling traditions was not just the subject matter of Afri-
tions and moral values.47
can American history but, even more, his approach to his
Lawrence recalls thinking that his decision to paint a
subject as he spun out the story, sequencing and group-
Tubman series was appropriate. He had already painted
ing the panels to construct each series. The panels, when
the history of an African American man, Frederick Doug-
laid out from left to right, fall into groups according to
lass, a leader in the American antislavery movement, and
their internal rhythms—rising and falling, loud and soft,
now he would paint a woman. Painting a woman, however,
logical and improvisational—with greater sophistication
was not quite a natural choice in white America during the
in Harriet Tubman than in the Toussaint L’Ouverture and
1930s. In public murals the only American woman cele-
Frederick Douglass series.
brated with any frequency was Betsy Ross. As Lawrence
Lawrence W. Levine, in Black Culture and Black Con
told Carroll Greene in 1968, “We hear about Molly Pitcher.
sciousness, notes that in the tradition of African Ameri-
We hear about Betsy Ross. . . . The Negro woman has never
can folktales delivery was crucial. A storyteller might
been included in American history. . . . So I think a person
begin with a slow drawl and then speed up his delivery to
like Harriet Tubman is a . . . fascinating person.”48
dramatize events.43 The skilled delivery and pace of a
The Harlem community gave Lawrence good examples
folktale find their analogues in Lawrence’s pairing and
of active, strong women. His own mother had moved her
sequencing of his panels. He contrasts vertical panels
family of three small children from Philadelphia to New
with horizontal; single, iconic images with crowded all-
York once she had found steady work. During the fall
over forms; bright day scenes with night scenes; interior
1930 semester, his first since arriving in Harlem, Law-
with exterior scenes; small-scale full figures seen at a
rence had written a poem, “To all mothers,” printed in the
distance with large partial figures seen close; intense ac-
“Parent-Teacher Bulletin Newsletter” of his grade school,
tion with static, simple forms. In the Tubman series, this
P.S. 89. The poem reads as follows:
orchestration of the panels is better realized than in the earlier series. We can see how each panel contributes to
A mother is the finest thing on earth
the harmony of each group. Just as in storytelling one
From the beginning of your birth
anecdote builds on another to make a grand narrative, so
To the end of her life,
all of Lawrence’s panels construct a single great whole.
You are her trouble’s light.
They are like the lines of a poem to a stanza or the parts
Your mother is your shield,
of a musical composition to its whole.
On a great battlefield.
Levine observes that in African American folk traditions past and present merge. The teller of folktales “evoke[s] the past and make[s] it part of the living present” for the community.44 Slaves in their spirituals were also “able to fuse the precedents of the past, the conditions of the present, and the promise of the future into one con-
Although she is losing, And her heart forever bruising. Your mother is your life, She also is your light, That you may see the way. Jacob Lawrence, 5B3/13 years old
african american story telling 75
The poem may have been prompted by Lawrence’s sepa-
suffrage movement. She ended her days in Auburn, New
ration from his own mother for several years and by his
York, where she died in 1913.52
satisfaction when the family was reunited.49 The value of family was to be a constant theme of his art. Women active in artistic circles in Harlem, moreover,
Lawrence knew this story of Tubman “from the community.” “I knew all about Harriet Tubman before I went to the Schomburg Library,” he told me in 1992.53 Never-
openly encouraged Lawrence when he was young. I have
theless, he went to the library, as he had when he re-
already mentioned Augusta Savage’s imposing presence
searched the Toussaint and Douglass series, and found
(see Chapter 1). Gwendolyn Bennett, who became direc-
there not only photographs of Tubman but also at least
tor of the WPA Harlem Community Art Center in 1938,
three books on her, two of which would supply him with
also figured as a mentor. Not least in importance among
most of his extended captions. Sarah Bradford’s Harriet,
his supporters was the artist Gwendolyn Knight, whom
the Moses of Her People, first published in 1869 and ex-
Lawrence saw frequently at Alston and Bannarn’s 306
panded in 1886, was a sentimental account by an author
studio and who became his wife once the Migration se-
who wanted to raise funds for Tubman’s support.54 Like
ries had been launched, in 1941.
the slave narratives published in the nineteenth century,
Precedents for Harriet Tubman as a subject for art also
the account Bradford wrote of Tubman’s life is framed by
existed. The January 1932 issue of the Crisis reproduced
testimonials to the veracity of the story, including letters
a photograph of Aaron Douglas’s Harriet Tubman mural,
to the author from famous abolitionists such as Gerrit
which had recently been installed at Bennett College for
Smith, Wendell Phillips, and Frederick Douglass.55 The
Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. Douglas wrote of
book’s frontispiece (Fig. 44) shows a full-length Tubman
the work: “I used Harriet Tubman to idealize a superior
in a landscape, holding the rifle she is said to have car-
type of Negro womanhood. Her pioneer work for the
ried on her Underground Railroad journeys to discourage
freedom and education of our people is too well known to
her charges from turning back.
recount here. I depict her as a heroic leader breaking the
The second book Lawrence used was Hildegarde
shackles of bondage and pressing on toward a new day.”50
Swift’s Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War
Douglas was an artist Lawrence could look up to; he had
(1932), a biography of Tubman that reads like a historical
been founding president of the Harlem Artists Guild in
novel with conversations in Swift’s version of black dia-
1935, had participated in the American Artists’ Congress
lect.56 Swift begins with a section called “Other Voices”
in 1936, and had encouraged the younger artist.51
that includes quotations focused on the slavery debate
The facts of Tubman’s life guarantee her status as an
from Henry Ward Beecher, William Lloyd Garrison, Henry
authentic American heroine. Born in Maryland about
Clay, William H. Seward, Jefferson Davis, Daniel Webster,
1820, she was one of the eleven children of Benjamin and
and Abraham Lincoln. The texts Lawrence edited for use
Harriet (Green) Ross and was named Araminta. Later she
in the Tubman series pictures include thirteen passages
took her mother’s first name; “Tubman” came from her
from the 1869 edition of Bradford and ten from Swift’s
first husband, a free black. She endured slavery, escaped
biography. One other source, from which Lawrence drew
alone to the North in about 1849, and then returned to
for the text for Panel 21, was Robert W. Taylor’s Harriet
lead other slaves to the free states by way of the Under-
Tubman: The Heroine in Ebony (1909), a sixteen-page
ground Railroad. Known as “Moses,” she made as many
pamphlet that ended with words that would have inspired
as nineteen trips to the South, bringing her family as well
Lawrence: “Judging Harriet Tubman by the depths from
as others to freedom—perhaps as many as three hun-
which she came and the sublime heights of unselfishness
dred. She also frequented the homes of noted northern
to which she has attained, she stands without a parallel in
abolitionists, spoke at their meetings, and met with both
history,—solitary, majestic, sunkissed. She has stood the
Frederick Douglass and John Brown. During the Civil War
great test, the supreme test, the Christ test,—which is ser
she served as a nurse and a spy for the Union troops in
vice.”57 Lawrence probably fashioned the remaining seven
South Carolina. Later she participated in the women’s
extended captions himself; those written in a nineteenth-
76 african american story telling
century prose style probably have another, unidentified textual source.58 Like Bradford, Lawrence knew nineteenth-century slave narratives. From his research on the Douglass series, he would have known that the conventions of that genre included testimonials by well-known persons commenting on or corroborating the account, placed before the actual narrative of the enslaved person. Hence, Lawrence’s first three panels of the series record statements by Beecher, Clay, and Lincoln on the state of American slavery that the artist quotes from the opening pages of Swift’s book. As the series develops, Lawrence borrows other kinds of texts: a reward notice, Tubman herself invoking the Lord, a stanza from a fugitive slave song. Selecting carefully from the many possible textual sources, Lawrence shows he had made himself into a master narrator.59 In Lawrence’s account Tubman is simplified, depersonalized, and curiously ungendered. There is no mention of Tubman’s two marriages; of her first attempt to escape, planned with her brothers, who turned back, fearing capture; or of her rescues of her own family members on her first trips, including her elderly parents. And while religious imagery is present in the series, Lawrence does not dwell on Tubman’s visions or her long talks with God, recounted in the Bradford narrative.60 Although Lawrence presents his own interpretation of the Tubman story, his narrative also conforms to other conventions of slave narratives, which generally downplay the narrator’s personal feelings. The aim, in nineteenth-
Fig 44 Artist unknown, Harriet Tubman, engraving. Published as
the frontispiece in Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (Auburn, NY: W. J. Moses, 1869), later retitled Harriet, the Moses of Her People.
century abolitionist circles, was to convince white readers of the evils of the whole “peculiar institution” and to move them to join the cause. The literary historian William Andrews points out that both the slave narrators and their
mimetic details, even though such details lent credence to the account of events.
white patrons knew that “nineteenth-century whites read slave narratives more to get a first hand look at the institution of slavery than to become acquainted with an individual slave.”61 The depersonalization, however, as Henry
the thirty-one panels of the harriet tubman series
Louis Gates Jr. has observed, also made it possible to
The panels of the series (Fig. 45) are organized into six
shape “the random events of [the slaves’] lives into a
sections: the context of Tubman’s birth (four panels),
meaningful and compelling pattern, while making the
Tubman’s life as a slave (five panels), escape (five pan
narrative of their odyssey from slavery to freedom an em-
els), Tubman as a conductor on the Underground Railroad
blem of every black person’s potential for higher educa-
(six panels), Tubman among the abolitionists (five pan-
tion and the desire to be free.”62 The impulse to univer-
els), and Tubman’s Civil War (five panels)—plus a final
salize the slave’s narrative inevitably meant minimizing
panel.
african american story telling 77
2
1
1 “With sweat and toil and ignorance he consumes his life, to pour the earnings into channels from which he does not drink.”—Henry Ward Beecher. 2 “I am no friend of slavery, but I prefer the liberty of my own country to that of another
people, and the liberty of my own race to that of another race. The liberty of the descendants of Africa in the United States is incompatible with the safety and liberty of the European descendants. Their slavery forms an exception (resulting from a stern and inexorable necessity) to the general liberty in the United States.”—Henry Clay.
5
6
7
5 She felt the sting of slavery when as a young girl she was struck on the head with an iron bar by an enraged overseer. 6 Harriet heard the shrieks and cries of women who were being flogged in the Negro quarter. She listened to their groaned-out prayer, “Oh Lord, have mercy.” 7 Harriet Tubman worked as water girl to field hands. She also worked at plowing, carting, and hauling logs.
Fig 45 The Life of Harriet Tubman, 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard (31 panels), 12 x 177⁄8 in. or 177⁄8 x 12 in. (30.5 x 45.4 cm or 45.4 x 30.5 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Captions are from the catalogue raisonné. Photos courtesy Hampton University Museum.
78
3
4
3 “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot last permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect this union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or the other.”—Abraham Lincoln. 4 On a hot summer day about 1820, a group of slave children were tumbling in the sandy soil in the state of Maryland—and among them was one, Harriet Tubman. Dorchester County, Maryland.
8
9
8 Whipped and half starved to death, Harriet Tubman’s skull injury often caused her to fall faint while at work. Her master, not having any more use for her, auctioned her off to the highest bidder. 9 Harriet Tubman dreamt of freedom (“Arise! Flee for your life!”), and in the visions of the night she saw the horsemen coming. Beckoning hands were ever motioning her to come, and she seemed to see a line dividing the land of slavery from the land of freedom.
79
10
11
10 Harriet Tubman was between twenty and twenty-five years of age at the time of her escape. She was now alone. She turned her face toward the North, and fixing her eyes on the guiding star, she started on her long, lonely journey. 11 “$500 Reward! Runaway from subscriber on Thursday night, the 4th inst., from the neighborhood of Cambridge, my negro girl, Harriet, sometimes called Minty. Is dark chestnut color, rather stout build, but bright and handsome. Speaks rather deep and has a scar over the left temple. She wore a brown plaid shawl. I will give the above reward captured outside the county, and $300 if captured inside the county, in either case to be lodged in the Cambridge, Maryland, jail. (Signed) George Carter, Broadacres, near Cambridge, Maryland, September 24th, 1849.”
17
15
16
15 In the North, Harriet Tubman worked hard. All her wages she laid away for the one purpose of liberating her people, and as soon as a sufficient amount was secured she disappeared from her Northern home, and as mysteriously appeared one dark night at the door of one of the cabins on the plantation, where a group of trembling fugitives was waiting. Then she piloted them North, traveling by night, hiding by day, scaling the mountains, wading the rivers, threading the forests—she, carrying the babies, drugged with paragoric. So she went, nineteen times, liberating over 300 pieces of living, breathing “property.” 16 Harriet Tubman spent many hours at the office of William Still, the loft headquarters of the antislavery Vigilance Committee in Philadelphia. Here, she pored over maps and discussed plans with the keen, educated young secretary of that mysterious organization, the Underground Railroad, whose main branches stretched like a great network from the Mississippi River to the coast. 17 Like a half-crazed sibylline creature, she began to haunt the slave masters, stealing down in the night to lead a stricken people to freedom.
80
12
13
14
12 Night after night, Harriet Tubman traveled, occasionally stopping to buy bread. She crouched behind trees or lay concealed in swamps by day until she reached the North. 13 “I had crossed the line of which I had been dreaming. I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom.
Come to my help, Lord, for I am in trouble.” 14 Seeking help, Harriet Tubman met a lady who ushered her to a haycock, and Harriet found herself in a strange room, round and
tapering to a peak. Here she rested and was fed well, and she continued on her way. It was Harriet Tubman’s first experience with the Underground Railroad.
18
19
20
18 At one time during Harriet Tubman’s expeditions into the South, the pursuit after her was very close and vigorous. The woods
were scoured in all directions, and every person was stopped and asked: “Have you seen Harriet Tubman?” 19 Such a terror did she become to the slaveholders that a reward of $40,000 was offered for her head, she was so bold, daring,
and elusive. 20 In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, which bound the people north of the Mason and Dixon Line to return to bondage
any fugitives found in their territories—forcing Harriet Tubman to lead her escaped slaves into Canada.
81
21
22
23
21 Every antislavery convention held within 500 miles of Harriet Tubman found her at the meeting. She spoke in words that brought tears to the eyes and sorrow to the hearts of all who heard her speak of the suffering of her people. 22 Harriet Tubman, after a very trying trip North in which she had hidden her cargo by day and had traveled by boat, wagon, and foot at night, reached Wilmington, where she met Thomas Garrett, a Quaker who operated an Underground Railroad station. Here, she and the fugitives were fed and clothed and sent on their way. 23 “The hounds are baying on my tracks, / Old master comes behind, / Resolved that he will bring me back, / Before I cross the line.”
26
28
27
26 In 1861 the first gun was fired on Fort Sumter, and the war of the Rebellion was on. 27 Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts, knowing well the brave, sagacious character of Harriet Tubman, sent for her and asked
her if she could go at a moment’s notice to act as a spy and scout for the Union Army and, if need be, to act as a hospital nurse. In short, to be ready for any required service for the Union cause. 28 Harriet Tubman went into the South and gained the confidence of the slaves by her cheerful words and sacred hymns. She ob-
tained from them valuable information.
82
25
24
24 It was the year 1859, five years after Harriet Tubman’s first trip to Boston. By this time, there was hardly an antislavery worker who did not know the name Harriet Tubman. She had spoken in a dozen cities. People from here and abroad filled her hand with money. And over and over again she made her mysterious raids across the border into the South. 25 Harriet Tubman was one of John Brown’s friends. John Brown and Frederick Douglass crossed into Canada and arrived at the town of St. Catharines, a settlement of fugitive slaves, former “freight” of the Underground Railroad. Here, Douglass had arranged for a meeting with “Moses.” She was Harriet Tubman: huge, deepest ebony, muscled as a giant, with a small close-curled head and anguished eyes—this was the woman John Brown came to for help. “I will help,” she said.
31
29
30
29 She nursed the Union soldiers and knew how, when they were dying by large numbers of some malignant disease, with cunning skill to
extract a healing draught from roots and herbs that grew near the source of the disease, thus allaying the fever and restoring soldiers to health. 30 The war was over, men were being mustered out, and regiments melted away overnight. For Lincoln’s words were now not paper words:
they had been written in the travail and blood of the men whom Harriet Tubman had known. 31 Harriet Tubman spent the rest of her life in Auburn, New York. When she died, a large mass meeting was held in her honor. And on the
outside of the county courthouse, a memorial tablet of bronze was erected.
83
The Context of Tubman’s Birth Panel 1 shows nine marching black slaves, slim men and women, lacking individuality, weighed down by heavy bundles they carry on their heads or in their arms but imbued with purpose. They are linked together as a flat interlacing of organic and geometric forms. Lawrence limits his palette to red, yellow, turquoise, dark green, and tan against a red-brown ground. The high horizon line and monotonous dark blue sky underscore the condition of repetitive toil with no hope for freedom. The quotation from Henry Ward Beecher, drawn from the Swift biography (p. xvii), reinforces Lawrence’s image of the slaves’ condition. Destined to labor on the earth, they cart water, carry cotton, and haul logs but realize no rewards for their labor. Panel 2 represents another reality of slavery symbol ically. A black man, deeply scarred from the lashes of the whip, hangs like the crucified Christ against a barren ground but suggests, more immediately, the lynched figures seen frequently in newspapers during the 1930s. The accompanying caption, also from the Swift biography (p. xviii), quotes from a speech delivered by Henry Clay, the southern senator credited with engineering the Compromise of 1850. A cotton plant—the economic basis of much of southern society—blooms in the rays of a clear pale yellow sun in Panel 3 (Fig. 46). The caption, yet again from Swift (p. xix), quotes Lincoln’s affirmation, in the debate with Stephen
Fig 46 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 3: “ ‘A house divided
Douglas in 1858, of his belief that a united country, whether
against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot last permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect this union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or the other.’— Abraham Lincoln.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 17 7⁄8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
slave or free, was primary. The second and third panels are both symmetrical single images. Their horizon lines form an almost, but not quite, continuous line. Their iconic verticality makes us pause before moving on to Tubman’s story. Although the captions of the first three panels quote the words of white men removed from the personal experiences of slaves, Lawrence’s pictures convey the sensuous reality of an enslaved people living in the South—with its red dirt, hot sun, and dehumanizing brutality.
a Southern planter. Their shining skins gleamed in the sun, as they rolled over each other in their play, and their voices, as
Lyrical forms and lyrical language in the text character-
they chattered together, or shouted in glee, reached even to
ize Panel 4 (Fig. 47), a horizontal composition inspired by
the cabins of the negro quarter, where the old people groaned
the opening of Sarah Bradford’s biography.63
in spirit, as they thought of the future of those unconscious young revelers; and their cry went up, “O, Lord, how long!”
On a hot summer’s day . . . a group of merry little darkies were
Apart from the rest of the children, on the top rail of a fence,
rolling and tumbling in the sand in front of the large house of
holding tight on to the tall gate post, sat a little girl of perhaps
84 african american story telling
Fig 47 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 4: “On a hot summer day about 1820, a group of slave children were tumbling in the sandy soil
in the state of Maryland—and among them was one, Harriet Tubman. Dorchester County, Maryland.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 177⁄8 in. (30.5 x 45.4 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/ Art Resource, NY.
thirteen years of age. . . . She seemed a dazed and stupid child
slender black children, running and tumbling, dressed in
and as her head hung upon her breast, she looked up with dull
shifts and pants of red, yellow, green, and tan, occupies
blood-shot eyes towards her young brothers and sisters, with-
the center of the composition. A low horizon and an ex-
out seeming to see them. (pp. 13–14)
panse of sky suggest the freedom that slaves can experience only during childhood. In nineteenth-century slave
Bradford hastens to explain the girl’s condition: her mas-
narratives, authors typically make a point of describing the
ter, “in an ungovernable fit of rage threw a heavy weight
innocence of slave children unaware of their legal status.
at the unoffending child, breaking in her skull, and causing a pressure upon her brain” (p. 15). Other accounts attri-
Tubman’s Slavery
bute the master’s assault to Tubman’s foiling his pursuit
In the second group of five panels, Tubman is initiated into
of a runaway slave.64
slavery and becomes a field hand. The captions of the first
Lawrence’s image differs considerably from Bradford’s.
three panels—“She felt . . . ,” “Harriet heard . . . ,” and
In his panel Tubman is a healthy child in the group of
“Harriet Tubman worked . . .”—change from a pronoun to
tumbling children. She seems to be one of them—not
her full name as she becomes increasingly conscious of
isolated because of her handicap. A pinwheel form of
slavery as an institution.
african american story telling 85
Panel 5 (Fig. 48), “She felt the sting of slavery . . . ,” de picts the moment when the idyll of childhood innocence ends. It is an epiphanic moment also highlighted in slave narratives, when the child suddenly realizes he or she is enslaved with no rights of personhood.65 Lawrence simplifies Bradford’s narrative account considerably here (pp. 15 and 109). The viewer looks down on Tubman prostrate on soil the color of dried blood, as a black snake slithers toward her and a white man retreats along a path at the upper right. Lawrence would have remembered Douglass’s description of Edward Covey, the merciless slave foreman whom Douglass called “the snake.”66 In a broad er sense, snakes symbolized slavery, the sin of slavery. This panel shows no sky; the line of brown and tan tree trunks at the left, like prison bars, represents Tubman’s confinement. Panel 6, with its abstracted forms and movement— brown arms and bodies obscured by black and tan streaks—intensifies the image of the cruelty suffered by slave women; the caption from Bradford succinctly captures that experience (p. 15). With Panel 7 (see Fig. 34) the narrative returns to Tubman, now a strong, muscular woman, dressed in a white shirt, striped green skirt, and green print kerchief, who would burst the panel’s frame were she to stand up. The caption, which Lawrence composed himself, emphasizes her work in the fields, in contrast to the accounts of Bradford and Swift, which stress her experiences as a house servant. Lawrence, well aware of the distinction between house and field slaves, wanted to emphasize the most grueling forms of slave labor. Panels 8 and 9, a horizontal pair, end the section fo-
Fig 48 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 5: “She felt the sting of slavery when as a young girl she was struck on the head with an iron bar by an enraged overseer.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 177⁄8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
cused on slavery. The first of the two, showing four white men, bidders at an auction, from the waist up, symbolizes Tubman’s status as a market commodity.67 Panel 9 (Fig.
Caldwell and Bourke-White’s You Have Seen Their Faces
49) shifts to the shackled ankles and feet of three slaves
in 1937 (Fig. 50).69 The Caldwell/Bourke-White caption
in patchwork garments. For Lawrence’s viewers, the image
easily fits Lawrence’s image: “They can whip my hide and
would have recalled the Old Testament story of Joseph,
shackle my bones, but they can’t touch what I think in my
son of Jacob, whose envious brothers sold him into slavery
head.” Bourke-White showed two of her chain gang pho-
after Jacob gave him a “coat of many colors.”68
tographs in the large exhibition In Defense of World De
This image also recalls Margaret Bourke-White’s pho-
mocracy: Dedicated to the Peoples of Spain and China,
tograph of the lower legs of chain gang prisoners, identi-
held in New York City from December 15 to 30, 1937,
fied as Hood’s Chapel, Georgia, and published in Erskine
at the time of the second American Artists’ Congress.70
86 african american story telling
Fig 49 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 9: “Harriet Tubman dreamt of
freedom (‘Arise! Flee for your life!’), and in the visions of the night she saw the horsemen coming. Beckoning hands were ever motioning her to come, and she seemed to see a line dividing the land of slavery from the land of freedom.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 17 7⁄8 in. (30.5 x 45.4 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Fig 50 Margaret Bourke-White, Hood’s Chapel, Georgia. Photo in Erskine
Caldwell and Bourke-White’s You Have Seen Their Faces, 1937. Art courtesy estate of Margaret Bourke-White. Margaret Bourke-White Photographs, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library.
line she saw lovely white ladies awaiting to welcome her, and to care for her” (p. 26). Although Lawrence acknowledged that white abolitionists had aided the cause of freedom, he wanted to emphasize the slaves’ own agency in their efforts to free themselves.
Escape Panels 10–14 deal with Tubman’s escape. Three lyrical scenes represent her escape through the dark blue night, with lush green trees protecting her flight. In Panel 10 (Fig. 52) Tubman breaks free from her chains and from the snake, which rises up at the left. In Panel 11, the fingers of pink light in the sky, like the ancient poet Homer’s “rosyfingered dawn,” point her way. Panel 12 shows her continuing with the North Star to guide her.72 Tubman’s emergence into freedom was a momentous occasion for her as it was for all fugitive slaves. In Panel 13 she “has crossed the line” (Bradford, p. 13) and finds herself on the streets of a northern city. A patchwork of white people, adjacent forms of flat color, move forward, Fig 51 William H. Johnson, Chain Gang, ca. 1939–40. Oil on ply-
while Tubman holds back. She is on the margin, both
wood, 45 3⁄4 x 381 ⁄2 in. (116.2 x 97.8 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY.
pictorially and historically, separate and unequal as she takes her first steps in freedom. Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography, described himself as a fugitive in the North, where he experienced
Lawrence probably saw Bourke-White’s photographs, ei-
briefly the illusion of freedom—surrounded by white peo-
ther in the book or in the exhibition, because he was at-
ple yet alienated from them:
tending the American Artists School at the time and teachers and students alike would have been abuzz about
There I was in the midst of thousands, and yet a perfect
the congress and its exhibition. At about the time Law-
stranger; without home and without friends, in the midst of
rence was planning his series, William H. Johnson painted
thousands of my own brethren—children of a common Father,
Chain Gang (Fig. 51) in a consciously flat style similar to
and yet I dared not to unfold to any one of them my sad condi-
71
Lawrence’s and Horace Pippin’s.
Whereas Johnson’s
figures are identified as African American and as members of a chain gang, Lawrence’s shackled feet resonate with a range of images from biblical stories of slavery to the southern prison chain gangs Johnson represented. In the caption for Panel 9, Lawrence skillfully edits an extensive passage from Bradford and ends his quotation
tion. I was afraid to speak to any one for fear of speaking to the wrong one, and thereby falling into the hands of moneyloving kidnappers, whose business it was to lie in wait for the panting fugitive, as the ferocious beasts of the forest lie in wait for their prey. . . . I saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause for distrust. It was a most painful situation; and, to understand it, one must needs experience it, or imagine himself in similar circumstances.73
where Tubman “seemed to see a line dividing the land of slavery from the land of freedom.” Bradford, however,
Like Douglass, Tubman would learn that she could trust
continues the passage thus: “and on the other side of that
some people but not others.
88 african american story telling
Fig 52 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 10: “Harriet Tubman was between twenty and twenty-five
years of age at the time of her escape. She was now alone. She turned her face toward the North, and fixing her eyes on the guiding star, she started on her long, lonely journey.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 17 7⁄8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
In Panel 14 Tubman sits alone at a table laden with food
Fig 53 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 18: “At one time during
and drink, and we see her face clearly for the first time.
Harriet Tubman’s expedition into the South, the pursuit after her was very close and vigorous. The woods were scoured in all directions, and every person was stopped and asked: ‘Have you seen Harriet Tubman?’ ” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 177⁄8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
She is living temporarily in a haycock, a haven provided by a white abolitionist farm woman, as Swift described (p. 132). The fruits in the bowl are like the round faces of the whites on the crowded streets in the preceding panel. The skewed perspective seems to reflect Tubman’s turmoil at this moment of temporary safety. Her curving figure brings closure to this section of Lawrence’s narrative.
as a reminder of Tubman’s fugitive status. In Panel 21 Tubman delivers a speech at a meeting of whites. Almost
Conductor on the Underground Railroad The six panels of the fourth group, all set outdoors, deal with Tubman’s years as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In Panel 15 Tubman is a small distant figure moving in the nighttime with three charges—exposed to
filling the picture frame, Tubman gestures emphatically. Although Bradford makes no mention of Tubman’s speaking at abolitionist meetings, Swift recounts her speaking, at the urging of the white abolitionist Theodore Parker, to his friends gathered in his home:
the elements but guided by the North Star. In Panel 16 the pace quickens; Tubman’s escape party has grown to more than a dozen figures, including children, with their sweeping cloaks. They hurry along, a community of synchronized feet protected by a row of dense trees. The captions, rather than explain the images, provide the viewer with historical information.74 Panels 17 and 18 are symbolic—inspired, perhaps, by
At first, seeing her embarrassment, the kindly minister began to question her, but gradually, as she swung into the stride of her narrative, Harriet’s old assurance returned. She was telling a continuous story now, with vivid dramatic power. Her earnestness, her simple dignity, her deep and thrilling voice, all held her hearers spellbound, and when she ended the room was filled with a silence which no one seemed willing to break. (p. 214)
Tubman’s accounts of her direct communication with God, as if God had stood by her in the woods at night. Panel 17’s lightning flash of electric blue recalls Aaron Douglas’s description of his own Tubman mural: “The beam of light that cuts through the center of the picture symbolizes divine inspiration.”75 The eyes in the moon, stars, and coral pink plant forms of Panel 18 (Fig. 53) suggest that all nature watched out for Tubman.76 The last pair of panels, 19 and 20, returns the viewer to Tubman as the protector of her charges. She moves across Panel 19, cunningly avoiding the white vigilantes. In Panel 20 she moves upward through the blue-white snow, bringing her passengers north into Canada.77
Lawrence captures Swift’s vivid description of Tubman’s hypnotic storytelling skills. Panels 22, 23, and 24 are all horizontal panels. The caption for Panel 22 draws on Bradford (p. 45), as does that of Panel 23, lines of a song called “I’m on the Way to Canada” (p. 49).78 Panel 24 (Fig. 54) shows Tubman up close, her palm turned up to receive a coin from the pink fist of a white Boston abolitionist. The synedochic image, with parts representing much larger wholes, represents Tubman’s relation to the secret world of the abolition- ists, where people “filled her hand with money” (Swift, p. 131). In Panel 25, Tubman, John Brown, and Frederick Doug-
Tubman among the Abolitionists
lass sit at a table, a trinity of figures with a Bible at its
The next five panels focus on Tubman’s work among abo-
base; the turquoise rug under the table drops downward
litionists. The first two and last two are interior scenes,
like a vestment.79 This iconic vertical panel balances
with the slave master’s hound occupying the middle panel
Panel 21 and brings this section to a close.
90 african american story telling
Fig 54 The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 24: “It was the year 1859, five years after Harriet Tubman’s first trip to Boston. By this time,
there was hardly an antislavery worker who did not know the name Harriet Tubman. She had spoken in a dozen cities. People from here and abroad filled her hand with money. And over and over again she made her mysterious raids across the border into the South.” 1940. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 177⁄8 in. (30.5 x 45.4 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
Tubman’s Civil War
that other blacks had shown escaping to the North, in
The final group of six panels, focused on the Civil War,
Panel 27. Lawrence might have known and drawn upon
are all set outdoors with a pattern of vertical, horizontal,
the Currier and Ives chromolithograph The Gallant Charge
vertical, horizontal, horizontal, and vertical. Panel 26, like
of the Fifty Fourth Massachusetts (Colored) Regiment
the preceding panel, emphasizes the vertical with a shell
(1863) or the Kurz and Allston chromolithograph Storm
that explodes in a bloody red burst against the sky. At the
ing Fort Wagner (1890), both of which represent the regi-
left a white bird flies off, and at the right stands a barren
ment charging Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. 81 The cap-
sapling.80
tion, from neither Bradford nor Swift, offers information
The caption comes from Bradford (p. 91). Panel
27 represents black soldiers charging into battle in their
about Tubman herself and is thus independent of the
blue Union uniforms. The horizon line, continuous with
image.
that of Panel 26, suggests the smooth transition of the
Panels 28 and 29 situate Tubman in tableaux suggest-
black soldiers to wartime duty and their disciplined entry
ing Christian iconography. The captions, edited text from
into battle. Black soldiers, in Lawrence’s narrative, were
Bradford (both p. 95), present Tubman as a saintly, heal-
ready to fight and did so with the same sense of purpose
ing figure. Tubman stands in the middle of Panel 28, like
92 african american story telling
the Virgin Mary, with the heads of black women fanned
a children’s book on a subject of his choice. After a meet-
out behind her head like so many attending angels in an
ing or two with the publisher, Lawrence suggested Harriet
altarpiece by the fourteenth-century Italian master Ci-
Tubman:
mabue. Indeed, the gabled roof behind forms a thronelike structure to suggest an altarpiece. In Panel 29 Tubman,
Well, of course, he knew nothing about Harriet Tubman. And
like Mary in an Italian Renaissance Pietà, offers solace to
I gave him a sort of synopsis, an outline of this woman. He said
a wounded soldier. With Panel 30 the war has ended.
it sounded very good to him, and to go on with it. So I started
Rifles thrust into the blood-stained earth mark soldiers’
my research. . . . This was a period of twenty-five years since
graves, as a bird of peace flies off. This panel provides a grim answer to Panel 27, in which the soldiers fight bravely.82 The final painting, Panel 31, draws from Swift’s ac-
I had done the first Harriet Tubman, so naturally I had to go back. And even if I had known what I knew twenty-five years ago about Harriet Tubman it would have been different. Because I like to feel that I have grown, my attitude would have been different, my choice of material out of the life of Harriet
count of Tubman’s last years (p. 354). Three gaunt sap-
Tubman would have been entirely different. So I researched
lings rise out of the barren earth like ghostly crosses on
the material, took many notes. As most of us who do research
a darkened Calvary. The stars stretched out across the
do, we know that nine-tenths of what we take is never used but
sky suggest that peace has come to Tubman. The river in
we have to take all of it in order to get that one-tenth. . . . And
the foreground recalls Jordan, where Christ was baptized.
out of this developed a children’s book of Harriet Tubman,
By including it here at the end of the series, Lawrence
which is just out. 83
suggests a perpetual renewal of faith in struggle. In the Tubman series, as in the other series, Lawrence
Lawrence added that he planned to see the original series,
expressed his conviction that history, as well as contem-
then at Hampton University, so he could compare the two.
porary life, has a pattern and a cadence, with each new
He knew that he had grown as an artist and that the recent
incident affecting, modifying, and superseding the telling
version would be subtler and technically better.
of the earlier incidents. Lawrence discerned compelling
The Terry Dintenfass Gallery exhibited the individual
truth not just in the subject matter of a good story but in
tempera paintings in December 1967. John Canaday re-
the artistry with which it is told—the setting up of internal
viewed them for the New York Times. The critic called the
harmonies, contrasts, and closures and the borrowings
exhibition “a soft-spoken show by any oratorical stan-
that suggest the many communities to which he belonged:
dard . . . superior to the ‘protest’ shows that, on several
the Bible of the conservative African American Harlem
occasions last year, fell so embarrassingly flat. . . . I dare-
community, the documentary photography of the progres-
say that advocates of vehement statement will find these
sives, and the sorrow songs of migrants recently arrived
illustrations too gentle for their taste, but it was their re-
in Harlem. Lawrence was more than a street-corner griot.
serve that attracted me.”84
By recalling the traditions of African American storytelling
The editors at Windmill Books, an imprint of Simon
and of written slave narratives, he also took African Ameri-
and Schuster, found at least one of Lawrence’s images
can art in the direction of a politically engaged modern-
worrisome. They rejected for publication the painting For
ism—one that would serve in the present as inspiration to
ward (Fig. 55), representing Tubman carrying a gun as
others seeking to understand and to transmit African
she pushes forward a man showing reservations about
American experiences to all Americans.
the journey to freedom.85 The editors also found Canada Bound inappropriate for a children’s book because of the
n
bloodstains on the snow in the footprints of the fugitives.
In 1967 Lawrence had an opportunity to sharpen the story
Compared with the 1939–40 Harriet Tubman, the new
of Harriet Tubman’s struggle when a publisher at Windmill
series focused more on Tubman’s personal story, especially
Books got in touch with him and asked if he would write
those episodes that might appeal to children: Harriet’s
african american story telling 93
Fig 55 Forward, 1967. Egg tempera on hardboard, 237⁄8 x 3515⁄16 in. (60.6 x 91.3 cm). North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina. Fig 56 Through Forests, Through Rivers, Up Mountains, 1967. Gouache on paper, 15 5⁄8 x 26 3⁄4 in. (39.7 x 67.9 cm). Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981. Photo: Lee Stalsworth.
birth, her tending to children, working on the farm and in
who points to the North Star. Forest animals—a squirrel,
the Big House, praying, escaping, and returning to bring
deer, owl, and snake—observe them as they journey to
the fugitives to the North. Children inhabit most of the
freedom. This painting, like many others in the series, is
scenes, often accompanied by an array of barnyard ani
stunningly lyrical and imaginative in line, pattern, and
mals. Through Forests, Through Rivers, Up Mountains (Fig.
color. If the later series does not have the same political
56) shows a group of people—seventeen fugitives, includ-
punch of the 1939–40 series, it shows a complexity of
ing two babies—making their way through the forest
form that resulted from Lawrence’s attainment of greater
and into a clearing as they take directions from Tubman,
technical powers.
african american story telling 95
4
the great migration in memory, pictures, and text With each successive wave of it, the movement of the Negro becomes more and more a mass movement toward the larger and more democratic chance—in the Negro’s case a deliberate flight not only from countryside to city, but from medieval America to modern.
alain locke, “The New Negro” (1925) Look at us and know us and you will know yourselves, for we are you, looking back at you from the dark mirror of our lives!
richard wright, 12 Million Black Voices (1941)
When Jacob Lawrence began his series The Migration of
completed Harriet Tubman, his conceptual powers had
the Negro (see Fig. 59) in 1940, he launched a new theme
matured, and he had full control over his technique. He
in painting for the twentieth century—an imaginative di-
had learned to compose the panels into groups, each
dactic exodus narrative. His grand series of sixty panels
group structured according to harmonies, contrasts, and
representing the great migration of African Americans
closures within its parts. Especially in the Tubman series,
from the South to the industrial cities of the North begin-
vertical panels create syncopations with adjacent hori-
ning during World War I incorporates scenes of labor, the
zontal ones; scenes composed of patchwork-quilt pat-
railroad, the southern landscape, and cities, as well as
terns pair with single, iconic images; indoor scenes con-
families pursuing their daily routines and embarking on a
trast with outdoor ones; and diagonal movements in one
journey that would change the country and themselves
panel shift to rounded and calm forms in another and
irrevocably. What he accomplished, as the emerging sto-
then back again. The results give the panels a cinematic
ryteller, or griot, of his Harlem community, was a tapes-
movement and dramatic urgency. But his Migration se-
try of pictures and text captions that draw the viewer
ries would need to have a more complex orchestration if
through time and geography, struggles and hopes.
1
he were to represent in pictures and texts not just the
By 1940 Lawrence had prepared himself to begin an
phenomenon of people on the move but also the eco-
even more ambitious series than he had attempted in the
nomic and social forces underlying that movement. 2 His
earlier Toussaint L’Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, and
focus would be social history and sociology rather than
Harriet Tubman series. Those had been linear accounts
biographical narrative. He would reenact through his pan-
of an individual hero’s accomplishments. By the time he
els a continually renewing present.
Fig 57 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 18: “The migration gained in momentum.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
As noted in Chapter 2, Lawrence’s Migration series of
Since it has had this effect, I feel that my project would
images and texts made its debut when Fortune magazine
lay before the Negroes themselves a little of what part
published twenty-six of the works with abbreviated cap-
they have played in the History of the United States. In
tions in its November 1941 issue. In the preceding month,
addition, the whole of America might learn some of the
Viking Press had published the photographic book 12 Mil
history of this particular minority group, of which they
lion Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United
know very little.”4 He believed that collective pride in past
States, with text by Richard Wright and photo layout by
achievements would help stimulate individual feelings of
Edwin Rosskam. Both Lawrence’s series of panels and the
self-worth in the present.
book had texts and images, and both interpreted the
Besides the psychological benefits to the individual of
causes and effects of the migration of working-class Af-
learning the collective history, Lawrence believed, as he
rican Americans to the northern cities. A comparison of
had when he began his first series, Toussaint L’Ouverture,
the two projects should help us understand the artists—
that reminders of historical progress would spur the whole
Lawrence, Wright, and Rosskam—and their focus on the
community to work for even better social and economic
meaning of the migration: the transformation of rural
conditions in the future. Although Lawrence characterized
African Americans into modern Americans.
the series as didactic, he firmly believed artists can make a difference by visualizing inspiring themes, just as a West African griot can put into words the hopes of his community. The Migration of the Negro differs from Law-
lawrence’s research for the migration series In his fellowship application to the Julius Rosenwald Fund
rence’s earlier series in that it does not single out a particular hero or heroine; instead, it confers a heroic dimension on the people as a whole, acting with a collective will, and downplays differences in their social status,
(see Chapter 2), Lawrence outlines his plan “to interpret
gender, and even skin color, which might have connoted
in a sufficient number of gesso panels . . . the great Ne-
class differences, in order to emphasize their unity.5 Unlike
gro migration during the World War.” He envisions eight
the estimated fifteen million Africans in chains who were
sections of narrative: “Causes of the Migration,” “Stimu-
transported across the Atlantic in the diasporas of the
lation of the Migration,” “The Spread of the Migration,”
Middle Passage to be sold as slaves for the New World
“The Efforts to Check the Migration,” “Public Opinion Re-
plantations, African Americans leaving the South during
garding the Migration,” “The Effects of the Migration on
World War I, though sharply urged by poverty, discrimina-
the South,” “The Effects of the Migration on Various Parts
tion, and promises of greater opportunities in the North,
of the North,” and “The Effects of the Migration on the
were acting of their own free will.6 As Lawrence wrote on
Negro.” Under each heading he includes subheadings, for
his Rosenwald application, their struggles ought to inspire
example, “Talk of higher wages, educational opportunities
all African Americans and teach white viewers a valuable
and better housing conditions in the North,” and “Whole-
lesson in history as well.7
sale arrests made by southern policemen of Negroes on the slightest provocation.”3
For Lawrence, the migration theme had a personal dimension: his parents had been part of the Great Migra-
At the end of his “Plan of Work,” Lawrence emphasizes
tion, leaving the South for better working and living con-
that the project is significant for “its educational value.”
ditions in the North. Indeed, the last section of the series
He argues that since the Great Migration has had an im-
listed in Lawrence’s application, “The Effects of the Mi-
pact on the entire nation, African Americans should be
gration on the Negro,” is drawn from the collective expe-
made aware of their contribution to history, and others
rience of his community’s history. The artist later recalled
should know it as well: “It is important as a part of the
neighborhood discussions about the migration from when
evolution of America, since this Migration has affected
he lived in Philadelphia: “As a youngster, you just hear
the whole of America mentally, economically and socially.
stories. This was . . . the time of the migration. I didn’t
98 the great migr ation
know the term ‘migration,’ but I remember people used
books, and, especially, the New Deal documentary pho-
to tell us when a new family would arrive. The people in
tographs published in Life, Look, and other magazines in
the neighborhood would collect clothes for these new-
the late 1930s. Roy E. Stryker, the chief of the historical
comers and pick out coals that hadn’t completely burned
section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA), made
in the furnace to get them started. I didn’t see the migra-
certain that such photographs circulated widely as a way
tion as an historical event, but people were talking about
to promote government public works projects.14 The mag-
it.”8
Lawrence understood that the migration was a con-
tinuing, ongoing phenomenon.
azines also had their own staff and freelance photographers who produced photo essays.
In the late 1930s, the migration intensified. As a result
With respect to both his images and his captions, Law-
of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid land-owning
rence’s series resembles several contemporary photo
farmers not to plant their entire acreage and guaranteed
books that drew on the FSA archive and contributed to
them a higher price for the lower yield, southern sharecrop-
the visual culture of social concern.15 These included
work.9
These landless farmers,
Walker Evans’s American Photographs (1938), Archibald
both white and black, had to find work elsewhere, and many
MacLeish’s Land of the Free (1938), Herman Nixon’s Forty
migrated.10 Lawrence was aware of the effects of the Great
Acres and Steel Mules (1938), Dorothea Lange and Paul
Migration all around him, so even though he read the books
Taylor’s American Exodus (1938), and Walker Evans and
of Scott, Woodson, and others at the public library, he
James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941),16 as
pers were thrown out of
based the Migration series on his own social awareness
well as two books by Margaret Bourke-White (who photo-
and experience as well as on what he read. The specific
graphed for Life and was not on the government payroll)
sources did not matter; more timely was the communica-
and Erskine Caldwell: You Have Seen Their Faces (1937)
tion of the
story.11
and later Say, Is This the U.S.A. (1941). All these docu-
The Rosenwald Fund Fellowship application shows that
mentary books focused on the people of the United
Lawrence’s research and planning for the Migration proj-
States, both black and white, many rooted in the soil of
ect were under way. Once he received the fellowship and
the rural South. Captions and extended texts, based
did not have to seek other employment, he returned to
partly on research and partly on interviews with ordinary
the Schomburg Collection, housed at the 135th Street
people, accompanied the photographs to help the viewer/
Harlem branch of the New York Public Library, for further
reader understand the social significance of the pictured
study. The main texts he drew on were Carter G. Wood-
people and their struggles with the land, social policies,
son’s Century of Negro Migration, published in 1918, and
and discrimination.17
Emmett J. Scott’s Negro Migration during the War, first
Documentary filmmakers, many of whom began as
published in 1920.12 After months of research and com-
photographers and then found employment making news-
positional studies to fit the design for each panel into his
reels, also turned to storytelling techniques to reach and
overall message, Lawrence crafted his text captions in
influence a mass audience. Films could incorporate not
plain, schoolbook English, with help from Gwendolyn
only moving images but text, voice-over, and music to
Knight.13 Lawrence’s wording in the extended captions never
produce compelling social commentary. Jay Leyda, assistant curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art, who
matches exactly that of the two scholars, Scott and
introduced Lawrence to the classic films, could have
Woodson, since he was writing descriptive prose rather
brought these documentary films to Lawrence’s atten-
than mounting an argument. His text resembles the talk
tion, particularly The River, by Pare Lorentz, made during
of an oral culture, including that of lecturers at commu-
1936 and 1937 under the auspices of the Resettlement
nity centers and street-corner orators, as well as offhand
Administration / FSA to publicize the government’s land
remarks by everyday people. Similarly, Lawrence would
reclamation programs.18
have drawn, consciously or unconsciously, on vernacular
With a musical score by Virgil Thomson and a prose-
visual sources including storybook illustrations, comic
poem script, Lorentz tells the story of the annual spring
the great migr ation 99
rising of the great North American rivers, which flood the
shortages that spurred migration to the northern cities.
valleys and flow on to the Gulf of Mexico. The narrative
The flat shapes and latticework of the station architec-
dwells solemnly on soil erosion brought about by human
ture organize the moving figures. People—dark turquoise,
ignorance and poverty, but it ends with a burst of enthu-
rose, brown, and black shapes—stream toward the pas-
siasm for the harnessing of natural power made possible
sageways to the trains going to those cities.
by government agencies such as the Tennessee Valley
The text for Panel 2 highlights the effect of labor short-
Authority and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Both Law-
ages in the North with an image of a solitary white work-
rence’s Migration series and Lorentz’s film The River end
man driving a steam shovel: “The World War had caused
with messages of hope; both shape their narratives with
a great shortage in Northern industry and also citizens of
such artistic devices as repetition, movement, synecdo-
foreign countries were returning home.” The third panel,
che (in which the part represents the whole), and abrupt
with its flying wedge of people moving left, echoed by
juxtaposition of images.19 And both weave images and
migrating birds in the sky, quickens the pace. 23 The text
words—sometimes as a unified message, at other times
reads: “In every town Negroes were leaving by the hun-
as independent constructions of meaning.
dreds to go North and enter into Northern industry.” The first three panels focus, in sequence, on effects (Panel 1), causes (Panel 2), and again effects (Panel 3).
the sixty panels of the migration series
Panel 4 represents another single figure, but this time he is an African American laborer—a muscular man holding a hammer over his head. The caption reads, “The Ne-
The panels in Lawrence’s series set up visual rhythms that
gro was the largest source of labor to be found after all
parallel those of the text (see Fig. 59). As we walk from
others had been exhausted.” Lawrence highlights the
panel to panel, left to right, our attention shifts to absorb
class differences between the African American and his
new images, read new texts, and ponder new meanings.20
white counterpart in Panel 2. The white man is a skilled
Most of the texts consist of a sentence of about fifteen to
worker driving a vehicle; he has a face and features. The
twenty words; a few have two sentences. Some texts,
black man, in contrast, is a common laborer whose face
tersely written, consist of only four of five words. However,
is obscured by his muscular arm, implying that his iden-
we are always free to return to or glance back at previous
tity resides in his muscle, not his brain. 24 This panel re-
texts and images—to impose a visual looping that we could
veals a pattern in the first four images, independent of
not attempt when experiencing the diachronic progression
the captions: movement, the white worker, movement,
of a film documentary. The viewer’s encounter with Law-
the black worker.
rence’s Migration is thus both kinesthetic and dialectical:
Panel 5, a night scene, presents a partial view of a rail-
we move through space to view the panels of the series,
road locomotive, its headlights ablaze, black smoke pour-
and as we do, interpretations of later panels supersede
ing from its stack, and its bell ringing. Lawrence’s caption
our provisional interpretations of earlier ones, but never
reads: “The Negroes were given free passage on the rail-
rigidly.
roads which was paid back by Northern industry. It was
Because of space constraints, in this section I can of-
an agreement that the people brought North on these
fer readings of only a handful of the sixty panels. All of
railroads were to pay back their passage after they had
them are illustrated in thumbnail reproductions to give a
received jobs.” The night scene conveys the length of the
sense of the whole. 21
migrants’ journey, which often took days. In the context
Lawrence’s Panel 1 (Fig. 58), “During the World War
of the locomotive in Panel 5, the black worker in Panel 4
there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes,”
suddenly takes on the attributes of the folk hero John
shows a crowd of African Americans pushing their way
Henry, “the railroading man.” The large spike he prepares
through gates marked “Chicago,” “New York,” and “St.
to hit encodes the picture as a railroading scene, despite
Louis.”22 Here Lawrence links World War I to the labor
what seems to be an indoor setting.
100 the great migr ation
Fig 58 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 1: “During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.” 1940–41.
Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
Panels 6 and 7, the first a view of a train’s interior with
“What then is the cause? There have been bulldozing,
its sleeping passengers and the second the blur of fields
terrorism, maltreatment and what not of persecution; but
whizzing by outside, read as a pair—one image has hori-
the Negroes have not in large numbers wandered away
zontal stripes of color and the other, vertical streamers.
from the land of their birth. What the migrants themselves
The texts—“The trains were packed continually with mi-
think about it, goes to the very heart of the trouble. Some
grants” and “The Negro, who had been part of the soil for
say that they left the South on account of injustice in the
many years, was now going into and living a new life in
courts, unrest, lack of privileges, denial of the right to vote,
the urban centers”—lead us to conclude that Lawrence
bad treatment, oppression, segregation or lynching. Oth-
meant in Panels 1 through 7 to focus on the railroad and
ers say that they left to find employment, to secure better
its effect on the migration. 25 Because Panels 2 and 5 rep-
wages, better school facilities, and better opportunities
resent vehicles moving leftward, our eyes can trick us
to toil upward.”26 Lawrence would introduce these other
into interpreting the white man in the cab as the engineer
causes in his texts when he assembled his panels. One
of a train bringing the migrants to the North.
hears three voices—each from a different sociological
Not until Panel 8 does Lawrence refer to causes other
geography—intoning facts about the momentum of the
than labor shortages in the North: the floods of 1915, boll
migration, the poverty and racism of the South that the
weevil damage to the crops in 1915 and 1916, and the low
migrants fled, and the promises and hardships of the
wages paid to Negroes in the South. Woodson had said:
North.
the great migr ation 101
1
3
2
1 During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes. 2 The World War had caused a great shortage in Northern industry and also citizens of foreign countries were returning home. 3 In every town Negroes were leaving by the hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry.
7
8
9
7 The Negro, who had been part of the soil for many years, was now going into and living a new life in the urban centers. 8 They did not always leave because they were promised work in the North. Many of them left because of Southern conditions, one
of them being great floods that ruined the crops, and therefore they were unable to make a living where they were. 9 Another great ravager of the crops was the boll weevil.
Fig 59 The Migration of the Negro, 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard (60 panels), 12 x 18 in. or 18 x 12 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm or 45.7 x 30.5 cm). The captions are the original 1940–41 captions. In 1993 Lawrence revised these captions as listed on p. 337. Odd-numbered panels: The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Even-numbered panels: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy; digital images © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
102
4
6
5
4 The Negro was the largest source of labor to be found after all others had been exhausted. 5 The Negroes were given free passage on the railroads which was paid back by Northern industry. It was an agreement that the people brought North on these railroads were to pay back their passage after they had received jobs. 6 The trains were packed continually with migrants.
11
10
12
10 They were very poor. 11 In many places, because of the war, food had doubled in price. 12 The railroad stations were at times so over-packed with people leaving that special guards had to be called in to keep order.
103
14
13
15
13 Due to the South’s losing so much of its labor, the crops were left to dry and spoil. 14 Among the social conditions that existed which was partly the cause of the migration was the injustice done to the Negroes in the courts. 15 Another cause was lynching. It was found that where there had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately
after this.
19
20
21
19 There had always been discrimination. 20 In many of the communities the Negro press was read continually because of its attitude and its encouragement of the movement. 21 Families arrived at the station very early in order not to miss their train North.
104
16
18
17
16 Although the Negro was used to lynching, he found this an opportune time for him to leave where one had occurred. 17 The migration was spurred on by the treatment of the tenant farmers by the planter. 18 The migration gained in momentum.
22
23
24
22 Another of the social causes of the migrants’ leaving was that at times they did not feel safe, or it was not the best thing to be found on the
streets late at night. They were arrested on the slightest provocation. 23 And the migration spread. 24 Child labor and a lack of education was one of the other reasons for people wishing to leave their homes.
105
25
26
27
25 After a while some communities were left almost bare. 26 And people all over the South began to discuss this great movement. 27 Many men stayed behind until they could bring their families North.
31
32
33
31 After arriving North the Negroes had better housing conditions. 32 The railroad stations in the South were crowded with people leaving for the North. 33 People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.
106
28
29
30
28 The labor agent who had been sent South by Northern industry was a very familiar person in the Negro counties. 29 The labor agent also recruited laborers to break strikes which were occurring in the North. 30 In every home people who had not gone North met and tried to decide if they should go North or not.
34
35
36
34 The Negro press was also influential in urging the people to leave the South. 35 They left the South in large numbers and they arrived in the North in large numbers. 36 They arrived in great numbers into Chicago, the gateway of the West.
107
37
39
38
37 The Negroes that had been brought North worked in large numbers in one of the principal industries, which was steel. 38 They also worked in large numbers on the railroad. 39 Luggage crowded the railroad platforms.
43
44
45
43 In a few sections of the South the leaders of both groups met and attempted to make conditions better for the Negro so that he would
remain in the South. 44 Living conditions were better in the North. 45 They arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North, in large numbers.
108
41
42
40
40 The migrants arrived in great numbers. 41 The South that was interested in keeping cheap labor was making it very difficult for labor agents recruiting Southern labor for Northern
firms. In many instances, they were put in jail and were forced to operate incognito. 42 They also made it very difficult for migrants leaving the South. They often went to the railroad stations and arrested the Negroes whole-
sale, which in turn made them miss their train.
46
47
48
46 Industries attempted to board their labor in quarters that were oftentimes very unhealthy. Labor camps were numerous. 47 As well as finding better housing conditions in the North, the migrants found very poor housing conditions in the North. They
were forced into overcrowded and dilapidated tenement houses. 48 Housing for the Negroes was a very difficult problem.
109
49
50
51
49 They also found discrimination in the North although it was much different from that which they had known in the South. 50 Race riots were very numerous all over the North because of the antagonism that was caused between the Negro and white
workers. Many of these riots occurred because the Negro was used as a strike breaker in many of the Northern industries. 51 In many cities in the North where the Negroes had been overcrowded in their own living quarters they attempted to spread out.
This resulted in many of the race riots and the bombing of Negro homes.
57
55
56
55 The Negro being suddenly moved out of doors and cramped into urban life, contracted a great deal of tuberculosis. Because of this the death rate was high. 56 Among one of the last groups to leave the South was the Negro professional who was forced to follow his clientele to make a living. 57 The female worker was also one of the last groups to leave the South.
110
53
54
52
52 One of the largest race riots occurred in East St. Louis. 53 The Negroes who had been North for quite some time met their fellowmen with disgust and aloofness. 54 One of the main forms of social and recreational activities in which the migrants indulged occurred in the church.
59
58
60
58 In the North the Negro had better educational facilities. 59 In the North the Negro had freedom to vote. 60 And the migrants kept coming.
111
Lawrence thus shifts in Panels 8 and 9 to statements about the southern agricultural economy. Panel 8 reads: “They did not always leave because they were promised work in the North. Many of them left because of Southern conditions, one of them being great floods that ruined the crops, and therefore they were unable to make a living where they were.” Panel 9 reads: “Another great ravager of the crops was the boll weevil.” Panel 7 also relates visually to these two panels: all are vertical and focus on the countryside. What differs in them is the perspective: Panel 7 suggests a viewer on a moving train, looking out over long, fluttering ribbons of color that suggest fields of crops; Panel 8, a stationary viewer contemplating a poor crop drowned in a flood; Panel 9, a stationary viewer focusing on the invading weevils doing their mischief to cotton bolls. A rhythm of horizontal (a) and vertical (b)
Fig 60 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 13: “Due to the South’s
losing so much of its labor, the crops were left to dry and spoil.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
panels emerges for the first nine paintings: a-a-a; b-a-b; b-b-b. Similar rhythms occur throughout the series, but as improvisations rather than formulaic patterns.27
migration. Panels 14, 15, and 16 form a unit that addresses
Panels 10 and 11 introduce the impoverishment of
the issue of southern justice from an African American’s
southern families; figures sit or stand in interiors stripped
point of view. The scenes change from interior to exterior
of material possessions and at kitchen tables set with
back to interior, and the format shifts from vertical to
meager provisions. The texts emphasize the poverty
horizontal back to vertical. Moreover, the placement of
(Panel 10: “They were very poor”) and cite one of the fac-
forms in each panel enhances the ensemble of the three
tors contributing to it (Panel 11: “In many places, because
panels. The captions read as follows: “Among the social
of the war, food had doubled in price”). Poverty, Lawrence
conditions that existed which was partly the cause of the
tells us, led to increased migration. In Panel 12, people
migration was the injustice done to the Negroes in the
crowd the ticket windows of a train station: “The railroad
courts” (Panel 14); “Another cause was lynching. It was
stations were at times so over-packed with people leaving
found that where there had been a lynching, the people
that special guards had to be called in to keep order.” By
who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately after
including the policemen called on to monitor a voluntary
this” (Panel 15); “Although the Negro was used to lynching,
migration, Lawrence portrays the intrusion of the state.
he found this an opportune time for him to leave where
The migration, the product of economic causes, itself
one had occurred” (Panel 16). In Panel 14, the lamp on
causes further economic deterioration in the South, exem-
the judge’s desk swings to the right; in Panel 15, the rope
plified in the horizontal image of Panel 13 (Fig. 60): “Due
noose for the lynching hangs in the middle; in Panel 16,
to the South’s losing so much of its labor, the crops were
the grieving woman’s massive body, turned to the left,
left to dry and spoil.” From this panel to the end of the
provides closure for the group of images.
series, Lawrence underscores the dialectical relationship
The succeeding panels address discrimination, with
between the migration and the economic and social condi-
panels of migration interspersed among them. People
tions as they affect each other mutually and reciprocally.
work, talk among themselves, go to the railroad station,
Cause becomes effect that becomes another cause.
endure police harassment, desert their homes. Panel 19
Not until Panels 14 (Fig. 61) and 15 (Fig. 62)—a quarter
has an especially terse caption: “There had always been
of the way into his story—does Lawrence introduce dis-
discrimination.” At the upper left a white woman drinks
crimination in the courts and lynchings as motivations for
from a water fountain; at the lower left a black woman also
112 the great migr ation
Fig 61 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 14: “Among the social conditions that
existed which was partly the cause of the migration was the injustice done to the Negroes in the courts.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY. Fig 62 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 15: “Another cause was lynching. It was found that where there had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately after this.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
drinks from a fountain. A river of water that separates
grants that range from appeasement to terrorism. In Panel
them symbolizes the racial gulf between them. Panel 22
41 the labor agent sent to recruit southerners is jailed; his
shows handcuffed men “arrested on the slightest provoca-
white fingers grip the bars of a small window high up in a
tion.” The static composition of this panel stops the
stone wall. In contrast, the policeman in Panel 42 (Fig.
viewer; Panel 23, however, moves the viewer forward.
65) stretches out his arms and legs to block the door of
The pace of the narrative quickens. Although each
a railroad car in order to prevent the migrants from escap-
scene is self-contained—a patchwork of form and color—
ing their imminent arrest. In Panel 43 a white man on
each contributes to the rhythmic pattern of a sequence.
stage at a community meeting hall spreads his arms, his
Art-historical quotations and references occur in the im-
hands touching a table top in a gesture of appeasement;
agery: the figures in Panel 24 resemble the workers rep-
the racially mixed figures on stage reinforce the caption’s
resented on the walls of a pharaoh’s tomb; Panel 25
statement that “leaders of both groups met and attempted
evokes the abstract paintings of the 1930s. As we move
to make conditions better.” Unlike the more dynamic
from panel to panel, we interpret what we see, remember
migration scenes, these last three are bilaterally sym-
the images, and reinterpret them along with the text. 28
metrical; the figures in them suggest a rigid social struc-
Midway through the series, at Panel 31 (Fig. 63), Law-
ture intolerant of change. In contrast, Panel 44 (Fig. 66)
rence paints the first scene of the urban North as seen by
says, “Living conditions were better in the North,” and
the arriving migrants. The caption suggests a positive
shows an image that includes a large slab of ham, gener-
view of the migrants’ situation: “After arriving North the
ous slices of bread, and more bread waiting to be cut from
Negroes had better housing conditions.” The flat wall of
a plump loaf. The ham and bread, out of scale with the
building fronts in Lawrence’s image resembles Piet Mon-
forms in the preceding and subsequent panels, look
drian’s paintings of the 1940s. It is punctuated by open
enormous—suggesting the blessings of abundance. This
and shaded windows, a metaphor for the city, where
is the only still life of the series.
openings, or opportunities, occur in a seemingly indiffer-
At Panel 45 (Fig. 67), in response to the scene of plenty,
ent facade. According to the text of Panel 32, “The rail-
Lawrence presents an extended family looking hopefully
road stations in the South were crowded with people
out of a train window at the industrial North. The next
leaving for the North.” In the image, people sit on five
three panels, all vertical, represent the crowded living
rows of benches, waiting patiently for their train. A young-
conditions the migrants found in the North—conditions
ster at the upper right symbolizes the new generation
both Scott and Woodson discussed at length in their stud-
that will grow up in the North. At this point the northern
ies. In Panel 48 (see Fig. 75) we see only parts of iron
scenes become predominant.
beds, with valises tucked under them; the fragmentary
The message of Panel 20’s text—“In many of the com-
view suggests an endless row of beds. Lawrence switches
munities the Negro press was read continually because of
to another narrative device in Panel 49 (Fig. 68), where
its attitude and its encouragement of the movement”—is
he presents a literal map of segregated seating in northern
repeated in Panel 34: “The Negro press was also influential
restaurants: “They also found discrimination in the North
in urging the people to leave the South.” The image depicts
although it was much different from that which they had
a person reading the newspaper much larger than the one
known in the South.” Lawrence does not idealize the
in the earlier panel—as if the impulse to read about the
North, which had its own racial discriminations; he ac-
migration movement had swollen in proportion.
knowledges, however, that in the North, overall, the mi-
Increasingly Lawrence’s scenes fill out the landscape of the North: the Chicago stockyards (Panel 36), steel
grants found their situation better than in the South. Panels 50, 51, and 52 consider the migration’s effects
manufacturing (Panel 37), railroad work (Panel 38, Fig.
on existing populations. In the first two images, Lawrence
64). Panels 39 and 40 focus on the moving migration.
explains the causes of racial violence. “Race riots were
Then Lawrence shifts his attention to the South, where
very numerous all over the North because of the antago-
whites have enacted measures to stay the exodus of mi-
nism that was caused between the Negro and white
114 the great migr ation
Fig 63 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 31: “After arriving North the Negroes had better housing conditions.”
1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Fig 64 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 38: “They also worked in large numbers on the railroad.” 1940–41.
Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
Fig 65 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 42: “They also made it
very difficult for migrants leaving the South. They often went to the railroad stations and arrested the Negroes wholesale, which in turn made them miss their train.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY. Fig 66 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 44: “Living conditions
were better in the North.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
Fig 67 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 45: “They arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North, in large numbers.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Fig 68 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 49: “They also found dis-
crimination in the North although it was much different from that which they had known in the South.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
Fig 69 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 52: “One of the largest race riots occurred in East St. Louis.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
workers. Many of these riots occurred because the Negro
the figures. The white man prostrate in the background is
was used as a strike breaker in many of the Northern in-
twice the size of the others, suggesting the significance
dustries” (Panel 50). Lawrence believed that antiunion
of his defeat. Here Lawrence employs the concept of
bosses, not workers, fomented racial violence. In Panel
ideational size, whereby the focus is not the location of a
29, he had already shown in his image and in text that
figure but the relative size of figures in a composition—a
“The labor agent also recruited laborers to break strikes
technique characteristic of Egyptian wall drawings. 29 The
which were occurring in the North.” Panel 51, a painting
black man, to the right, appears in control of his situation
depicting buildings in flames, looks at housing: “In many
as he grips the knife-wielding white man in a headlock.
cities in the North where the Negroes had been over-
The Fortune magazine editors made this panel the largest
crowded in their own living quarters they attempted to
of those reproduced in the November 1941 spread.
spread out. This resulted in many of the race riots and the
The next three panels represent the different social
bombing of Negro homes.” Panel 52 (Fig. 69), however,
experiences of the migrants in the African American ur-
simply states: “One of the largest race riots occurred in
ban community, including class discrimination: “The Ne-
East St. Louis.” Three white men and two black men (so
groes who had been North for quite some time met their
identified by their hands) fight in the street. Lawrence
fellowmen with disgust and aloofness” (Panel 53); “One
suggests the outcome of the fight by the relative sizes of
of the main forms of social and recreational activities in
118 the great migr ation
Fig 70 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 58: “In the North the Negro had better educational facilities.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on
hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
which the migrants indulged occurred in the church”
“Among one of the last groups to leave the South was the
(Panel 54). The third, Panel 55, presents a bleak picture
Negro professional who was forced to follow his clientele
of disease, with pallbearers, dressed in black, carrying a
to make a living.” Lawrence’s mentor, Alain Locke, had
coffin: “The Negro being suddenly moved out of doors
commented in his introduction to The New Negro (1925)
and cramped into urban life, contracted a great deal of
that it was the professionals who trailed their clients on
tuberculosis. Because of this the death rate was high.”30
the migration to the North: “In a real sense it is the rank
The horizon slopes downward to the left, as if toward the
and file who are leading, and the leaders who are follow-
coffin’s destination, the earth beneath. Because this panel
ing.”31 To both Locke and Lawrence the strength of the
follows a church interior, shown in Panel 54, the two im-
people rested on their ability to conduct a leaderless
ages can be read as a funeral service followed by a burial.
revolution—like the migration.
Lawrence continually makes such links for the viewer to discover.
The penultimate panels show children at school and a voting booth: “In the North the Negro had better educa-
Near the end of the series Lawrence takes us briefly
tional facilities” (Panel 58, Fig. 70) and “In the North the
back to the South with scenes of the last groups to leave:
Negro had freedom to vote” (Panel 59). To Lawrence, as
Negro professionals (Panel 56) and female workers, such
to W. E. B. Du Bois and others, both better educational
as laundresses (Panel 57). The caption for Panel 56 reads:
facilities and the franchise meant greater self-respect and
the great migr ation 119
true citizenship. The presence of a white policeman hold-
conditions. With each successive wave of it, the movement of
ing a billy club and the regimentation of the voters stand-
the Negro becomes more and more a mass movement toward
ing rigidly in line, however, suggest that white political
the larger and more democratic chance—in the Negro’s case
control compromised the freedom won with the vote. 32
a deliberate flight not only from countryside to city, but from
Of the sixty panels, sixteen show migrants on the move, waiting in railroad stations or on trains, including the first and the last. That recurrent motif energizes the work. For example, Panel 18 (Fig. 57), captioned “The migration
medieval America to modern. 35
Lawrence’s Migration echoes what Locke envisioned in these remarks.
gained in momentum,” shows two groups of people moving from the lower and upper left toward the upper right, in his 1926 film Potemkin, where people stream across
richard wright’s 12 million black voices
recalling a compositional device Sergei Eisenstein used roads, up stairs, and across strips of land, out to the docks
When Richard Wright wrote to Jay Leyda in May 1941
of Odessa, toward the anchored ship Potemkin to pay
promising that he would visit Lawrence’s studio on 125th
homage to the rebellious sailor killed by his officers. Law-
Street in Harlem to see the recent work (see Chapter 2),
rence’s friend Jay Leyda, an Eisenstein scholar, may have
he was writing his manuscript for 12 Million Black Voices:
discussed the film or perhaps even shown it to Lawrence
A Folk History of the Negro in the United States, a project
from the Museum of Modern Art’s film archive. The final
originally conceived by Edwin Rosskam. Rosskam, a pho-
panel swings back to the horizontal format with dozens of
tographer and designer who worked for the FSA, had been
migrants standing by the railroad track waiting for their
planning a photography book on urban blacks, and Wright
train, over a caption that reads, “And the migrants kept
was a logical candidate to supply the text.36 He had spent
coming.” Lawrence aims to tell a story, a hopeful story,
his youth in the South; knew how it contrasted with the
that circles back and has no closure. 33 His panels, as we
urban North, especially Chicago; and had gained acclaim
move along, viewing them and sometimes looping back,
for his powerful book Native Son. Wright’s thinking in 1941
give us a pleasure much like that of hearing a good
was informed by Marxist texts and the scholarship of the
preacher’s rhetorical flourishes, the cadences of spirituals,
Chicago School of Sociology.37
or repetitions in the
blues.34
In January 1941 Wright joined Rosskam in Washington,
The Migration series is greater than the sum of its parts.
D.C., to pore over some of the sixty-five thousand photo-
Lawrence’s chronicle tells more than a series of events or
graphs in the archives of the FSA.38 Rosskam persuaded
a catalogue of causes and effects. It presents the story of
his boss, Roy E. Stryker, the chief of the historical section
African Americans moving into modern life. As Alain Locke
of the FSA, to assign the FSA photographer Russell Lee
noted in his introduction to The New Negro:
to take photos in Chicago for the 12 Million Black Voices project. In April 1941 Wright and Rosskam, along with their
The tide of Negro migration, northward and city-ward, is not
wives, and Lee, spent two weeks photographing blacks
to be fully explained as a blind flood started by the demands
living in the South Side ghettos familiar to Wright. They
of war industry coupled with the shutting off of foreign migration, or by the pressure of poor crops coupled with increased social terrorism in certain sections of the South and Southwest. Neither labor demand, the bollweevil nor the Ku Klux Klan is a basic factor, however contributory any or all of them
also met with Horace R. Cayton, whom Wright knew as a student of the sociologist Robert E. Park and who, as the director of the Good Shepherd Community Center, had developed a large archive on Chicago’s black community
may have been. The wash and rush of this human tide on the
funded by the WPA. Cayton gave them “advice and guid-
beach line of the northern city centers is to be explained pri-
ance in the taking of photographs” in Chicago. 39 Wright
marily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social and
and Rosskam eventually selected eighty-two photographs
economic freedom, of a spirit to seize, even in the face of an
from not only the fifteen hundred Lee and Rosskam had
extortionate and heavy toll, a chance for the improvement of
made in Chicago but also the FSA archive—by the pho-
120 the great migr ation
tographers Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Jack Delano, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, Marion Post, and John Vachon. Another four photographs by news services (International News Photos, New York Daily News, Times Wide World) were added, along with one by Wright himself and one by Louise Rosskam.40 It is tempting to think that Wright actually carried out Jay Leyda’s recommendation to see Lawrence’s paintings in the summer of 1941 and that he was impressed by the artist’s skill in organizing and sequencing the panels.41 Lawrence, relying on his own experiences like Wright, also aimed to depict the rural working classes of black America rather than elite social groups. Wright’s subjects in his collection of short stories Uncle Tom’s Children (1938) were poor rural southern blacks coping with segregation; his acclaimed novel Native Son (1940) focused on the raging resentment of Chicago’s black unemployed. For 12 Million Black Voices the focus would be the same—on the “folk” of the subtitle.42 As Wright explained in his foreword, in language appropriate to Lawrence’s series as well: This text, while purporting to render a broad picture of the processes of Negro life in the United States, intentionally does not include in its considerations those areas of Negro life which comprise the so-called “talented tenth,” or the isolated islands of mulatto leadership which are still to be found in many parts of the South, or the growing and influential Negro middle-class professional and business men of the North who have, for the past thirty years or more, formed a sort of liaison corps between the whites and the blacks. Their exclusion from these
Fig 71 Jack Delano, Sharecropper and Wife, Georgia. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 29. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection.
pages does not imply any invidious judgment, nor does it stem from any desire to underestimate their progress and contributions; they are omitted in an effort to simplify a depiction of a
tographs. The first of four parts, “Our Strange Birth,”
complex movement of a debased feudal folk toward a twenti-
discusses the years of the slave trade, the realities of
eth-century urbanization.43
plantation slavery, and the conflicts between the Lords of the Land (the plantation owners) and the Bosses of the
Whether aware of it or not, Wright was paraphrasing Alain
Buildings (northern industrialists) that erupted into the
Locke’s words (quoted above) that “the movement of the
Civil War.44 The second part, “Inheritors of Slavery,”
Negro becomes . . . a deliberate flight not only from coun-
opens with a photograph by Jack Delano, Sharecropper
tryside to city, but from medieval America to modern.”
and Wife, Georgia (Fig. 71). Two figures, concerned and
Whereas Lawrence writes impersonally, drawing from
dignified looking, sit on a quilt-covered cot, hands clasped
the language of sociological studies, Wright speaks in the
in front of them, and stare out at the viewer. Behind them
first-person plural—the collective voice of “we”—produc-
on the wall hang two large oval photographic portraits of
ing a passionate text to accompany the eighty-eight pho-
ancestors, who remind the viewer of the continuity of the
the great migr ation 121
Fig 72 Marion Post, Cotton Buyer and Negro Farmer Discussing Price, Mississippi. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Mil
lion Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 42. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection. Fig 73 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 17: “The migration was spurred on by the treatment of the tenant farmers by the planter.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. When published by Fortune (November 1941): 104, the caption read: “Another was the treatment of the tenant farmer by the planter. Sometimes he gave short weight or charged unfair prices at the store . . . ”
generations.45 The photograph is a suitable opening for
tion to emphasize the persistent psychological effects of
the chapter.
living an embattled life amid racism and poverty:
In Wright’s text the Lords of the Land see the South as a beautiful land, “charming, idyllic, romantic,” whereas blacks live “full of the fear of the Lords of the Land, bowing and grinning . . . , toiling from sun to sun, living in unpainted wooden shacks that sit casually and insecurely upon the red clay” (p. 25). Working for the white planter, they will most likely be underpaid. Marion Post’s photo-
Two streams of life flow through the South, a black stream and a white stream, and from day to day we live in the atmosphere of a war that never ends. Even when the sprawling fields are drenched in peaceful sunshine, it is war. When we grub at the clay with our hoes, it is war. When we sleep, it is war. When we are awake, it is war. When one of us is born, he enters one of the warring regiments of the South. When there are days of
graph (Fig. 72) suggests this; Lawrence’s image (Fig.73)
peace, it is a peace born of a victory over us; and when there
and its caption, “The migration was spurred on by the
is open violence, it is when we are trying to push back the
treatment of the tenant farmers by the planters,” make
encroachments of the Lords of the Land. (p. 46)
such exploitation explicit. Wright describes the growing restlessness of African
And a page later, he continues: “To ask questions, to
Americans in the early twentieth century as they began
protest, to insist, to contend for a secure institutional and
to leave the plantations of their birth and roam the South,
political base upon which to stand and fulfill ourselves
with some going north. To them the South is where “we
is equivalent to a new and intensified declaration of war”
cannot fight back; we have no arms; we cannot vote; and
(p. 47). War, to Wright, is not just a trope but the reality
the law is white” (p. 43). “Fear is with us always, and in
of class conflict.
those areas where we black men equal or outnumber the
Using Wright’s text, Rosskam probably wrote the short
whites fear is at its highest” (p. 46). Wright uses repeti-
captions for the photographs that make up the two-, four-,
122 the great migr ation
Fig 74 Dorothea Lange, Hoeing Cotton,
Alabama. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 52. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection.
and six-page spreads. One example of a six-page spread,
Wright’s text and Rosskam’s photo editing offer images
with one photograph per page, has three photographs by
of struggles and hopes.
Dorothea Lange followed by one each by Ben Shahn, Ar-
When speaking of the religion of the black folk, Wright
thur Rothstein, and Walker Evans. The texts for Lange’s
adopts the narrative voice of an evangelical preacher. On
photographs read: “Our lives are walled with cotton” (p.
Sundays bodies and souls are renewed:
50); “We plow and plant cotton” (p. 51); and “We chop cotton” (p. 52, Fig. 74). The spread continues with the
and the preacher’s voice is sweet to us, caressing and lash-
Shahn photograph, captioned “We pick cotton” (p. 53),
ing . . . filling us with a sense of hope that is treasonable to the
and ends with the Rothstein photograph, captioned “When
rule of Queen Cotton. As the sermon progresses, the preach-
Queen Cotton dies . . . ” (p. 54), and the Evans photograph, captioned “ . . . how many of us will die with her?” (p. 55). This last photo shows a recent grave piled high with sandy dirt and a headstone, a footstone, and an empty kitchen
er’s voice increases in emotional intensity, and we, in tune and sympathy with his sweeping story, sway in our seats until we have lost all notion of time and have begun to float on a tide of passion. The preacher begins to punctuate his words with sharp rhythms, and we are lifted far beyond the boundaries of
plate resting in the middle. The six photographs form a
our daily lives, upward and outward, until, drunk with our
self-contained story about the monotony of a one-crop
enchanted vision, our senses lifted to the burning skies, we do
economy in which people work hard and fail when the crop
not know who we are, what we are, or where we are. (p. 73)
fails. The pessimism of the text—“Days come and days go, but our lives upon the land remain without hope” (p.
As the literary historian John M. Reilly points out, Wright’s
57)—is balanced a few pages later by Wright’s paean to
narrative is “simulated oral utterance derived from the
the community’s shared love, especially the love directed
spontaneous arts that shape the orations of the preacher;
to its children.46 Like Lawrence’s Migration narrative,
it is a secularization of the sacred oral voice of the folk.”47
the great migr ation 123
Wright continues by describing the lasting effects of
tions: “The migration gained in momentum” (Panel 18),
that “enchanted vision”: “We take this feeling with us each
“And the migration spread” (Panel 23), “And the migrants
day and it drains the gall out of our years, sucks the sting
arrived in great numbers” (Panel 40), “They arrived in
from the rush of time, purges the pain from our memory
Pittsburgh . . . ” (Panel 45), “And the migrants kept com-
of the past, and banishes the fear of loneliness and death.
ing” (Panel 60). Wright’s use of the first-person plural
When the soil grows poorer, we cling to this feeling; when
suggests that he himself is actively caught up in the mi-
clanking tractors uproot and hurl us from the land, we
gration; Lawrence’s use of the omniscient narrator’s third
cling to it; when our eyes behold a black body swinging
person makes him more of an observer than a passionate
from a tree in the wind, we cling to it . . .” (p. 73). Wright
participant.
ends with the ellipsis. The first sentence offers four verbs
Many of Wright’s sentences remind us of the visual
to describe the effects of the feeling the sermon elicits—
images of Lawrence’s Migration panels. Wright’s “Our
drains, sucks, purges, and banishes—each verb suggest-
hearts were high as we moved northward to the cities” (p.
ing a progressively more extreme action. The second
98) matches the mood of the migrants in Lawrence’s Panel
sentence consists of three statements, in each of which
45 (Fig. 67). Wright’s “Night and day, in rain and in sun,
the verb is cling, as if our bodies, our material selves,
in winter and in summer, we leave the land” (p. 98) recalls
embraced that “enchanted vision” of hope that Wright in
the many panels of people walking toward or waiting at
the next sentence calls “this spark of happiness under
train platforms in Lawrence’s series. Wright’s “The train
adversity” (p. 73). The oratorical tradition of southern
speeds north and we cannot sleep” (p. 99) reminds us of
preachers echoes in Wright’s words. The words are the
Lawrence’s Panel 6, the text of which reads, “The trains
balm that makes life bearable.
were packed continually with migrants.” Wright’s “The
In another passage, Wright’s description of soil erosion
apartments in which we sleep are crowded and noisy” and
is similar to that heard in Pare Lorentz’s film The River, in
“There are not enough houses for us to live in” parallel the
which a voice intones the names of trees and rivers over
captions for Lawrence’s Panels 47 and 48 (Fig. 75).
a montage of images. The repetition unifies Wright’s
Wright discusses the tensions generated when white
prose just as it unifies Lorentz’s narrative in his film and
trade unions bar blacks from membership and when
Lawrence’s texts in his panels.
blacks work as scabs, with “bloody riots break[ing] forth
Before Part 2 ends, Wright turns to the causes of the
over trifling incidents that would ordinarily be forgotten
migration and mentions factors identical to the subjects
in the routine of daily living” (p. 123). Three of Lawrence’s
of Lawrence’s panels: men are “threatened with jail sen-
paintings, Panels 50, 51, and 52 (Fig. 69), comment on
tences” and terrorized by lynching. Wright ends the sec-
racial riots by workers. But to Wright, at the end of the
tion with a verbal image of people in motion: “We listen
working day, blacks “go home to our Black Belts and live,
for somebody to say something, and we still travel, leav-
within the orbit of the surviving remnants of the culture
ing the South. . . . From 1890 to 1920, more than
of the South, our naïve, casual, verbal, fluid folk life.”
2,000,000 of us left the land” (p. 89).
Nothing in Lawrence’s series quite parallels this descrip-
Part 3 of 12 Million, “Death on the City Pavements,”
tion of urban folk life, except perhaps his Panel 54, whose
focuses on leaving the South for life in the northern city.
caption states that blacks found “their main forms of so-
It opens with the passage: “Lord in Heaven! Good God
cial and recreational activities . . . in the church.”49
Almighty! Great Day in the Morning! It’s here! Our time
In the final, fourth part of his 12 Million, “Men in the
has come! We are leaving! We are angry no more; we are
Making,” Wright presents an optimistic coda that pleads
leaving! We are bitter no more; we are leaving! We are
for multiracial efforts to effect social change. A new class
leaving our homes, pulling up stakes to move on” (p. 92).
and antiracist consciousness, “the beginning of living on
The paragraph continues with the chanted refrain “But
a new and terrifying plane of consciousness,” as Wright
we are leaving. . . . But we are leaving. . . . We are leav-
said earlier in the text (p. 99), expresses the drive away
ing. . . . For we are leaving.”48 Compare Lawrence’s cap-
from the “old folk lives” toward freedom, modernity, and
124 the great migr ation
Fig 75 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 48: “Housing for the Negroes was a very difficult problem.”
1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
conscious subjectivity explicit in Wright’s text and im-
and photography) in communicating the underlying shared
plicit in Lawrence’s panels.50
message of Lawrence, Rosskam, and Wright—that twelve
If Wright did not make contact with Lawrence in the summer of 1941 when he was revising his drafts of 12 Mil
million black voices represented a strong collective voice for America.
lion Black Voices, he must have known that he had much
Rosskam’s inventive photo editing gave 12 Million Black
in common with the younger artist.51 Jack Moore’s as-
Voices a certain coherence, despite the multiple styles of
sessment of Wright—that his “verbal montages, the text’s
the photography. At least twenty photographs depict
photographs, and the narrator’s voice again telescope
people working (mostly in the cotton fields) or walking to
black history, now despairing, now hoping, always return-
work; several show people participating in church ser-
ing to the vision of attainable progress”—could apply
vices; two focus on violence; and one shows a burning
equally well to Lawrence. Indeed, Lawrence’s last panel
house. Twenty to thirty others show people looking di-
of Migration (Fig. 76), whose caption reads, “And the mi-
rectly at the camera or looking off camera in a way that
grants kept coming,” compares with Wright’s last line,
nonetheless conveys the emotions behind their expres-
“Voices are speaking. Men are moving! And we shall be
sions. In such images, the subjects reach out for our em-
with them . . .” (p. 147; Wright’s ellipsis). The photograph
pathetic response. In Lawrence’s series, only four scenes
by Carl Mydans following Wright’s words on the last page
show blacks working, and those include a physician exam
(p. 147; Fig. 77) also projects a positive image, with a black
ining a patient (Panel 56) and a domestic female worker
man standing in front of his ramshackle house and looking
(Panel 57). Only one of Lawrence’s works presents a
up into the sunlight. The we in this last sentence suggests
church scene (Panel 54). Like Rosskam, Lawrence in-
that for Wright, a committed Marxist at the time, all of
cludes two scenes of racial violence (Panels 50 and 52)
humanity would join in this working-class movement of
and one of burning houses (Panel 51). Because of Law-
African Americans to advance equality; Wright’s ellipsis
rence’s flat simplified style, one that rendered faces with
suggests that the situation will continue. Lawrence would
just a few lines for eyes and mouths, we cannot say that
have seen it that way, for his figures in Panel 60 turn to
the faces of any of the figures reveal a complex subjectiv-
face the viewer. The idea that African Americans repre-
ity. The artist wanted, instead, to present iconic general-
sented all Americans was a deeply felt conviction of the
ized figures and hence relied on the various activities in
painter throughout his life. “We are you.”52
which they engage, their positions, and their body language to project their attitudes and motivations. Law-
rosskam’s 12 million black voices It was not only Wright’s text that made 12 Million Black
rence’s migrants read letters and newspapers about opportunities in the North, meet with white agents, speak among themselves, and pick up their portable possessions and move. In the North they go to school and vote.
Voices famous but also Rosskam’s organization and se-
Lawrence conveys his message not through mimetic
quencing of photographs drawn from several sources:
realism but through symbolic details of gesture, clothing,
archival photographs, those shot by Rosskam and Lee
and spatial relations, with color augmenting the mood—for
especially for the project, and those of news services.
example, his use of bright colors to suggest the happy
Whereas Lawrence controlled the formal design of each
anticipation of the family riding the train in Panel 45 (Fig.
panel, its content, and its sequencing in the series as a
67). For Lawrence the overall representational goal is to
whole, Rosskam was restricted by having to select and
assert the modernity and humanity of a people who act
create his own representation from numerous works by
to change their oppressive conditions. His figures have
others, though he had thousands in the FSA archive from
agency through their collective will. Some sixteen of his
which to choose.53 That said, comparisons between the
panels show people on the move, whereas only one image
painted panels and the photographs may throw into relief
does so in Rosskam’s assembled photographs, Evicted
the possibilities and drawbacks of each medium (painting
Sharecroppers, Missouri, by Arthur Rothstein (p. 89). 54
126 the great migr ation
Fig 76 The Migration of the Negro, Panel 60: “And the migrants kept
coming.” 1940–41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY. Fig 77 Carl Mydans, Back Yard of Alley Dwelling, Washington, D.C.
Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 147. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection.
Fig 78 John Vachon, Courtroom Scene, Virginia. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 44. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection. Fig 79 International News Photos, Lynching, Georgia. The man has
been identified as Lint Shaw. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 45. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Two consecutive panels by Lawrence, 14 and 15 (Figs.
white man’s law is stable but inflexible. Lawrence depicts
61 and 62), make a telling contrast with two photographs
no gestures or expressions to reveal how blacks would
in 12 Million that face each other and share a single cap-
resist the white man’s southern law. As viewers, we share
tion, “The law is white”: John Vachon’s Courtroom Scene,
the space and point of view of the blacks, looking up to
Virginia (p. 44; Fig. 78) and the International News Photos’
the judge from below.
Lynching, Georgia (p. 45; Fig. 79). The caption for Law-
The Vachon photograph, cropped by Rosskam to con-
rence’s Panel 14 reads: “Among the social conditions that
centrate the image, captures the realistic details of the
existed which was partly the cause of the migration was
scene, such as the contrasting expressions and body lan-
the injustice done to the Negroes in the courts.”
guage of the two figures standing before and looking up
In Lawrence’s courtroom scene two dark figures ap-
at the judge. The gesticulating hand and animated facial
proach the bench, from which a white judge stares down
expression of the well-dressed black woman as she
at them. The empty background, a pale gray-brown
makes her argument and the composed face and defi-
square behind the judge, and the rectangular panels of
antly crossed arms of her male companion draw our at-
his bench that confront the litigants suggest that the
tention to a potential confrontation. Three framed por-
128 the great migr ation
traits of white men look down from the walls to remind everyone of courtroom traditions and the power of the
the migration series and fortune
state out of the couple’s reach. The sitting judge is a portly white man in a suit, tapping the tips of his fingers together
In November 1941, Fortune magazine published Law-
as if contemplating how to phrase his ruling. Beside him
rence’s Migration series as an eight-page spread (Fig.
another white man (and perhaps a second man) stare
80), with full-color reproductions of twenty-six panels,
down at the litigants. We sympathize with the black couple,
giving an unprecedented boost to the artist’s career. Alain
whose faces we can see and read, but our spatial position
Locke, who had mentored Lawrence, and Edith Halpert,
is with the white men. In this case, we are on the side of
who planned to show the entire series in her Downtown
the Law—looking down upon the litigants, who may suc-
Gallery briefly in November and for her major exhibition in
ceed, or not, with their pleas and petitions.
December, could not have been more pleased with the
On the page facing the Vachon couple is the Interna-
Fortune spread.60 Consulting with the Fortune staff, Locke
tional News Photo of the bullet-riddled bloodied torso of
wrote to his good friend Peter Pollack, director of the
a barefoot lynched man slumped against a young tree, his
South Side Community Center in Chicago, just before
overalls ripped and his head twisted to the side by the
the issue of Fortune was published: “I have seen the Law
noose. Eight men surround him and the tree, crowding to
rence Fortune lay-out. It is one of the most imposing things
gether for inclusion in the photograph that has captured
I have seen. The story, stressing social significance of the
the spectacle. They gaze at the photographer, while the
migrations is a masterpiece. Was done by the whole staff
nearest man, on the left, looks at the victim, who has been
at several of our suggestions. The new masses [New
identified as Lint Shaw.55 As in so many photographs of
Masses] couldn’t have done this thing better, and in this
lynched victims, many of them produced as souvenir
plutocratic magazine, I just cant believe it.”61 Fortune’s
postcards, the abject body became symbolic—to racists
article was unsigned and was, indeed, a surprising text
such images provided evidence of white men’s vindictive
for Henry Luce’s premier business magazine—or was it?
triumph over their fear of black men’s power.56 The images
A receptive audience was developing within the busi-
in the form of postcards were also instruments of terror
ness world for imagery of the African American migrants
to warn black men and women.57
coming north to work in industry. When Fortune magazine
In contrast, Lawrence’s Panel 15 (Fig. 62) reads: “An-
published the Migration spread, the nation was gearing
other cause was lynching. It was found that where there
up for war production.62 Luce’s often-quoted “American
had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to
Century” essay, published in the February 17, 1941, issue
leave at first left immediately after this.” A lone figure,
of Life, projected an ideal of the United States as an in-
dressed in red, sits hunched over on a rock. Over the figure
ternational economic leader and humanitarian provider
a solitary tree branch extends from the right, an empty
for the entire world. But, warned Luce, this “will not hap-
noose looped around it. It is a minimalist scene, with al-
pen unless our vision of America as a world power in-
most two-thirds of the picture consisting of a thin wash of
cludes a passionate devotion to great American ideals . . .
light gray-brown. It is similar to the gray-brown Lawrence
a love of freedom, a feeling for the equality of opportunity,
used in his courtroom scene, except that here the shape is
a tradition of self-reliance and independence and also of
fluid, suggesting sky, perhaps water, or the elegiac thoughts
co-operation.”63
58
The media of painting and pho-
To Luce and others, the image of the racially integrated
tography offer different possibilities to artists. The painter
factory would be a necessary step toward that vision of
uses color abstractly for symbolic purposes to express
equality of opportunity. The image was needed immedi-
of the mourning figure.
the endurance of the survivor; the news service photo-
ately; the reality could come later. The picture magazines
graph, attentive to detail and facial expressions, gives
of 1941 were filled with articles on defense and positive,
immediate evidence of the horrors of lynching and its de
almost propagandistic, advertisements for the American
humanizing effects on the participants.59
war industry, running efficiently and conflict-free. But the
the great migr ation 129
Fig 80 Twenty-six panels from Jacob Lawrence’s Migration series as they appeared in Fortune (November 1941).
images did not yet include African Americans. The black
The eight-page spread in Fortune was titled “ ‘. . . And
press had a similar focus, but their images depicted Afri-
the Migrants Kept Coming’: A Negro Artist Paints the Story
can Americans. For example, the Crisis, the journal of the
of the Great American Minority.” The first page of text,
NAACP, ran pictures of African American soldiers in the
which included a photograph of Lawrence, discussed
184th and 349th field artillery regiments in the May 1941
some of the points he was making in his captions, adding
issue; in July 1941 it advertised an NAACP conference, the
an appeal to industry: “The Negro is one-tenth of the U.S.
theme of which was “The Negro in National Defense.” In
population, and as the nation strives to develop the full
August the Crisis ran an article, “A Call to Negro Youth,”
measure of its strength it cannot for long ignore that one-
about the need for Negro youth in industry, particularly
tenth—or the problems it both faces and creates.” The
in the defense industry. The cover of the November 1941
page concludes:
issue pictured a young black man working with sheet metal in a Hampton Institute shop. Thus, to Luce’s editors, Lawrence’s pictures could have seemed a first step—im-
A few months ago the Negro leader A. Philip Randolph, head of the Pullman porters union, announced plans for a “March on Washington” to protest against discrimination facing Ne-
ages heralding the inevitability of African Americans in
groes in the army, in industry, in every phase of the defense
the workforce and cautioning against the repercussions
program. Fifty thousand Negroes pledged themselves ready
if racism continued.
to march July 1. Then on June 25 President Roosevelt issued
130 the great migr ation
an executive order to end discrimination and to implement it
Filled with statistics about labor needs in industry and
the OPM [Office of Production Management] established its
the barriers to Negro employment, the article—like all
Committee on Fair Employment Practice with two Negro
Fortune articles—is unsigned. The essay delivered a
members. Randolph’s 50,000 marchers primarily wanted jobs,
pointed message warning businessmen of the human
of course, but they also wanted more—the chance to belong.
damage of racism. The full-color, full-page frontispiece to the article fea-
It was shrewd of Fortune’s editors to insert a tacit warning
tured a painting by Romare Bearden; the article itself in-
that African Americans might take to the streets and join
cluded six more reproductions, in both color and black-
Randolph’s threatened march on Washington if business-
and-white, of paintings and drawings by Charles Alston.
men did not take a more conciliatory stance toward the
Alston’s representations of the war industry incorporate
black working class.64
workers integrated by race, but his scenes of barracks
The shorter texts on the subsequent pages of the For
life depict only black soldiers—the reality of the segre-
tune spread pull no punches, although they, too, end on a
gated army. The caption describing camp life points out
positive, feel-good note for their business readership. “But
“the liability of segregation.”68
even in the segregation and discrimination he endures the Negro is finding strength. If he cannot achieve dignity in the eyes of the whites, he can create a racial pride that somewhat compensates—and he does. If he cannot make any individual headway in a white world, he can make collective headway if he learns to make the weight of his
the critical and popular reception of the migration series
numbers felt. . . . He has the ballot.”65 Conveniently, Law-
By June 1942 the Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips
rence had painted Panel 58, showing African Americans at
Collection in Washington, D.C., had purchased Lawrence’s
the polls.
Migration panels; MoMA got the even numbers, and the
In June 1942 Fortune ran a second long article on Af-
Phillips, the odd.69 After a showing at the Phillips, the paint
rican Americans, “The Negro’s War,” the subtitle of which
ings began to tour the country in October 1942.70 Two
read: “One-tenth of the U.S. population still has not a full
weeks before the exhibition opened at the first venue,
share in America’s greatest undertaking. Nine-tenths may
an assistant at MoMA wrote to Roy Stryker at FSA, re-
have to pay the costs of wasteful discrimination.”66 The
questing five FSA photographs for use in a collage she
text urged integration in industry and rehearsed the toll
planned to send along with the traveling exhibition.71 The
of segregation:
photographs were Delano’s Sharecropper, Georgia; Lange’s Hoeing Cotton, Alabama (see Fig. 74); Lee’s
The Negro has grown with America. . . . He is molded by
Church Service, Illinois and Negro Housing, Chicago, Ill.
American patterns of life. He has shared everything with his
(Fig. 81); and Rosskam’s Boy in Front of Apartment House,
American contemporaries, particularly their disillusionment.
Chicago, Ill. (Fig. 82), all of which had been reproduced
But his is a specific skepticism: the fierce violent skepticism
in 12 Million Black Voices.72 The MoMA staff evidently saw
of a very young race. He lives in America, but then again he
the connection between Lawrence’s panels and Wright’s
does not. Reminded every day of his color, sometimes he can’t help thinking with his skin; worse even, sometimes his skin thinks for him. This is the irrational toll on his, and America’s, rational way of life—an ever present irritation, the steady denial of a normal American existence. . . .
and Rosskam’s photo book. The Migration panels returned for an exhibition in the MoMA auditorium gallery from October 10 to Novem- ber 5, 1944, at a time when World War II was at its most
The American Negro is agitated not because he is asked to
intense.73 The U.S. Army had invaded Normandy the
fight for America but because full participation in the fight is
preceding June and was slowly advancing through Europe;
denied him. He is humiliated as a Negro because he is not fully
Italy had fallen, and some of the most harrowing battles
accepted as an American.67
were occurring in the Pacific.74 The exhibition elicited the
the great migr ation 131
Fig 81 Russell Lee, Negro Housing, Chicago, Ill. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 115. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection. Fig 82 Edwin Rosskam, Boy in Front of Apartment House, Chicago, Ill. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 137. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection.
most extensive press coverage of Lawrence’s work to
ticulate the essentials. Detail is suppressed except where
date, with critics praising both his unique modernist style
it functions both as part of design and basic part of fact.
and his choice of subject. Emily Genauer wrote in the
His steep perspective generates immediacy.”77
New York World-Telegram and Sun that she liked Law-
The artist Elizabeth Catlett spoke for the African Ameri-
rence’s modern style, his “splendid gift for color and de-
can community when she wrote in the People’s Voice: “One
sign, integrating both into compositions distinguished by
cannot look at these seemingly simple portrayals of the
their highly sophisticated treatment of blocky, almost
startling lack of the bare necessities of life, the frustra
primitive forms.”75
tions and complexities of daily struggle, and the deter-
The reviewer for Art Digest, in contrast, focused on Law
mined mass movement towards democratic equality, of
rence’s subject matter in the Migration paintings: “They
these Negroes without a decided self examination.”78 To
picture the lot of the Negroes in the agricultural South,
Catlett, however, the artistic achievement rested on his
and the results, both good and bad, of transplanting
successful alloy of subject and style. To her, the young
them in large quantities into the war plants of the urban,
artist was already “one of America’s truly great painters”
industrial North at a time of national crisis. No profes-
because “his style of painting with almost elemental color
sional sociologist could have stated the case with more
and design is a perfect means for the expression of the
clarity—or dignity.”76 In Art News, Aline Louchheim agreed
fundamental needs of the Negro. There are no fripperies,
that Lawrence’s modernist style went beyond notions of
no superficialities, no unnecessary additions. He strips
pure painting: “The way Lawrence sees is in terms of
his material to the bone.”79 These critics recognized that
pattern in bright primary color, unmodulated . . . and in
Lawrence had forged a modernism—characterized by
simplification of form. Form is simplified in order to ar-
clarity of form, a reductive range of color, the absence of
132 the great migr ation
tonal variations, and simplified spatial relations—that ex
I painted the Great Migration Series when I was a young man.
pressed deeply felt and immediate social concerns.
Still, when I go back to those paintings, I see once more the
That these voices should blend into a rousing chorus of
symbols of people on the move. I want to say this again: I don’t
admiration for the Migration series is not difficult to under-
think black people in making this movement just contributed
stand. Consciously or not, Lawrence had his hand on the pulse of America in early 1940 when he first proposed the series to the Julius Rosenwald Fund as a project worthy of a fellowship. For different, often overlapping, reasons a wide audience was in place to respond—African American integrationists, white liberals, leftist artists, and capitalist businessmen.
to their own development. They contributed to American development. And I know now, from decades of further experiences, that these paintings tell an even larger, universal story. This is important because, for me, a painting should have three things: universality, clarity and strength. Clarity and strength so that it may be aesthetically good. Universality so that it may be understood by all men. It is necessary in creating a painting to find out as much as
Given his enormous talent and the encouragement he
possible about one’s subject, thereby freeing oneself of hav-
received from major figures in the cultural and artistic
ing to strive for a superficial depth. I hope you and all of your
worlds, Lawrence was in the right place at the right time
colleagues on this production will seek to know all you can
to undertake such an ambitious project as picturing the
about the migration and its meanings. My wish is also that
Great Migration. He created a didactic public art, capable
you will bring to the production a sense of the vital, strong
of educating and inspiring Americans looking for jobs
and pulsating beat that has always been humanity. In this
(and hiring for jobs) in industry. His visual and textual sources were diverse—ranging from documentary photographs, to film, to New York modernism, and from books and pamphlets in the Schomburg Collection to streetcorner lectures, poetry readings in Harlem art centers, political meetings, and the stories he recalled from his family—but the resulting work of art sprang from his core understanding of history and the nature of modernity and from his belief in the future.
way, you will tell the story I’ve articulated through my paintings and make it yours. 80
In 2000, some sixty years had passed since Lawrence wrote in his application to the Julius Rosenfeld Fund that the migration had “affected the whole of America mentally, economically and socially.”81 His feelings had become deeper, and he stressed again that the migration had influenced the totality of American development. Lawrence’s beliefs, the premises behind his statement, had matured
n
through the years. A people’s willing embrace of risk,
Shortly before he died, in 2000, Lawrence wrote to a tele
struggle, and change defines their modernity. To Law-
vision production company that had planned to incorpo
rence, our understanding of that story, that we are you, is
rate the panels of the Migration series into a production:
also the measure of our humanity.
the great migr ation 133
5
confrontations with the jim crow south in the
1940 s
To be Jim Crowed hurts my soul. To have on my uniform and have to be Jim Crowed. . . . I want to beat Jim Crow first . . . Hitler’s over yonder, and Jim Crow is here.
langston hughes, speaking through his fictional black Everyman, Simple, in the Chicago Defender (1943) Meaning does not adhere in events themselves, but depends for its interpretation on the social, cultural, and political arena in which the narratives of events are circulated, the values of those telling the story, and those listening.
dora apel, Imagery of Lynching (2004)
In 1940–41, when Jacob Lawrence painted his epic Migra
traditions, and the petty humiliations that African Ameri-
tion series of sixty panels, he had never visited the South.
cans in the South experienced daily. Many of his southern
He relied on the accounts circulating in his community
images are more than on-the-spot views of southern
and on his own research at the 135th Street Harlem
scenes—they express the moral shock that he, a north-
branch of the New York Public Library, where he studied
ern, urban African American artist, must have experi-
books and other materials on African American culture
enced during his southern travels.
that had been amassed by the bibliophile Arthur Schomburg. When he finished the series, he resolved to see the South for himself. As I noted in Chapter 2, the Julius Rosenwald Fund renewed his fellowship, which would give him financial security for 1941–42. The $150 payment he received from Fortune magazine, when it optioned the publication of his Migration series, enabled him and his fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight to get married on July 24, 1941. Shortly thereafter, Lawrence traveled to New Orleans to locate housing for him and his wife, who joined him within a few weeks.
harlem’s views of the south On that first trip to New Orleans Lawrence was just easing into the actual South and its culture. He remarked to an interviewer in 1961: It was my first trip South. . . . I was very involved with the South. I had just completed my first migration series without ever having seen the South. I picked New Orleans to go to. I didn’t realize it wasn’t a typical Southern City. . . . I think . . .
In the course of three more trips to the South during
that any Negro person has a strong relationship to the South,
the 1940s, Lawrence became increasingly disturbed by a
even if he wasn’t born there. Twenty years ago, if you weren’t
way of life founded on racist terror, Jim Crow laws and
born in the South, your parents were. Your life had a whole
Fig 83 Rampart Street, 1941. Tempera on paper, 237⁄8 x 181 ⁄16 in. (60.6 x 45.9 cm). Collection of the Portland Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jan de Graaff.
Southern flavor; it wasn’t an alien experience to you even if
of Colored People had become involved, and they used to
you had never been there.1
keep a record of how many blacks were killed. I was aware of these things, but not in an intellectual way.”5
Indeed, much of Harlem, especially the food in its restau-
Lynching—as a brutal assault on the body and the psyche,
rants, the blues and jazz music in its bars and clubs, and
as a weapon of terrorism to ensure social control—often
the soft drawls of the newly arrived migrants, continually
trumped the pleasant memories.
reminded the majority of Harlemites of their southern roots. 2
Newspaper reports also shaped Lawrence’s knowledge of the South. During the 1930s, when Lawrence was an
Objective assessments and personal memories often
impressionable youngster newly arrived in Harlem, black
merge in perceptions of the South. In 1943 the writer
newspapers such as the New York Amsterdam News, the
George S. Schuyler asked: “Just what do Negroes, by and
Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, and the Balti
large, think about the South?” He answered his own ques-
more Afro-American carried national and local stories
tion as follows: “Well, their thoughts about Dixie are simi-
that helped form public opinion in the black community.
lar to the opinion of Jews about Germany. They love the
These newspapers served as bulletin boards for civic and
South (especially if they are Southern-born) for its
society events, and they provided outlets for black busi-
beauty, its climate, its fecundity and its better ways of
nesses to advertise their products and services. The ma-
life; but they hate, with a bitter, corroding hatred, the
jor newspapers hired their own news photographers and
color prejudice, the discrimination, the violence, the cru-
editorial cartoonists, but they also used photographs
dities, the insults and humiliations, and the racial segre-
from the news services.6 Along with news about the De-
gation of the South, and they hate all those who keep
pression, unemployment, and instances of Jim Crow seg-
these evils alive.”3 Langston Hughes also compared the
regation in the North, the writers and editors of the Am
South to Nazi Germany when reporting, in his Chicago
sterdam News, for example, consistently reported on
Defender column of December 19, 1942, on a conversa-
lynchings, on the failures of southern lawmakers to bring
tion he had had with a black soldier on furlough. When he
the murderers to justice, on the NAACP’s efforts to per-
asked the soldier how he liked Texas, the soldier re-
suade Congress to pass antilynching legislation, and on
sponded, “Like a Jew likes Germany.”4 The attitudes ex-
the nationally publicized court trials and appeals of the
pressed by Schuyler and the soldier Hughes interviewed
nine Scottsboro Boys and the labor organizer Angelo
applied to the 1930s as well, except that writers were
Herndon.
more vocal during World War II, when tensions peaked
Lawrence certainly read and looked at the Amsterdam
between local southerners and the thousands of African
News or at least listened to the adults who spent eve-
American soldiers from the North then stationed in the
nings talking and drinking at the 306 studio of Charles
South.
Alston and Henry Bannarn, who were themselves fre-
As a lad Lawrence naturally had heard such mixed re-
quently featured in the Amsterdam News as noteworthy
ports about the South from his family; his mother’s peo-
artists.7 In the opinion of the many reporters, writers, and
ple were from Alexandria, Virginia, and his father’s, from
editors on the staff, the South was a place of unspeak-
the Beaufort area of South Carolina. Lawrence, like all
able humiliations and brutal lynchings. In the Amsterdam
children, absorbed many of his parents’ memories of the
News on January 8, 1930, for example (the year Law-
South selectively, and he merged those partial memories
rence arrived in Harlem), there was a review of Walter
with his growing understanding of his own world—the one
White’s Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch, a
he was creating, which was also creating him. In 1982 he
searing indictment of lynchings in the South. White, a
recalled to a journalist: “When I was about three or four
light-skinned African American and field secretary of the
years [old] . . . there were a lot of racial problems, par-
NAACP, had managed to “pass” while traveling through
ticularly in the South. My folks used to talk about the
the South collecting data and doing research for his
lynchings. The National Association for the Advancement
book. 8 “Lynchings” were acts of mob violence, outside
136 confrontations with the jim crow south
the law and often hastily organized, that resulted in indi-
available information about their families and the circum-
viduals’ mutilation and death. Often the victim was first
stances of the crime.11 In feature stories and photographs,
tortured, then killed by a gun or dragged by a truck; body
the Amsterdam News followed the legal saga of the
parts were often severed or mutilated, and the body
Scottsboro Boys, nine black teenagers accused of raping
burned. The rope, tied to the branch of a tree or the
two white women on a freight train passing through Ala-
structure of a bridge, held up the victim as a spectacle, a
bama on the night of March 25, 1931. Languishing in a
sign of the white community’s power to control its black
Scottsboro, Alabama, jail and threatened by lynch mobs
population.9 The frontispiece of White’s book was George
outside, all but one of the youths were given the death
Bellows’s lithograph of 1923, The Law Is Too Slow. In Bel-
sentence when the local defense attorneys bungled the
lows’s nighttime scene the black figure’s contorted body
first trial. The International Labor Defense, supported by
suggests he is being burned alive. The crowd of white
the Communist Party, came to their defense for the retri-
men, some in overalls and some in suits, band together
als. Ruby Bates, one of the young women who had made
to witness the spectacle. A figure at the right rakes the
the original accusation, recanted and came to Harlem to
fire that glows in the center of the composition.
raise money for the Scottsboro Boys’ legal fund.12
The Amsterdam News did not stint in reporting lynch-
Another figure in the news who faced Jim Crow justice
ings; such stories deserved and received front-page cov-
was Angelo Herndon, a black communist labor organizer
erage. For example, in a four-month period in mid-1930,
convicted of “inciting insurrection” when he led a march
articles and editorials on specific incidents appeared in
of unemployed blacks and whites in Atlanta, Georgia, in
the following issues:
1932.13 Such legal cases and the continuing brutalities of lynch mobs led the NAACP to put its efforts into promot-
April 16, 1930—lynching of a Pullman porter in Georgia
ing antilynching bills in Congress. The Amsterdam News
April 30, 1930—lynching in Mississippi
duly reported the painfully slow progress of these bills. To
May 14, 1930—lynching in Sherman, Texas
the consternation of the black press, President Roosevelt declined to speak out on the issue, a transparent admis-
June 4, 1930—lynching attempt in Oklahoma
sion of his reluctance to alienate white southern Demo-
June 11, 1930—editorial on lynching
crats, whose support he needed for his New Deal legisla-
July 23, 1930—editorial on lynching August 13, 1930—double lynching in Indiana August 20, 1930—lynching in North Carolina
tion and his own reelection.14 The NAACP and the Communist Party competed for public approval in their efforts to make progress against lynchings, and both organizations also realized how cultural events, such as art exhibitions, could make the pub-
In September, three more issues of the weekly carried
lic aware of lynchings. In 1935 supporters of each organi-
reports or editorials about lynchings. The NAACP, which
zation mounted two controversial art exhibitions on the
provided statistics to the Amsterdam News, the Chicago
subject of lynchings.15 Lawrence was not then experienced
Defender, and other newspapers, reported that in 1932
enough as an artist to participate, but he knew many of
there had been eight lynchings; in 1933, twenty-eight; in
the artists who submitted work, including Bannarn and
1934, fifteen; and in 1935, twenty.10
Alston, who were his teachers at the time. It is highly likely
By the mid-1930s the Amsterdam News had added im-
that the young artist saw both exhibitions.
ages to its reports of lynchings, both actual photographs,
The NAACP exhibition, An Art Commentary on Lynch
such as the lynching of Rubin Stacey in Florida in its No-
ing, opened at the Arthur U. Newton Galleries, at 11 West
vember 20, 1937, issue, and editorial cartoons, such as
Fifty-seventh Street, on February 15, 1935, and ran for
“Impatience,” by William C. Chase, shown in its Septem
two weeks.16 Thirty-nine artists (showing fifty-six art-
ber 21, 1935, issue (Figs. 84 and 85). The Amsterdam
works) were included in the show, among them the black
News made a point of giving the names of victims and all
artists Henry W. Bannarn, Samuel J. Brown, E. Simms
confrontations with the jim crow south 137
Fig 84 “Justice, à la Dixie,” New York Amsterdam News, November 20, 1937. The caption reads in part: “Little children are amused at the
body of Rubin Stacey, hanging from a Florida tree.” Courtesy New York Amsterdam News. Fig 85 William C. Chase, “Impatience,” New York Amsterdam News, September 21, 1935. Image courtesy New York Amsterdam News. Fig 86 “Judge Lynch Presides” by T. R. Poston, with photo of the Thomas Hart Benton painting A Lynching, New York Amsterdam News, March 2, 1935. Art © T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Newspaper image courtesy New York Amsterdam News.
Campbell, William C. Chase, Allan Freelan, Jay Jackson,
painting A Lynching (Fig. 86), a work included in the
Wilmer Jennings, Malvin Gray Johnson, William Mosby,
NAACP show.19
Prentiss Taylor, and Hale Woodruff. The New York Am
The second exhibition, Struggle for Negro Rights, held
sterdam News reviewer urged readers to visit the exhibi-
at the ACA Gallery, at 52 West Eighth Street, from March
tion, declaring, “There is displayed the disgrace of so-
3 to March 16, contained more radical images. It was
called Western civilization in all its depraved glory and
sponsored by the John Reed Club, the Artists’ Union, the
stark realism.”17 In the February 23 issue of the Amster
Artists’ Committee for Action, the League of Struggle for
dam News, T. R. Poston’s long article “Judge Lynch Pre
Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense, and the
sides” elaborated on the recent history of lynchings,
Vanguard, all of which had members associated with the
especially the vicious lynching of Mary Turner, a pregnant
Communist Party. No black artists were in the ACA show,
woman slain after she protested her husband’s lynch-
although Aaron Douglas participated in the organizing
ing.18 A second part of this article, in the March 2 issue,
committee. 20 Several artists participated in both shows,
included a reproduction of Thomas Hart Benton’s oil
including José Clemente Orozco, Samuel Becker, Aaron J.
138 confrontations with the jim crow south
Goodelman, Harry Sternberg, and Isamu Noguchi. The
and the Suppression of Lynching.”22 Within two years
New York Amsterdam News did not review the ACA show,
Lawrence would be studying at the American Artists
but the New Masses did, praising it over the NAACP ex-
School, whose faculty included Harry Sternberg, Philip
hibition because of the “absence of religious ‘praying
Reisman, Walter Quirt, and Louis Lozowick, all of whom
pictures,’ and more important the presence of ‘fighting
contributed to the ACA show.
pictures.’ ”21 For the slim ACA catalogue Angelo Herndon
Lynchings were not the only reason for blacks to avoid
wrote the brief essay “Pictures Can Fight!” which criti-
traveling to the South. Segregation afflicted housing,
cized the NAACP for relying only on Congress and the
schools, public facilities, and transportation. Jobs for
justice system to defeat lynchings. Herndon called for
blacks were menial and poorly paid, except for the few
direct action: “But the real truth is that we can only stop
WPA jobs available to them. Health care was inadequate,
lynching by stru gg le —by mass organization of white and
often fatally so; “whites only” hospitals would not admit
Negro workers, by mass defense, by mass pressure for a
blacks, and many Harlemites could recount famous in-
real fighting antilynching bill like the Bill for Negro Rights
stances when the victim of a car accident, such as the
confrontations with the jim crow south 139
singer Bessie Smith, died because he or she had to travel a distance to a black hospital after being turned away from one for “whites only.”23 The northern black press shaped public opinion through detailed stories of the travails of blacks in the South. The Amsterdam News reported on the many occasions when blacks fled the South after escaping from a chain gang or a lynch mob. One article of December 1937, “Escaped Twice from Prison Farms in South,” reported on Lewis Doe, who came to New York after his second escape from a South Carolina chain gang and was living respectably with his family. When he applied for a driver’s license, his past was discovered. The governor of South Carolina demanded his extradition, but Doe appealed to New York’s Governor Lehman. 24 Under the headline “Fears Dixie Mob, Says Southern Mob Waiting,” another reporter, in January 1938, wrote of interviewing a man named John Jones, whose family the New York Emergency Relief Board refused to aid because he was an official resident, not of New York, but of Oak City, North Carolina. The reporter summarized Jones’s story. He had sought asylum in New York because a North Carolina lynch mob was after him; it had all begun when he refused to purchase whiskey for a white man, and the angry white man retaliated. “Jones said he was in bed late that
Fig 87 William C. Chase, “Deporting Him, Eh?” New York Amster dam News, July 5, 1933. Image courtesy New York Amsterdam News.
night when the knocking sounded at the door of his little cabin. Mrs. Jones got up to answer the door, but Jones, hearing the mutterings of the mob escaped through a
headline of May 17, 1933, described a family walking to
window. . . . Many nights, Jones said, were spent by him
Harlem from South Carolina: “New Yorkers, Stranded in
in the bushes and the woods, trying to escape the fury of
Dixie, Walk 778 Miles Fleeing Peonage.” Mr. and Mrs.
the mob, inflamed by the passion of a white man who
Harry Thomas, New Yorkers, had gone south for a fu-
wanted a ‘nigger to buy him some whiskey.’ ” He finally
neral, but sickness in the family had delayed their return
borrowed money to escape to New York, and his family
and depleted their funds. When Harry Thomas found
followed. The article ends with Jones’s words: “All I want
work, at forty cents a day, he was paid in food supplies
is a chance to earn a living for my family. People in the
only, so that he was reduced to peonage. The family re-
North don’t know what it is to live in the South.”25 In an-
solved to escape but had to leave on foot. As Thomas
other instance, James Veeney, a jobless southerner,
explained to the reporter: “The whites down there won’t
sought legal help when a New Jersey judge ordered him
even give colored people lifts on that road any more. . . .
to return to Virginia or go to jail; the Amsterdam News ran
And you don’t dare tell them that you are going to New
an editorial cartoon by William C. Chase in its July 5, 1933,
York. When they stop you and ask you, ‘nigger, where
issue, captioned “Deporting Him, Eh?” (Fig. 87).
you going?’ you have got to say that you are going to the
The North, of course, was not free of racism and preju-
next town. If you say New York they’ll take you and give
dice, but Harlemites visiting the South were appalled at
your head a good whipping. I know many poor souls who
the viciousness of the southern version. A front-page
got whipped like that.”26 Photographs of nicely dressed
140 confrontations with the jim crow south
people like the Thomases and their heartrending stories provided more evidence of daily ordeals in the South.
many of its time-worn customs and quaint traditions, it is a typical American city.” But Clark qualified the warm and
Nonetheless, the South still retained a romantic aura
evocative image he had just evoked: “However, despite its
for black migrants in the North; in spite of the horror sto-
remarkable advances in culture and industry—New Or-
ries, it represented “home.” Lawrence as a youth had been
leans has as yet to rid itself of many of the practices which
aware of his friends’ nostalgia for the South. His older
have helped keep the races apart. Today over 150,000
friend Romare Bearden had spent some of his grade
citizens of the city of New Orleans, approximately one-
school years in North Carolina and Maryland. 27 Charles
third of her entire population, are still the victims of sys-
Alston, Lawrence’s mentor, had gone to the South in
tematic segregation.”31 Clark’s book, packed with illustra-
1938, traveling throughout the region with a Farm Secu-
tions, statistics, a brief history of the city, and a proud
rity Administration supervisor and taking photographs,
account of the jazz musicians who played there, intended
which he may have shown to Lawrence upon his return to
to offer a profile of a “new type of Negro”—businessman,
the 306
studio. 28
artist, athlete—who was emerging even amid continuing
Lawrence was well aware of the literature of the South,
discrimination, segregation, and wage inequalities. One
much of which idealized its folkways. The folklorist Zora
learns from Clark that the local black newspapers, the
Neale Hurston presented in her realistic and compassion-
New Orleans Sentinel and the Louisiana Weekly, were good
ate novels, such as Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937),
resources for understanding the gains being made in the
sagas of southern rural black folk that explored their
city in spite of Jim Crow. 32
struggles to work, love, and survive. At his death Law-
The Lawrences went to New Orleans, however, not to
rence owned a copy of Jean Toomer’s Cane, the most
reform the bigots, to be schooled, or to frequent the jazz
poetic of the books published in the 1920s about black
clubs, but to paint. Once settled into their home at 2430
southern folk; Lawrence borrowed it from the public li-
Bienville Avenue, a black neighborhood two blocks north-
brary in 1939 and never returned it. 29
east of Canal Street, Lawrence worked on his John Brown series of twenty-two paintings. Few paintings by Knight
new orleans sojourn,
1941– 42
survive from the trip, but the evidence of her Untitled (New Orleans Series), 1941 (Fig. 88), suggests how much the
New Orleans “wasn’t a typical Southern City,” as Lawrence
color and the lushness of the private spaces of New Or-
came to realize. One booster, Peter Wellington Clark, who
leans appealed to her.33
published Delta Shadows: A Pageant of Negro Progress in
Lawrence kept up a correspondence with Edith Halp-
New Orleans at the time the Lawrences resided there,
ert, who wrote of her eagerness to have single pictures
described an idealized Louisiana and New Orleans:
from him that she could show in her exhibition American Negro Art: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, scheduled
Deep down in the bosom of the Southland slumbers Louisiana,
to have its preview opening on December 8, 1941.34 Law-
gem of a colonial empire, gate-way to the Gulf, land of moon-lit
rence obliged by shipping four pictures to her, all dealing
splendor, of moss-covered magnolias and cypress-shaded
with “the life of Negroes here in New Orleans,” Rampart
bayous, storehouse of sulphur, oil, of rice and sugar cane.
Street, Catholic New Orleans, The Green Table, and Bar
Deeper still, in Louisiana’s delta region, lies New Orleans, favorite daughter of “Ol’ Man River,” whose muddy waters empty into the warm, green depths of the Gulf of Mexico. . . . No other metropolis of the South can surpass New Orleans for its romantic past; few can rival it for its inter-mixture of races, creeds and nationalities. 30
and Grill,35 but Halpert showed only The Green Table and Catholic New Orleans in that exhibition. Rampart Street (see Fig. 83) appeared in a group exhibition of watercolors at the Downtown Gallery in January 1942. One of the main thoroughfares in black New Orleans—at the edge of the French Quarter, a block above
In his book Clark disagreed with Lawrence’s sense of New
Burgundy Street—Rampart Street had stores, pawn
Orleans as different, claiming that although “it retains
shops, nightclubs, and the Patterson Hotel, as well as the
confrontations with the jim crow south 141
Fig 88 Gwendolyn Knight, Untitled (New Orleans Series), 1941. Gouache on paper, 131 ⁄2 x 123⁄4 in. (34.3 x 32.4 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Gift of the Phillips Contemporaries, 2001. Art © 2009 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Rhythm Club and the Tick Tock Tavern, where some of the jazz bands played.36 Whereas a typical tourist view, like the one depicted in Delta Shadows (Fig. 89), displayed a wide-angle view of a scene, Lawrence presented a visual montage of the quarter’s bustling activity—with crowded sidewalks, signage, and the clusters of three round yellow globes that represent pawnshops and signify a tenuous economic stability. Halpert did not include Bar and Grill (Fig. 90), with its scene of racial segregation, in any of her exhibitions; she must have reasoned that the picture would not sell. Whether or not Lawrence ever saw such a long bar with a ceiling-to-floor divider separating spaces for white and black customers, the spare furnishings are telling. White
142 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 89 Patterson Hotel on New Orleans’ Famous Rampart Street, photo in Peter Wellington Clark, Delta Shadows: A Pageant of Negro Progress in New Orleans ([New Orleans]: Graphic Arts Studios, 1942).
Fig 90 Bar and Grill, 1941.
Gouache on paper, 16 3⁄4 x 223⁄4 in. (42.5 x 57.8 cm). Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the National Academy of Design, Henry Ward Ranger Fund.
customers have a ceiling fan; black customers have none.
wall of segregation Lawrence encountered in New Orleans;
The white bartender reads his newspaper comfortably on
a city ordinance of 1924 mandated residential segregation
the cool side of the room. The six whites and three blacks
there.39 The blue sky and white clouds in the picture sug-
represent the actual demographic ratio of New Orleans in
gest a freedom beyond the wall, but the wall itself presents
1941.
a formidable barrier to the family on the street. Lawrence’s
Soon after the first shipment to Halpert, Lawrence sent
pictures, never mere depictions, are re-presentations—
her four more New Orleans scenes, only one of which,
inventions that convey his emotional responses by way of
Interior, she included in the aforementioned watercolor
a combination of realism and symbolism.
exhibition of 1942.37 Halpert did not include Bus (Fig. 91),
For Lawrence in New Orleans, riding in the back of the
a typical New Orleans scene of racial segregation, with
bus when he needed transportation, Jim Crow segrega-
African Americans crowded into the rear of the bus while
tion was becoming part of the daily routine. But he must
the white passengers sit in the front. The laws of Louisiana
have realized that the pictures Halpert could sell were
required that African Americans sit in the back of public
scenes of the African American community without refer-
buses, and custom demanded that they step aside so that
ences to segregation. Charles Sheeler, one of the other
white Americans could board first. If the bus filled up, then
artists whose work Halpert handled, purchased Catholic
black Americans waiting in line could not board, and those
New Orleans.40 And Halpert delivered Alley to Duncan
already on board had to relinquish their seats to whites.38
Phillips, who had requested it for an exhibition at his gal-
Another New Orleans scene, one that Lawrence apparently
lery in Washington.41 Neither work makes a reference to
did not send to Halpert, is The Wall (Fig. 92), which shows
segregation.42
a black family out walking, with a large red brick wall
Lawrence finished the John Brown series in December
towering behind them. The picture’s title alludes to the
1941, and with the final payment from Fortune for the
confrontations with the jim crow south 143
Fig 91 Bus, 1941. Gouache on paper, 17 x 22 in. (43.2
x 55.9 cm). George and Joyce Wein Collection. Image courtesy Michael Rosenwald Gallery, LLC, New York, NY. Fig 92 The Wall, 1941. Gouache on paper, 221 ⁄2 x 18
in. (57.2 x 45.7 cm). Private collection, courtesy of Guggenheim, Asher Associates Inc., New York.
Fig 93 Spring Plowing, 1942. Gouache and tempera on composition board, 191 ⁄2 x 23 3⁄4 in. (49.5 x 60.3 cm). Greenville County Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds donated by the Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation.
publication rights to the Migration series he made plans
be geometric. It’s clean.”47 Moreover, works such as
to live in rural Virginia for six months in order to study
Spring Plowing (Fig. 93) and Firewood lack the energy of
the life of rural African Americans.43 Originally Knight and
his urban scenes, where African Americans, whether seg-
Lawrence had planned to stay in New Orleans through
regated from whites or not, are connected to a modern
Mardi Gras, but when the pre-Lenten celebration was
working-class movement. In the end, Harlem called the
canceled because of wartime exigencies they left in Febru-
Lawrences back. The Julius Rosenwald Fund renewed his
ary for Lenexa, Virginia.44 In Lenexa, a small rural com-
fellowship, and they left Lenexa less than three months
munity about thirty miles east of Richmond, they stayed
after arriving there.48
with Lawrence’s relatives, the Tuppences. In the next two
Lawrence’s mentor Alain Locke understood the import
months Lawrence sent Halpert paintings of rural Virginia
of Lawrence’s contrasting views of the South and the
scenes, including Drawing Water and Firewood. But the
North. When Locke edited the November 1942 issue of
couple did not adjust to country living, or to Lawrence’s
Survey Graphic, he included black-and-white reproduc-
provincially minded relatives. As Gwendolyn Knight re-
tions of the artist’s work for a two-page spread. Titled
called in 2001: “It was not our sort of environment. We
“How We Live in South and North” (Fig. 94), it paired the
had very little in common—except we were all black. Typi
southern scenes Firewood and Bus with Harlem and
cal rural people. Not concerned with their animals. They
Tombstones.49 The dreary scene of the rural South, where
thought Paul Robeson was ugly.”45 Knight’s attitudes re-
a woman chops firewood, contrasts with the vibrant
sembled those of other urban northerners, especially aca
bird’s-eye view of Harlemites bustling along the city
demic sociologists, who typically saw rural southern black
streets. The segregated bus of the urban South contrasts
life as similar to that of preindustrial peasants.46 Lawrence’s drab and generally colorless rural southern
with the supportive community of a brownstone stoop with its men, women, children, and babies. Locke’s text
scenes—often of one or two people engaged in chores—
reads: “These four paintings were not planned as a unit;
suggest the antipathy he must have felt for that environ-
yet they flow together like the stanzas of a poem. One
ment. Formless clumps of soil and bushy trees were not
does not look to this gifted young Negro for realism so
his métier. He later told art writer Avis Berman, “I have
much as for the essence of realism. His records are full
always liked a certain kind of structure that happens to
of emotion.”50 Indeed, the Survey Graphic spread conconfrontations with the jim crow south 145
Fig 94 “How We Live in South and North,” Survey Graphic (November 1942).
veyed to readers the backwardness and segregation of
looks down on two girls, with chalk in hand, who have
the South and the better situation, no matter how prob-
covered the blue-gray sidewalk with large scrawls of pink
lematic, for African Americans in the North.
and white. Many of the girls’ stick figures suggest the war: at the upper right, an airplane drops bombs; to the left of it is a large American flag. A naval ship charges
back in harlem in
1942– 43
into the scene from the lower right with guns blasting, two stick figures on the upper deck, and an American flag
Because Lawrence had the Rosenwald Fellowship to sup-
aft. At the upper left one of the two boxers may represent
port him for a third year, he managed to receive two de-
Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber,” who had joined the army.
ferments from his draft board that enabled him to plan,
The triangular figure holding a cane—a walking toy popu-
research, and paint his panels of the Harlem series
lar at the time—suggests that business-as-usual has been
through the summer of 1942.51 The Harlem paintings did
set askew, almost turned upside down. At lower left one
not refer to the war, but another painting, Sidewalk Draw
of the girls, in a bright orange dress, completes a picture
ings (Fig. 95), presages his involvement in it. The viewer
of an armory, so identified by its crenellated roofline and
146 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 95 Sidewalk Drawings, 1943. Gouache on paper, 223⁄8 x 291 ⁄2 in. (56.8 x 74.9 cm). Private collection.
American flag. The other girl, right of center and wearing
ist himself, creating images larger than himself that com-
a striped shirt, draws a picture that may be a self-por-
ment on the times.
trait. A sun near the lower edge smiles, reassuring the girls and the neighborhood that all is right. James Porter might have been studying this picture when he wrote of Lawrence in his book Modern Negro Art (1943): “Freshness of vision is the most charming quality
the “double v” war effort The war was on everyone’s mind. Although it was gener-
in this artist’s work. He sees the world anew for us. He
ally acknowledged that Jim Crow had taken over the mili-
has retained, from his age of innocence, that wholesome-
tary services, many prominent African Americans rallied
ness of comment that marks the effort of an unspoiled
to support the war effort after the Japanese attacked
artist.”
52
Lawrence may have been “unspoiled,” but the
Pearl Harbor, in Honolulu, on December 7, 1941. To them
sophisticated composition with its bird’s-eye perspective
Hitler’s racist fascism was unthinkable. In April 1942 the
and flattened space marks him as a skilled and conscious
popular minister Adam Clayton Powell Jr., writing for Com
artist. The two girls can be seen as representing the art-
mon Sense, pointed out that “the thinking Negro knows
confrontations with the jim crow south 147
that if America loses the war, his plight as a Negro will be
teen African American notables spoke their minds, in-
much worse than it is now. Under democracy, however
cluding W. E. B. Du Bois, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph,
poorly realized, the Negro does have a fighting chance.”
Mary McLeod Bethune, George S. Schuyler, Langston
Several months later the literary historian J. Saunders
Hughes, and Sterling A. Brown. Although they all sup-
Redding, writing in H. L. Mencken’s American Mercury,
ported the war effort, almost all touched on the scandal
announced that he believed in “this war we Americans
of a segregated army and navy. They believed the Jim
are fighting.” He agreed that “the ethnic theories of the
Crow South was imposing its way of life on the entire na-
Hitler ‘master folk’ admit of no chance of freedom” for
tion through military traditions and policies. They de-
people of color. “This is a war to keep men free. The
manded full citizenship and full equality for all blacks. A.
struggle to broaden and lengthen the road of freedom—
Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping
our own private and important war to enlarge freedom
Car Porters and an influential civic leader, wrote part of
here in America—will come later.” To Redding that later
his essay as a manifesto:
war for racial equality was reason enough to fight for America now. In the November 1943 issue of the Crisis, the more
Be not deceived. This is not a war for freedom. It is not a war for democracy. . . .
conservative-minded George S. Schuyler pointed to the
It is a war to maintain the old imperialistic systems. It is a
positive pragmatic consequences of the war: “A pro-
war to continue “white supremacy,” the theory of Herrenvolk,
longed global conflict will bring [Negroes] greater oppor
and the subjugation, domination, and exploitation of the
tunities, more social privileges, a larger share in the affairs
peoples of color. It is a war between the imperialism of Fas-
of state and a speedier integration into American life.” He
cism and Nazism and the imperialism of monopoly capitalist
pointed out the gains in employment because of the man-
democracy.
power shortage and predicted that “there will be a gradual
Under neither are the colored peoples free.57
breaking down of jim crowism in the armed services as the need for replacements grows.”53 The integration of
Randolph aimed to muster support for a march on Wash-
the military was indeed gradual; even though Executive
ington to demand that the government end segregation
Order 9981, integrating the military services, was signed
in all the areas of American life. Though President
by President Truman in 1948, there were still all-black
Roosevelt, under pressure from men such as Randolph,
units in the Korean War.54
Bayard Rustin, and A. J. Muste, had already signed, on
During World War II Jim Crowism in the armed ser-
June 25, 1941, the Fair Employment Act (Executive Order
vices continued to be a volatile reality. At the end of his
8802), prohibiting racial discrimination in government and
study of race relations in the country, To Stem This Tide:
the defense industry, it was clear to everybody that the
A Survey of Racial Tension Areas in the United States
laws against racial discrimination were not being
(1943), the black sociologist Charles S. Johnson con-
enforced.58
cluded: “To be commanded to die in time of war for the
The visual culture of the early war years reflects the
preservation of American institutions that denied the
tension between the government’s need to recruit black
means of earning a living in time of peace has been an
men to fight and its failure to end the ongoing segregation
Negroes.”55
Harlemites spoke of
and racism in the military. Joe Louis was recruited to be
the goals of the “Double V”—winning the war in Europe
poster boy, quite literally, for the army (Fig. 96). But the
unforgivable irony to the
and the Pacific and winning the war against discrimina-
editorial cartoonist William Chase continued to equate
tion in the United States.56 There is no doubt that the war
racism in the United States with that of Nazi Germany, as
effort exacerbated the frustrations of African Americans
in the drawing “Hitler Is Here!” that the New York Amster
over racist Jim Crow laws, customs, and codes embed-
dam News reproduced in its June 26, 1943, issue (Fig. 97).
ded in the traditions of the military. In a timely book,
Many of Lawrence’s friends were already involved in the
What the Negro Wants, edited by Rayford W. Logan, four-
“Double V” war effort. I noted in Chapter 4 that both
148 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 96 Unidentified artist, Pvt. Joe Louis Says, 1942. Color photolithograph, 3915⁄16 x 267⁄16 in. (101.4 x 67.1 cm). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (NPG 88.24). Fig 97 William Chase, “Hitler Is Here!” New York Amsterdam News, June 26, 1943. Image courtesy New York Amsterdam News. Fig 98 Charles Alston, The Negro Press, 1944. Drawing for Office of War Information, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Charles Alston and Romare Bearden produced illustrations for Fortune magazine’s June 1942 spread “The Negro’s War.” Aimed at the nation’s businessmen and industrialists, the article advocated an end to segregation in the defense industries and the military services so that the country could fight an effective war. Alston also worked for the Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington, D.C., producing illustrations that were distributed to black newspapers to boost morale and support the war effort (Fig. 98). As Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson later observed, “Although he [Alston] had keenly felt the paradox of trying to rally support for a war against racism in segregated Washington, he had felt it was necessary, and he was proud that his work had helped arouse millions of black Americans to the Nazi danger.”59 Bearden himself enlisted as a private in the army in April 1942 and was assigned to the all-black 372nd Infantry, then stationed in New York City.60
confrontations with the jim crow south 149
lawrence’s experiences in the jim crow military Like many other Harlemites, Lawrence had little enthusiasm for entering the segregated armed services. In May 1943, when the radio host Randy Goodman asked Lawrence what his plans were, he joked, “My uncle is making my plans. I had my physical last Thursday.”61 Unable to secure another deferment, Lawrence was drafted and assigned to the Coast Guard on October 20, 1943, and his active duty began on November
3.62
After basic train-
ing at Curtis Bay, Maryland, he arrived in St. Augustine, Florida—probably in late November or early December— where he worked as a steward at an officers’ training school occupying the Hotel Ponce de Leon.63 Like the other armed services, the Coast Guard segregated its personnel by specialties: Lawrence, as an African American, was given the rating of Steward’s Mate, 3rd Class, which meant his main duties would be waiting on tables and janitorial work.
ment in St. Augustine still came as a shock to the two New York artists.66 One incident stood out in their memories. When Gwen attended the Christmas dinner for the troops, a white woman—the wife of one of the recruits—refused to sit next to her.67 Lawrence later told Aline Louchheim, “St. Augustine is a tight little town. You see and feel the prejudice everywhere.”68 Twenty years later he revealed to a Chicago Defender reporter that the black men quartered in the hotel had their possessions searched for knives because they were considered troublemakers when they went into town: “It was the tension of the situation within this segregation, that brought the bald fact of discrimination into focus for me.”69 In a letter to Halpert, written sometime between January 20 and probably mid-February 1944, Lawrence revealed some of his thoughts about the South: St. Augustine is a very dead city and really southern when it comes to Negroes. There is nothing beautiful here[;] everything is ugly and the people are without feeling. As a Negro I
Thus began Lawrence’s second encounter with south-
feel a tenseness on the streets and in the Hotel where I am
ern white culture. Unlike other African Americans in the
working—in fact, every where. In the North one hears much
Coast Guard, however, Lawrence would have a relatively
talk of Democracy and the four Freedoms, down here you
easy tour of duty. Edith Halpert, his New York dealer, was
realize that there [is] a very small percentage of people who
pulling strings to get him reassigned. He realized this
try to practice democracy. Negroes need not be told what
when he wrote to her after about a month spent in St.
Facism [sic] is like, because in the south they know nothing
Augustine: “This station is considered a choice spot for
else. All of this I am trying to get into my work. It is quite a job,
men in the Coast Guard. I think that your contact had a
as it cannot be done in a realistic manner. I have to use symbols
lot to do with them placing me here, as the officer knew of my work in Baltimore.” Lawrence also reported to Halpert that he had followed her advice by making himself known to his commanding officer, Captain Joe S. Rosenthal, who had provided him with “a studio to work
and symbols are very difficult to create, that is good strong ones. It takes me much longer to do a drawing than it took me to do a painting. And my drawings are very simple. So this is what I am doing[,] a series of drawing[s] on “How a Negro sees the South.” If they are good I would like to have them published. I will not send them to you, one and two at a
in, a very spacious and light room over his garage,” and
time, but when you do see them there will be many, as I am
told her that the captain had officially requested that
working steadily.70
Lawrence “be transferred to New York on permanent detail” to paint “pictures of the Coast Guard and their
Lawrence’s remarks about fascism echo those of Aaron
work.”64 Nevertheless, he felt frustrated by his current
Douglas at the American Artists’ Congress in February
assignment to work as a steward at an officers’ training
1936, when Douglas urged all artists to fight against fas-
school: “I feel further removed from the war now than I
cism: “If there is anyone here who does not understand
did when I was a civilian.”65 Meanwhile, his housing situ-
Fascism let him ask the first Negro he sees in the street.
ation allowed Gwen to visit him, which she did for several
The lash and iron hoof of Fascism have been a constant
weeks over the Christmas holidays.
menace and threat to the Negro ever since his so-called
Although Lawrence’s situation and his captain’s sup-
emancipation.”71 Lawrence would have agreed with Doug-
port exceeded his expectations, the Jim Crow environ-
las about the pervasiveness of racism in the North, but
150 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 99 Starvation, 1943. Brush and ink on paper, 13 x 11 in. (33 x 27.9 cm). Private collection. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Fig 100 Killing the Incurable and Aged, 1943. Brush and ink on
paper, 103⁄4 x 13 in. (27.3 x 33 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle. Photo: Richard Nicol.
he wanted to emphasize in his letter to Halpert the social alienation he felt specifically about the South. Only two drawings from the group he described to Hal
ment suggests either that the writer saw many more drawings, probably from Lawrence’s own collection, or that the two made an overwhelming impression on him.75
pert are known to exist: Starvation (Fig. 99) and Killing
Charles Johnson, the lead author of To Stem This Tide,
the Incurable and Aged (Fig. 100).72 The emaciated, child-
worried about the low morale of northern African Ameri-
like figure in Starvation has difficulty reaching up to for-
can servicemen who faced southern racism and the Jim
age for food in a garbage can in an alley where the door
Crow military: “Morale is the intangible spirit of collective
to a building has been nailed to prevent his entering. In
conscious enthusiasm for an enterprise. It is represented
Killing the Incurable and Aged, figures confined to their
at its best in the war in the quality of inspired courage
beds in a small, prisonlike ward have only numbered tags
and unconquerable devotion to a cause and country. . . .
to identify them. Their large heads symbolize their sen-
It is a quality that is felt and cannot be bought, or forced
tient qualities; their withered bodies, their neglect. These
or created merely for the sake of itself. But it makes a
powerful images suggest Lawrence’s distress at having to
vital difference when it is high and, though not necessar-
endure his Coast Guard assignment in the South.73
ily criminal, it can be dangerous to a cause when it is
It is not known whether Lawrence sent any of the draw-
low.”76 Johnson’s readers (he aimed his study at policy
ings to Halpert for sale, and no evidence indicates that
makers) would have been caught off guard by the word
she exhibited any at the Downtown Gallery.74 Later, the
criminal. That racism could drive good soldiers to crimi-
author of Lawrence’s profile in Current Biography noted
nal acts was alarming, although Johnson shrewdly quali-
the “humiliating discrimination” the Lawrences experi-
fies “criminal” with “not necessarily.”
enced in St. Augustine and said of these drawings: “He
Lawrence dealt with this racism by diverting his anger
exorcised his bitterness in drawings that departed radi-
to devising drawings as stinging as Starvation and Killing
cally in attitude from his usual compassion.” This com-
the Incurable and Aged. It is possible that so few of them
confrontations with the jim crow south 151
exist because Lawrence was transferred sometime in late
of which could be sold, but most had to be turned over to
February 1944 to Boston. He may simply not have had
the Coast Guard. Halpert arranged for eight of the Coast
the time to do the number he had projected. Wrangling good military situations for her gallery’s
Guard pictures to be shown, along with his Migration series, at the Museum of Modern Art in October 1944.81
artists was a concern for Halpert. When she wrote to
The remainder of his time in the Coast Guard could not
Lawrence on March 1, enthusiastic about his news of his
have gone better. When the Sea Cloud was decommis-
transfer, she noted: “We have had so many disappoint-
sioned, in November 1944, Lawrence commemorated the
ments in connection with the other artists associated with
event in a painting (Fig. 101). Lawrence was reassigned
the gallery who had been promised transfers and interest-
to the troop ship USS General Wilds P. Richardson, com-
ing assignments. Very few of them came through and I
manded by none other than Captain Joe Rosenthal, who
am therefore particularly pleased that the efforts of our
had attended the opening of Lawrence’s exhibition at the
friends were fruitful in your case.”77
Museum of Modern Art in October 1944 (Fig. 102). Law-
In Boston, Lawrence finally had a chance to do what he
rence continued to paint Coast Guard scenes that empha-
wanted. Captain Rosenthal had arranged for his reassign-
sized the daily routine of an integrated navy at work, such
ment to the USS Sea Cloud, a private yacht converted into
as Painting the Bilges (Fig. 103). In the lower reaches of
a weather boat, patrolling in the Atlantic, which became
the ship (Lawrence looks down on the scene), a black man
the navy’s first racially integrated
ship.78
His new com-
mander, Captain Carlton Skinner, knew of Lawrence’s
and white man bend over to paint the pipes and valves used to pump out the bilgewater.
talent and was fully supportive. The artist could now
He could have requested a discharge after the war of-
spend his time observing and painting Coast Guard men
ficially ended, in September 1945, but he opted to stay
at work. In May 1944 Lawrence wrote to Halpert of his
on because his ship was sailing for India, an opportunity
good fortune:
he did not want to miss.82 His Coast Guard tour of duty took him to Argentina in Newfoundland; Southampton,
My work is coming along very nicely. Although I am not work-
England; Naples; Marseilles; Le Havre; Port of Spain, Trini-
ing under the most ideal conditions, I am able to do quiet [sic]
dad; Port Said, Egypt; and Karachi, India.83 Seven pen-and-
a bit. I feel very fortunate to be able to paint at all, for after all;
ink notebook drawings survive from these trips.84
this is War! I am very lucky to [sic], for the Captain is very
He received his discharge papers December 6, 1945,
sympathetic and understanding about painting. He has an
secure in the knowledge that he had also received a
interest in Art. He gives me all of Robert Coates Reviews [in
Guggenheim Fellowship with a stipend of $2,000.85 In his
the New Yorker] to read after he has read them, asking my appinion [sic] of them; or any other art reviews he has read. So you see as an artist that has been drafted I am not half as bad off as some of my fellows. . . . It is amazing how in spite of war, art continues on. I guess this only proves how vital and
“plan of work,” he proposed three subject areas: “Negro contemporary life in America,” “Negro historical and folk themes,” and “life in European countries under war conditions.” The resulting works were more pictures of Har-
alive it really is. Being out here at sea has really made me ap-
lem life; the fourteen panels of his War series, painted
preciate having a studio and being able to paint when and as
from 1947 to 1948; and three other pictures reflecting his
long as I wish to. That is just what we are fighting for, and if we
military memories; but none, at this time, of historical and
win (which I am sure we will) it will be well worth the time and
folk themes.
effort that all artists have put in fighting and not painting.79
The War series features an integrated military, with black and white men fighting side by side, as in Panel 8,
In early September he could report to Halpert that seven-
Beachhead (Fig. 104), and the effects of the war on the
teen completed paintings had been sent to the Coast
people at home, as in Panel 11, Casualty—The Secretary
Guard headquarters.80 He was also promoted to Specialist
of War Regrets (Fig. 105). Victory (Fig. 106) is a study for
3rd Class and assigned to public relations as an official
Panel 14, the last of the series, and shows a weary soldier,
combat artist. He continued to paint more scenes, some
his head bent down as if in prayer or mourning.
152 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 101 Decommissioning the Sea Cloud, 1944. (Also known as United States Coast Guard Boat.) Gouache on paper, 223⁄4 x 31 in. (57.8 x 78.7 cm). Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Jr. Fig 102 Lawrence with Capt. Joe Rosenthal and Carl Van
Vechten at Museum of Modern Art opening, 1944. Por trait Collection: Jacob Lawrence. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Cul ture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Fig 103 Painting the Bilges, 1944. Gouache on paper, 307⁄8 x 225⁄8 in. (78.4 x 57.5 cm). Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981. Photo: Lee Stals worth.
Fig 104 War, Panel 8: Beachhead, 1947.
Egg tempera on hardboard, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roy R. Neuberger 51.13. Fig 105 War, Panel 11: Casualty—The
Secretary of War Regrets, 1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roy R. Neuberger 51.16. Fig 106 Victory, 1947. Gouache and ink
on paper, 21 3⁄4 x 17 in. (55.2 x 43.2 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
Fig 107 Untitled [Sailors at a Bar], 1947. Tempera on paper, 151 ⁄2 x 193⁄4 in. (39.4 x 50.2 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore
Gallery, New York.
In a statement written for the Downtown Gallery in Oc-
Lawrence considered the fourteen panels to be a series
tober 1947, Lawrence expresses his empathy for the men
that were not to be sold separately. As such they display
and women affected by the war:
a unity of mood that blends patriotism and determination with stoicism and acceptance of loss; there was no place
In approaching this subject, I tried to capture the essence of war. To do this I attempted to portray the feelings and emotions that are felt by the individual—both fighter and civilian. A wife or a mother receiving a letter from overseas; the next of kin receiving a notice of a casualty; the futility men feel when at sea or down in a foxhole just waiting, not knowing what part
for irony or quirkiness. In contrast, Untitled [Sailors at a Bar], done in 1947 (Fig. 107), and not part of the series, shows an integrated scene of soldiers and sailors enjoying themselves. Small figures at the edges, however, suggest that the revelry may be short-lived. An amputee
they are playing in a much broader and gigantic plan. Finally
in the distance at the upper right edge hobbles along
the shooting is over, the end of the war has come.
with his crutch. At far left a minister performs what ap-
I hope I have succeeded in this work to convey and portray a part of the feeling war creates. 86
156 confrontations with the jim crow south
pears to be a prayer service. These details hint at the tensions in Lawrence’s psyche—the sense that oppor
tunities for such moments of relaxation and recreation
ples, Roger and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae
would not last.
Murray Dorsey, were brutally murdered—their bodies rid-
Before Lawrence was discharged, he acknowledged to
dled with bullets—by a lynch mob at the Moore’s Ford
Edith Halpert that he had had a positive experience serv-
Bridge over the Appalachee River near Monroe, Georgia,
ing in the military. A segregated military would have been
only 180 miles from Asheville. One of the men killed was a
a nightmare for him, but the integration he had observed
World War II veteran. Law officials claimed to have never
in the Coast Guard gave him hope for change in the post-
found the murderers.95
war period. Grateful to Halpert for helping him win the
During the immediate postwar period, racial incidents
Guggenheim Fellowship, he wrote her that fall: “An artist
were on the rise. African Americans and concerned whites
may be very talented and the public may like his work—
continued to speak out, write books, and hold forums on
but without a good agent to build him up and push him
the damage of racism. Gunnar Myrdal’s study An American
forward, the artist is nowhere.”87 Lawrence had beaten
Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,
Jim Crow—with a little help from Edith Halpert and from
published in 1944, set off a renewed debate about the
his superiors in the Coast Guard, Joe Rosenthal and Carl
psychology and the sociology of racism. To Myrdal, the
ton Skinner.88
“Negro problem” was a white problem, and the “American Dilemma” was the contradiction between the country’s professed ideals and people’s actual attitudes and behav-
the postwar jim crow south In 1946 Josef Albers invited Lawrence to teach at Black
ior: “the ever-raging conflict between, on the one hand, the valuations preserved on the general plane which we shall call the ‘American Creed,’ where the American thinks,
Mountain College, outside Asheville, North Carolina, for
talks, and acts under the influence of high national and
the summer term from July 2 to August 28.89 Because
Christian precepts, and, on the other hand, the valuations
Albers understood that moving to a segregated state
on specific planes of individual and group living, where
would present problems for the Lawrences, he arranged
personal and local interests; economic, social, and sexual
for them to travel by private train car. They would not
jealousies; considerations of community prestige and
have to suffer the humiliation of moving from public cars
conformity; group prejudice against particular persons or
to Jim Crow “colored” cars once they crossed the Mason-
types of people; and all sorts of miscellaneous wants,
Dixon line.90 Albers also arranged for housing.91 At Black
impulses, and habits dominate his outlook.”96 The post–
Mountain Lawrence had his first opportunity not only to
World War II rise in racist incidents led to an outpouring
teach painting to older students but also to test his phi-
of studies similar to Myrdal’s.
losophy of art. As he explained to Albers, the artist “de
Alain Locke, reviewing noteworthy books published
velop[s] an approach and philosophy about life. . . . He
from 1946 to 1948 for the journal Phylon, singled out
does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on
those that discussed contemporary racism and segrega-
canvas.”92 Knight taught dance. Lawrence was grateful
tion, including Stetson Kennedy’s Southern Exposure (1946),
for what he learned from Albers and enjoyed the friendly
Earl Conrad’s Jim Crow America (1947), John Hope Frank-
supportive environment that Albers and other profes-
lin’s From Slavery to Freedom (1947), Charles S. Johnson’s
sional artists created
there.93
He and Gwen, however, never left the small Black Moun-
Into the Main Stream (1947), Bucklin Moon’s High Cost of Prejudice (1947), Arnold Rose’s Negro in America (1948),
tain campus to venture into the closest town, Asheville.
Robert Weaver’s Negro Ghetto (1948), and Oliver C. Cox’s
The recollection of their experience in St. Augustine, their
Caste, Class and Race (1948).97 Reviewing books of 1949,
awareness of racism in North Carolina, and the terror of
Locke noted,
lynchings not surprisingly discouraged their venturing forth from the safety of the Black Mountain community.94
If one wants the best facts about the Negro, as objective and
Less than three weeks after they arrived, two black cou-
well-interwoven as modern scholarship permits, Davie and
confrontations with the jim crow south 157
Frazier [Maurice R. Davie, Negroes in American Society, and Franklin Frazier, The Negro in the United States] are basic and essential, as was, in a more explicit frame of history, John Hope
lawrence’s fourth trip to the south
Franklin’s From Slavery to Freedom. . . . If, however, one wants
In 1947 Lawrence made his fourth trip to the South—to
the human essence and the psychological implications of the
the Dixiecrat states—to fulfill a commission from Fortune
“American dilemma,” one must go to Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream . . . a sound parable of race prejudice and its killing effects upon both black and white as well as of its present-day ominous threat to world peace and world understanding.98
Ray Sprigle wrote In the Land of Jim Crow (1948) after masquerading as an African American and traveling through the South. Locke considered the book “shock enlightenment for the average reader.”99 Sprigle suffered only four weeks of humiliations and loss of citizenship as a “black” man in the South. Of course, Locke, Lawrence, and 10 percent of the country endured such experiences all their lives. Books and theories were one thing; initiating public policies to combat racism was quite another. Following the brutal lynchings that took place in 1946, a coalition of organizations formed the National Emergency Committee against Mob Violence and met with President Harry S. Truman in September 1946. After this meeting Truman issued Executive Order 9808, which set up the President’s Commission on Civil Rights. On October 29, 1947, the committee, which included African Americans and northern white liberals, delivered a report that called on the federal government to “safeguard the rights of every one of its citizens.”100 Meanwhile, white racists in the South were seething about the progressive turn of events. They especially resented the liberal turn of the president and his administration, and in 1948 they bolted from the Democratic Party to form the States’ Rights Democratic Party, with the slogan “Segregation Forever!” In the 1948 election the “Dixiecrats,” as they were called, carried Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina and received one electoral vote from Tennessee, with the popular vote tally well over a million votes. These Dixiecrats determined to keep white supremacy and segregation alive in the South, and they were digging in their heels.
to paint works illustrating conditions of African Americans in the post–World War II South. He went armed with a letter from Will Burtin, art director of Fortune, which read: “The bearer of this letter, Jacob Lawrence, is at work upon a series of paintings for possible reproduction in fortune magazine.” He traveled to Memphis, Vicksburg, New Orleans, Tuskegee Institute, and Gee’s Bend, in Alabama. The editors of Fortune, in the issue in which Lawrence’s paintings appeared, noted: “Painter Lawrence set out in the pounding heat of summer, traveled alone and light— by bus, train, and lucky lift—sketching, talking to people, sleeping in the mean rooms that are almost the only shelter open to transient Negroes in that region.” In any event, the trip turned out to be a short two or three weeks.101 As a result of the trip Lawrence produced ten paintings, each with a short title and an extended caption, and delivered them to Halpert. He also wrote a brief account of the trip that reflects his own dismay at what he witnessed. In it he notes that although “Negroes outnumber whites everywhere . . . the Negro pays dearly. He is denied first class citizenship, and civil liberties are the properties of white men. A few Negroes have attained affluence by sub mitting to and using the feudal tradition of the South. A small minority are even upholding this tradition for the un certainties it affords them.” But he indicates his hope for the future when he adds, “But there are other Negroes— teachers, lawyers, social scientists, farmers, and social workers—who are working hard to obtain equality of economic, educational, and social status, which has been denied several millions of Negroes for over three hundred years.” His observations end on an upbeat note: “These are the men and women who are optimistic, and rightfully so, concerning the Negroes[’] future not only in the South but in the United States.”102 In August 1948 Fortune published three of the ten pictures in a two-page spread titled “In the Heart of the Black Belt.” Walker Evans wrote a short introduction, reminding his readers that Lawrence’s earlier Migration
158 confrontations with the jim crow south
series, published in 1941, “helped make the artist’s repu-
white chickens cooped in screened compartments occupy
tation a national one.” Evans found the new pictures
the lower register; at the top right are two pigs, and at the
“milder, a little more objective than before,” but still
left, under the roof of a shed, hang large slabs of bacon
“daring.”103 Lawrence’s original extended captions were
and meat on huge hooks. Evans’s caption emphasizes the
shortened and rewritten, probably by Evans, to accom-
seeming prosperity depicted in Lawrence’s painting of
modate Fortune’s pro-business agenda.
Gee’s Bend but does not identify the FSA as the agent of
For the first picture, In the Heart of the Black Belt (Fig.
the successful rehabilitation. One might be led to assume
108), Lawrence had written: “Within a one hundred mile
that the current prosperity is the result of private-sector
radius of Memphis, Tennessee, there are approximately
enterprise.107
four million Negroes—or one third the entire Negro popu-
For the third picture, The Businessmen, Lawrence
lation of the United States.”104 Fortune substituted a de-
quotes Dr. Benjamin Quarles, dean of Dillard University,
scriptive caption: “The cotton choppers pile into trucks
in New Orleans: “Whereas church leadership in the Negro
after their day in the fields. Transporting of men by trucks
Community was once dominant, such leadership now has
to and from work is increasingly common.”105 Whereas
to share its influence with publicly financed institutions
Lawrence saw beyond the image to the symbolism of
whose emphases are secular.”108 Fortune’s caption was
masses of people corralled into the “heart” of the Black
“Negro professionals and businessmen are now sharing
Belt, Walker Evans and Fortune’s editors envisioned the
with church leaders in the guidance of their people. Law-
economic and technological ramifications of Lawrence’s
rence depicts them as hard pressed.” Lawrence’s caption
picture. They saw African Americans organized as work-
points to the loss of power in the Negro community,
ers by plantation owners and transported efficiently to
which has to give way to “publicly financed institutions”—
the farms that employed them as part of a modernized
that is, white-controlled state and local governments. The
agriculture.
Fortune caption glosses over Lawrence’s stress on the
Lawrence’s caption for the second picture, Gee’s Bend
disempowering of African American leaders by white in-
(Fig. 109), quoted from a report by S. B. Coles assessing
stitutions. Fortune remarks that the five ministers, seated
the Farm Security Administration program:
in a circle and hunched over their papers, are simply “hard pressed,” presumably by economic circumstances, not
On May 3rd, 1943, William E. Street, Field Representative for Region Five of the FSA, took me to Gee’s Bend, one of the projects of the Farm Security Administration in Wilcox County, Alabama, in order that I might see the wonders that have been wrought since the bureau took over Gee’s Bend in 1936. As we neared the place I could see that it really was not the Gee’s Bend of forty years ago. I saw beautifully built homes, fine pigs running around in the lots, hundreds of chickens on each
racial divisions. The paintings, like Beer Hall (Fig. 110), that Fortune did not show also deserve our attention. Lawrence took its extended caption from the last page of W. E. B. Du Bois’s book Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880: “There is no villain, no idiot, no saint. There are just men; men who crave ease and power, men who know want and hun-
yard, and above all, the gardens full of different types of
ger, men who have crawled. They all dream and strive with
vegetables.106
ecstasy of fear and strain of effort, balked of hope and hate.”109 To Du Bois and Lawrence such leisure occupa-
Fortune’s published caption reads: “Gee’s Bend is an all-
tions as frequenting bars and beer halls are mere pallia-
Negro community on the Alabama River. Almost bankrupt
tives to ease the burden of racism; both men envisioned a
during the depression, Gee’s Bend Farms is today a suc-
world freed from racism and oppression. The philosophy
cessful rehabilitation project, originally government fi-
expressed in Du Bois’s statement is in the spirit of Antonio
nanced.” Lawrence’s painting suggests the farm’s pros-
Gramsci’s “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the
perity through the forms and colors. Three figures inhabit
will.”110 In 1947, when Lawrence was quoting Du Bois, Du
a flattened cubist space: one plants seeds, one carries
Bois had become a relentless critic of U.S. foreign policy
bricklike objects, another lifts water from a well. Red and
and a supporter of the Soviet Union, not someone
confrontations with the jim crow south 159
Fig 108 In the Heart of the Black Belt,
1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California. Bequest of Betty Jane Cook. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Fig 109 Gee’s Bend, 1947. Egg tempera
on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, Evansville, Indiana.
Fig 110 Beer Hall, 1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 191 ⁄2 x 233⁄8 in. (49.5 x 59.4 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
Fortune would have wanted to cite. Walker Evans may
mass of people are poor.” The red earth in the foreground
have been sympathetic to Lawrence’s worldview, but he
looks not like earth but rather like a sea of dark red blood,
was working for the premier business magazine of the
with people clustered on a far shore. The Builders, which
decade.
shows an integrated scene of workers building in New
Among the other six works not reproduced by Fortune,
Orleans, is captioned, “In New Orleans, Louisiana, the
Cat Fish Row represents a Vicksburg eatery with cooks
Negro has made his greatest step toward economic se-
stirring pots and a waitress serving tables where people
curity. He has large membership in trade unions (A.F.L.
help themselves to the fare laid out on trays before them:
and C.I.O.) and representation on the executive board of
fish, crabs, oysters. Lawrence returned to an earlier theme
the Louisiana State Federation of Labor.” This painting
in Migration, the caption of which states that improved
was the first of many that Lawrence did of builders. Dom
farm machinery and “racial disturbances” are “the causes
inating his oeuvre of the 1970s and 1980s, Lawrence’s
of a perennial migration of the southern Negro.” Another
builders represent an integrated workforce and symbol-
reject by Fortune, titled A Class in Shoemaking, must
ize the cooperation needed to build a better, stronger
have been inspired by Lawrence’s trip to Tuskegee Insti-
community.
tute. According to the caption, “Knowing the value of
For the July 4th picture, Lawrence took his caption
an industrial skill as well as an academic education
from the writings of Henri Taine, a French historian and
the Negro, for many years, has worked hard to obtain
critic: “Suffering is not to be measured so much by out-
both.”111
ward circumstances as by inward emotions.” In the
The other three paintings are Red Earth—Georgia (Fig.
forefront of Lawrence’s picture an African American
111), The Builders, and July 4th, Independence Day,
woman holds a white child as she approaches a souvenir
Vicksburg, Mississippi (Fig. 112). Lawrence’s caption for
stand on which are displayed unfolded packets of post-
Red Earth—Georgia notes, “Within the black belt can be
cards with stereotypical scenes of African Americans as
found most of the Negro wealth in the United States.
cotton pickers, boys eating watermelons, rural blacks,
There are palatial homes, palatial funeral parlors, rich
and minstrel types. 112 Confederate flags with inexplica
insurance companies and a few banks—but the great
ble six-pointed stars are displayed above her, and in the
confrontations with the jim crow south 161
Fig 111 Red Earth—Georgia, 1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York. Fig 11 2 July 4th, Independence Day, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Current location unknown.
distant right workers carry bales of cotton. By quoting
his life and his work. In his public appearances and in
Taine, Lawrence conveys the meaning of the seemingly
private interviews, he would often say he was not af-
impassive figures, such as the domestic worker and the
fected. The letter, quoted earlier in this chapter, that
laborers. They too, he suggests, experience inner turmoil
Lawrence wrote to Halpert from St. Augustine in early
because of the racist conditions under which they live. It
1944 includes one of his few mentions of his emotional
comes as no surprise that Fortune chose not to print this
reactions. He said, and I quote again: “As a Negro I feel
image and caption.
a tenseness on the streets and in the Hotel where I am
One wonders why Evans and Fortune did not publish more than just the three paintings by
Lawrence.113
Per-
haps there were space constraints, not uncharacteristic
working—in fact, every where. . . . Negroes need not be told what Facism [sic] is like, because in the south they know nothing else.”115
of magazines and newspapers that juggle features with
What were the feelings of other northern urban African
advertisements. As it was, Fortune delayed running the
Americans when confronting racist southern traditions
spread until August 1948. The magazine’s staff no doubt
and realities of the 1940s? And what were the lingering
realized that Lawrence considered his paintings far more
memories of those feelings? Lawrence knew that disturb-
than postcards from his trip to the South; they were imagi-
ing experiences for African Americans were not confined
native syntheses of what he saw, heard, and felt, and the
to the South; but the institutional racism they faced in
texts—many from African Americans—were integral to
the South could be daunting and the bigotry deadly.
that expression. Often the captions, working in contradic-
It may be helpful to look at the writings of those whose
tion to a seemingly benign scene, give a clue to Lawrence’s
experiences, similar to Lawrence’s, might give us insight
interior musings. We are reminded of Ralph Ellison’s com-
into the feelings Lawrence shared with other northern
ment of 1946 on the very different experiences of whites
urban blacks confronting the southern situation. We must
and blacks, experiences not fathomed by those not
remember, however, that there are an unlimited number
touched by racism: “Obviously the experiences of Ne-
of responses, each depending on the individual’s own
groes—slavery, the grueling and continuing fight for full
experiences along with collectively shared memories.
citizenship since Emancipation, the stigma of color, the
One useful source might be No Day of Triumph (1942),
enforced alienation which constantly knifes into our natu-
by J. Saunders Redding. Redding, a young northern ur-
ral identification with our country—have not been that of
ban black man, was an academic funded by the Rocke-
white Americans. And though as passionate believers in
feller Foundation and assigned by the University of North
democracy Negroes identify themselves with the broader
Carolina to travel through the South and observe and
American ideals, their sense of reality springs, in part, from
write about race relations.116 At one point he attempted
an American experience which most white men not only
to interview the police commissioner of Memphis about
have not had, but one with which they are reluctant to
the harassment of a local minister. After arriving at the
identify themselves even when presented in forms of the
commissioner’s office, he realized he could be shot for
imagination.”114 The need to overcome the barriers and
just asking questions. The police searched him, intro
communicate his experiences drove Lawrence to persist
ducing him to a humiliation he had not known. Red-
in telling the truth as he saw it.
ding’s remarks speak of feelings like those that might have stirred Lawrence when he quoted Taine. Redding’s words:
psychological effects of r acism
I had felt nothing but amazement before, but now I felt a sense of shame, of sickening humiliation, of terrible impotence. As I
What were Lawrence’s feelings about racism? When in-
thought the thing through, I knew where wisdom lay: it lay in
terviewed near the end of his life, Lawrence typically
the recognition of my impotence. A move from me, a gesture of
sidestepped questions probing the effects of racism on
stubbornness, a hint of refusal, and I might have had a bullet
confrontations with the jim crow south 163
through the heart, or at least a battered head and a spell in jail.
be subjected to the irritations and humiliations of South-
I did as I was told. Who was it who said that this sort of thing
ern Jim Crowisms, Dixie scorn, and the back seats if any
cannot hurt the inner man? Whoever, he was a fool. And years
in buses, is enough—I should think—to easily drive a sen-
and years of it, ages and ages, back to the beginnings of an-
sitive patriotic colored American soldier
cestral memory!117
recently out of the service, in 1947 Lawrence would have
n u ts .”119
Only
appreciated Hughes’s characterizations of “segregationLater in Redding’s book a local pool hall owner recounts
fatigue.”
the story of the “mobbing” of a black townsman, abducted one night, beaten, murdered, and thrown into the local river. His offense? He was a leader of a group of black citizens petitioning the town to allow them to vote in the upcoming national elections. Redding’s account is graphically powerful but restrained in its language. A decade
lawrence’s drawings of the late 1940 s By late 1947 Lawrence was ready to try his hand at black-
later Redding would write, “One’s heart is sickened at the
and-white drawings more strident than his paintings.
realization of the primal energy that goes undeflected and
Commissions at that time offered him occasion to ex-
unrefined into the sheer business of living as a Negro in
press his emotions about racism symbolically, as in the
the United States—in any one of the United States. Ne-
drawings that accompany Langston Hughes’s book of po-
groness is a kind of superconsciousness that directs
etry One-Way Ticket and articles on the South in the left-
thinking, that dictates action, and that perverts the ex-
liberal magazine the New Republic and the leftist Masses
pression of instinctual drives that are salutary and hu-
and Mainstream.
manitarian.”118 Redding’s ability to define emotional nu-
Lawrence drew One-Way Ticket (Fig. 113) to accompany
ances makes his book a valuable document for the
Hughes’s poem with the same title. Lawrence often re-
historian.
marked that he identified with the situation of the young
What experiences would Lawrence have had riding the
boy in the drawing—sitting on the suitcase and waiting
Jim Crow train or the bus to Memphis? Lawrence did not
with other migrants.120 In another section of the book,
know how to drive. It seems unlikely that Walker Evans
Lawrence’s drawing Silhouette (The Lynching) (Fig. 114)
drove him from city to city. When Lawrence was in Mem-
faces Hughes’s poem “Silhouette”:
phis in 1947, would he have encountered the same men Redding had encountered in 1940? What about his July
Southern gentle lady,
4th visit to Vicksburg? And the rest of the South during
Do not swoon.
that summer of 1947? Were Lawrence’s experiences any-
They’ve just hung a black man
thing like those recounted in Redding’s book?
In the dark of the moon.
Redding’s experiences were not unique. The war had compounded the frustrations of African American veter-
They’ve hung a black man To a roadside tree
ans who returned to the South. The Jim Crow situation
In the dark of the moon
in 1947 may have been worse than that in February
For the world to see
1944, when Langston Hughes wrote in his Chicago De
How Dixie protects
fender column about an African American soldier, just
Its white womanhood.
returned from overseas fighting. Hughes described the soldier as suffering from “Jim Crow shock, too much discrimination—segregation-fatigue which, to a sensitive
Southern gentle lady, Be good! Be good!
Negro, can be just as damaging as days of heavy air bombardment. . . . To fight for one’s country for months
In his drawing for Hughes, Lawrence met the challenge
on some dangerous and vital front, then come home and
of depicting a black man hung from a “roadside tree in
164 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 113 One-Way Ticket, 1948. Brush and ink on paper, 241 ⁄2 x 16 in. (62.2 x 40.6 cm). Private collection, New York. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York. Fig 114 Silhouette (The Lynch ing), 1948. Brush and ink on paper, 241 ⁄2 x 161 ⁄2 in. (62.2 x 41.9 cm). Private collection, New York. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery.
the dark of a moon.” Whereas Lawrence’s allusions to
The white folks die?
lynchings in the Migration series, Panels 15 and 16, rep-
What do you mean—
resent not a lynched body but living figures mourning a
The white folks die?
lynching, this drawing depicts a symbolic figure hanging
That black boy’s
from a thick braided rope looped over a tree branch that
Still body
points leftward like the barrel of a gun. Shafts of light
Says:
penetrate the blackness of the night, and the twisted body sinks to the ground. Lawrence shuns allusions to
NOT I.
Christ-like martyrs; instead, with a few quick strokes, he conveys both psychological and physical agony. Hughes’s “Lynching Song” immediately follows the image:
Hughes’s point is that the white lyncher cannot triumph over the black lynched figure any more than the slave master can live truly free as long as he has slaves, whom he must control and repress as long as he lives, himself
Pull at the rope!
enslaved through the regime’s control over him. No one
O, pull it high!
is free.
Let the white folks live
At the same time Lawrence was beginning his assign-
And the black boy die.
ment for Hughes, the New Republic and Masses and
Pull it, boys,
Mainstream were publishing other drawings by him. Un
With a bloody cry.
titled [Lynchings] (Fig. 115) accompanied a Henry Wallace
Let the black boy spin
article, “Violence and Hope in the South,” in the New Re
While the white folks die.
public’s December 8, 1947, issue. In the line drawing a
confrontations with the jim crow south 165
male figure runs through a long corridor lined with the
ery for Masses and Mainstream. Published as a four-page
“strange fruit” of heads hanging by ropes from dead tree
spread, titled “They Broke Chains,” in the February 1949
branches. He traverses a path marked by zigs and zags
issue, the drawings were Harriet Tubman, Slave Rebellion
and spinning circles, while overhead stars punctuate the
(Fig. 117), Slave Trade, and Underground Railroad. Law-
open ceiling. At the end of the corridor he will confront
rence’s emphasis on pattern in his compositions accentu-
another lynched figure, perhaps a mirror image of him-
ates the sense of horror at the treatment of people as
self. This nightmarish scene echoes Wallace’s comment
anonymous objects. Other brush-and-ink drawings were
that “fear of lynching is still very much alive in the
commissioned and completed but never published, such
South. . . . They say the technique now is quietly to mur-
as Terror of the Klan, originally intended for the book
der a Negro, one man doing the killing instead of a mob.
Negro Artist U.S.A.124
Negro murders are rarely mentioned in the press or fol-
These more symbolic black-and-white drawings done
lowed up by the police.”121 Although Lawrence had not
within two years of his 1947 trip to the South give evi-
necessarily read Wallace’s essay before he submitted the
dence of Lawrence’s “inward emotions” in the face of the
drawing to the New Republic, he would have known about
suffocating racism he read about and may have experi-
this new “technique” of lynching through his reading of
enced in the South. They were not images that would ap-
African American newspapers.122
peal to Fortune, the voice of the postwar northern busi-
The New Republic reproduced Lawrence’s Untitled
ness elite who hoped to restore the South as a market
[Man with Hat and Cigarette] (Fig. 116) to accompany a
and a source of labor to rally the economy after World
review, in the January 19, 1948, issue, of Francis Butler
War II. Nor were they images that his dealer could easily
Simkins’s book The South: Old and New, a History, 1820–
sell in the late 1940s. He perceived the problems clearly,
1947. Although the book review is called “A Liberal View
even if his white patrons suppressed the resulting work.
of the South,” the reviewer, Richard Watts Jr., explains
The drawings did, however, speak to the political issues
that Simkins’s book mostly describes white supremacy as
raised by the radical Left in the magazines and the Afri-
“the essence of Southernism,” without advancing a pro-
can American community that read Hughes’s poems.
gressive line. Watts concludes that “although Simkins is
Such drawings remind us today of how racism and dis-
a liberal who looks with disapproval on the treatment of
crimination of all kinds continue to shape our own psy-
the Negro, he has no more escaped the marks of the tra-
chological terrors and nightmares.
ditions of white supremacy than did the group of Southern intellectuals who recently denounced the idea of do-
n
ing away with racial segregation in education.” As a
In August 2005 the U.S. Postal Service issued a sheet of
result, Simkins “has trouble being fair to the Negro. . . .
ten commemorative stamps, called “To Form a More Per-
He makes no attempt to deny the ignorance, degradation
fect Union: Seeking Equal Rights for African Americans.”
and contempt imposed by servitude, and he seems al-
Lawrence’s Dixie Café (Fig. 118), first published in the New
most surprised and pained that after generations of such
Republic in October 18, 1948, was used as one of the
mass humiliation, the Negro did not emerge from it with-
stamps. It gave the Postal Service an image for the 1964
out any of its evil marks upon him.”123
Civil Rights Act, described on the reverse of the stamp
Lawrence’s line drawing, which occupies more than half
sheet: “This bill designed to outlaw discrimination in
the page, shows a hatted, grimacing face, eyes squinting
public accommodations—initiated by President John F.
to the left, with one hand holding up a lighted cigarette.
Kennedy in 1963—was signed into law by President Lyn-
Lawrence conveys the racist’s thoughts in the symbols
don B. Johnson on July 2, 1964.” We can be grateful that
incised on his forehead: a lynched figure hanging from a
such a law was enacted, if belatedly, in 1964; but the law
tree branch, a Christian cross, a rifle, and an American
does not speak to those “inward emotions” that result
flag. A year later Lawrence did four brush-and-ink draw-
from the legacy of Jim Crow or to the reality of lingering
ings of imagined historical scenes on the theme of slav-
racism today.
166 confrontations with the jim crow south
Fig 115 Untitled [Lynchings], 1947. Pen and ink on paper, dimensions unknown. Current location unknown. Reproduced in Henry Wallace, “Violence and Hope in the South,” New Republic 117, no. 23 (December 8, 1947), p. 15, ill. Fig 116 Untitled [Man with Hat and Cigarette], 1948. Pen and ink on paper,
dimensions unknown. Current location unknown. Reproduced in Richard Watts Jr., “Books in Review: A Liberal View of the South,” New Republic 118, no. 3 (January 19, 1948), p. 27, ill. Fig 117 Slave Rebellion, 1948. Brush and ink on paper, dimensions unknown. Current location unknown. Fig 118 Dixie Café, 1948. Brush and ink on paper, 17 x 221⁄4 in. (43.2 x 56.5
cm). Collection Margaret and Michael Asch.
6
home in harlem Tenements and Streets Why should we artists born in tenements go beyond them for our expression? Can we go beyond them? . . . Art is the tenement pouring out its soul through us, its most sensitive and articulate sons and daughters.
mike gold, “Towards Proletarian Art” (1921) Life in Harlem is bizarre, but always pointed, intense, and vivid. The inhabitants eat, sleep, work and play, bear children, and die. But these characteristics, human and prosaic as they may be, are scorched beyond normal recognition in the crucible of a segregated life.
roi ottley, “New World A-Coming”: Inside Black America (1943) For Jacob Lawrence, a peerless delineator of the Harlem scenes and types.
claude mckay, inscription in a copy of A Long Way from Home, presented to Jacob Lawrence
Langston Hughes, the poet of Harlem’s people and street
mid-December and asking whether the artist would cre-
life, became well acquainted with Jacob Lawrence in the
ate six black-and-white drawings for Hughes’s book of
fall and winter of 1947–48. It was Hughes, acknowledging
poetry.3 During December Hughes visited the Downtown
the younger artist as his creative peer, who took the ini-
Gallery to see Lawrence’s War series, and on January 22,
tiative. He suggested to his editor at Alfred Knopf in Sep-
1948, Hughes followed up with his own letter to Lawrence
tember 1947 that his book, eventually titled One-Way
in which he personally offered to pay $600 for the rights
Ticket, include reproductions of drawings by Jacob Law-
to reproduce six drawings. As a postscript Hughes added: o ne - way tick e t,
rence, “one of the most talented younger American art-
“I have chosen as a title for the book,
ists, and probably the most interesting Negro artist.”
from the poem of that name. Perhaps that poem, or that
Recognizing that Lawrence’s vivid images of Harlem par-
particularly [sic] sequence of poems might suggest an
alleled his own word portraits, Hughes wrote, “His style
idea for one of your drawings, but do not feel bound by
would make an interesting complement to my poetry.”1
this. I want you to feel free to interpret the book as you
Hughes then sent Lawrence a carbon copy of his new
feel it emotionally.”4 By the end of January 1948, Law-
manuscript, and Lawrence replied in late September, “If
rence wrote Hughes that in a week he planned to show
all works out with our agents, I know I will enjoy working
the first drawing to Hughes and Weinstock; Hughes re-
on your book as our subject matter is similar.”2 At
sponded by saying that Charles Alan, Edith Halpert’s as-
Hughes’s urging, Herbert Weinstock, on the Knopf staff,
sistant at the Downtown Gallery, had suggested that they
formalized the arrangement by writing to Lawrence in
get together and discuss the drawings and the poems.5
Fig 119 Play Street, 1942. Gouache on paper, 307⁄8 x 223⁄8 in. (78.4 x 56.8 cm). Collection of halley k harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld, New York, NY.
It is not known when they met for this discussion, but
What happens to a dream deferred?
in May Lawrence wrote again to Hughes that he was “glad
Does it dry up
to hear that your publishers like the drawings.”6 In their
Like a raisin in the sun?
style and subject matter, the drawings, two of which have
Or fester like a sore—
been discussed in Chapter 5, were a felicitous accompa-
And then run?
niment to One-Way
Ticket.7
In 1948 Hughes planned to include drawings by Lawrence in his next collection of poems, Montage of a
Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet?
Dream Deferred. In October Lawrence delivered the first
Maybe it just sags
drawing, and in December Hughes wrote enthusiastically
Like a heavy load.
to his friend Arna Bontemps about five more “wonderful
Or does it explode?
drawings for the be-bop poems” that Lawrence had just brought to him.8 The reasons are unclear, but when Mon
At midcentury Harlem could still claim to be “the greatest
tage was published in 1951 no drawings were included.9
Negro city in the world,” but institutionalized segregation
Like his pen-and-ink drawings for One-Way Ticket,
filled it with contradictions—there was so much promise,
most of Lawrence’s six drawings for Montage do not refer
but also disappointment, and then the dialectical, and
to specific poems. However, Lawrence’s Parade (Fig. 120)
inevitable, explosion. This Hughes and Lawrence knew
suggests both the imagery and the shifting meters of
well. Both keenly observed the nuances of Harlem life,
Hughes’s poem “Parade.” The tangled pattern and for-
both drew on vernacular culture, both celebrated the city
ward-moving rhythm of the high-stepping baton twirler
that nurtured them, and both folded into their works un-
and the portly Elks in their hats marching past two
expected elements that alert the reader and viewer that
women in the background contrast with the more static
“ordinary” life could explode.10
mother and young girl watching the parade at the right and the two boys on the left playing with a scooter. Like Hughes’s bebop poems, Lawrence syncopated the rhythms by putting stresses in unexpected places. Hughes’s poems in Montage of a Dream Deferred are just that: a montage, with images and scraps of local color—a night funeral in Harlem, the Savoy nightclub, the subway rush hour, Lenox Avenue by daylight. And snatches of conversation or argument, as in these lines from “Ballad of the Landlord”:
harlem scenes in the late
1930 s
It was when Lawrence was painting in a corner of Charles Alston and Henry Bannarn’s studio at 306 West 141st Street that he became aware of the renowned Langston Hughes, fifteen years his senior, and heard him speak at the community centers. If Lawrence had not read Hughes’s famous 1926 essay, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” he had at least absorbed its lessons. Hughes
What? You gonna get eviction orders?
advocated an art based on the experiences of ordinary
You gonna cut off my heat?
African Americans:
You gonna take my furniture and Throw it in the street?
Interspersed throughout the poems is the refrain “a dream deferred”—because of struggles with landlords, the fight to earn a decent living, and Jim Crow barriers to opportunities and advancement. In the poem “Harlem” Hughes writes:
170 home in harlem
the people who have their nip of gin on Saturday nights and are not too important to themselves or the community, or too well fed, or too learned to watch the lazy world go round. . . . They do not particularly care whether they are like white folks or anybody else. Their joy runs, bang! Into ecstasy. Their religion soars to a shout. Work maybe a little today, rest a little tomorrow. Play awhile. Sing awhile. O, Let’s dance! These
Fig 120 Parade, 1948. Pen and ink, dimensions unknown. Current location unknown. Image courtesy Langston Hughes Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
common people are not afraid of spirituals . . . and jazz is their
seemingly artless terms: a limited palette of matte tem-
child. They furnish a wealth of colorful, distinctive material for
pera color, simple shapes distributed rhythmically across
any artist because they still hold their own individuality in the
the composition, and a minimum of lines to indicate fa-
face of American standardizations.11
cial expression and other telling details. In an era of populist realism, fueled by both the arts
These very subjects would be Lawrence’s focus for his entire career.
policies of government agencies and the Popular Front strategies of the radical Left, the new art patronage de-
Through his style and compositional inventiveness, he
manded paintings of ordinary people in “American
made the tenements and streets of Harlem modern. Like
scenes.” In 1936 Holger Cahill, national director of the
Hughes in his poetry, Lawrence early on depicted the
Federal Art Project, urged “greater vigor, unity, and clar-
Harlem of ordinary working-class African Americans in
ity of statement, a search for an adequate symbolism in
home in harlem 171
the expression of contemporary American experience,
Halpert. When applied to Pippin’s art, primitive meant the
less dependence on the easily obvious in subject matter,
lack of formal academic art school training.
and a definite relation to local and regional environ-
To many in the art world in the late 1930s and early
ments.” Alain Locke, quoting these words in Negro Art:
1940s, the appeal of Lawrence’s work rested on its seem-
Past and Present (1936), added that what Cahill “so
ing similarity to admired folk art styles. In his chapter
aptly calls ‘imaginative realism,’ might profitably be ad-
“Naïve and Popular Painting and Sculpture” in Modern
opted as today’s creed and gospel for the younger, pro-
Negro Art (1943), James Porter featured Jacob Lawrence
gressive Negro artist.”12 Locke admired Thomas Hart
along with the stonecutter William Edmundson, Horace
Benton’s paintings of regional “local color” and felt that
Pippin, and a half-dozen other self-taught artists. Porter
black artists should paint their own American “regional-
maintained that these artists’ “untutored works of paint-
ism.” By 1940 Locke could write that he was pleased with
ing and sculpture interpret nature with a childlike inno-
the progress of African American artists. Their scenes of
cence of vision.”19 Like other critics, Porter described
black life had not created a “back water inlet of racialist
Lawrence as an “original” with a “pronounced talent for
art, but, on the contrary, led out to the mainstream of
abstract design, coupled with a rare sense of humor.”20
art.”13
The sculptor and teacher
He praised Lawrence’s Toussaint L’Ouverture series for
Augusta Savage also urged a Harlem regionalism. When
its “power of color and movement” and acknowledged
contemporary American
she had written Arthur Schomburg in 1935 to tell him of
that the Migration series had brought the artist “growing
her plans to exhibit her students’ work, she had assured
national recognition.”21 Yet by 1943 Porter should have
him: “We will attempt to present Harlem to Harlem as
surmised that Lawrence’s art lay outside the category of
seen through the eyes of the artist.”14 In 1936 the New
“naïve” art.
York Amsterd am News praised the young artist Bernie
Gwendolyn Bennett insisted that Lawrence’s work was
Robynson for painting “impressions of the colorful life
far from primitive. Writing for Mainstream in 1947, she
of the community.”15
observed: “When critics first began to notice Lawrence’s
Several established artists picked up this challenge to
work, many referred to it as ‘primitive.’ This characteriza-
paint Harlem’s “American scene,” but they often adopted
tion is inadequate and misleading. For here is an artist
simplified styles. For his Marching Elks (1933, location
who has studied hard, worked ceaselessly, learned from
unknown), for example, Malvin Gray Johnson used a re-
many people, but who has always molded what he saw
ductive style to represent one of the frequent parades in
and learned into a form that was distinctly his own.”22
Harlem.16
Lawrence knew exactly what he was doing, and he was
Palmer Hayden, known for his naturalistic sea-
scapes, switched to a folklike style for his genre scenes
using sophisticated means to accomplish it.
of the black community in the 1930s, as in Midsummer
In the mid- to late 1930s, however, Lawrence’s paint-
Night in Harlem (1936, Museum of African American Art,
ings of neighborhood scenes did seem to fit in with those
Los Angeles). The artist and curator David Driskell has
of Hayden and Johnson. Like Hayden, he included anec-
described this style of Hayden’s as “semi-naïve,” stressing
dotal elements, even humor, in his paintings. In Street
“narrative, anecdotal detail in a rather self-conscious
Scene—Restaurant (ca. 1936, Fig. 121), a furtive white man
way.”17 Another academically trained painter, William H.
sidles up to three black prostitutes loitering on a side-
Johnson, adopted an expressionist style akin to Chaim
walk, who acknowledge his presence with either amuse-
Soutine’s when he lived in Europe. But when he returned
ment or indifference. Interior Scene (1937, Columbus
to New York in the late 1930s, he switched to a folklike
Museum of Art) brings out the humor of three white
style, as seen in Chain Gang (see Fig. 51) and his jitterbug
“johns” in various stages of undress negotiating with
paintings.18
Even though Horace Pippin had studied under
three black prostitutes. The tawdry brothel in which the
Albert Barnes at the Barnes Foundation, he was admired
action occurs is littered with rat traps, rats, and flies
chiefly for his “primitive” and “authentic” style by such
buzzing about a bare lightbulb dangling from a ceiling
art world notables as Holger Cahill and the dealer Edith
cord. One john has a condom tucked into his jacket
172 home in harlem
Fig 121 Street Scene—
Restaurant, ca. 1936. Tem pera on paper, 26 1⁄4 x 35 in. (66.7 x 88.9 cm). Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Museum Purchase, Derby Fund, from the Philip J. and Suzanne Schiller Collection of American Social Commentary Art 1930–1970 (2005.012.036).
pocket, another has his condom lying ready on the bed,
all fell naturally into gridlike patterns; there was no need
while a third smokes a postcoital cigarette. On the back
to worry over intricate tree leaves, atmospheric distant
wall hangs an oval painting, ironically of the Madonna and
hills, or puffy cumulus clouds.
Child, and three kids’ faces peer into the room from un23
Style and subject came together in Lawrence’s work.
To Lawrence, Harlem’s types in-
Against a background of horizontal and vertical lines,
cluded the white johns who patronized the segregated
the vendor with his cart in Ice Peddlers (1936, Walter O.
der a window shade. brothels there.
During these years Lawrence became an artist of the
Evans Collection of African American Art) was a frequently seen neighborhood figure, bringing relief on
urban environment. He explored new subjects—trades
hot summer days. Equally familiar was the street orator.
men, street characters, kids, prostitutes, shoppers, people
In their street-corner orator, 125th Street (Fig. 122), the
going to work—while consolidating his unique style. As the
Harlem photographers Morgan and Marvin Smith, who
art historian Leslie King-Hammond has observed, “The
often worked for the New York Amsterdam News, cap-
most ordinary daily tasks, events, and routines, such as
tured such an urban performer captivating his audi
decorating one’s home, would consume Lawrence’s entire
ence from his perch on a ladder. Lawrence, in contrast,
imagination. He would use what he saw around him every
gives us a close-up view, not of the orator, but of his ef-
day to document the visual culture, beauty, and artistic spirit
fect on his audience. Identified only by his two legs on a
of Harlem.”24 Lawrence’s flat collage-like style served him
ladder in Lawrence’s Street Orator’s Audience (1936, Fig.
well in rendering the brownstone facades, broad side
123), the man could be a religious preacher warning of
walks, and limited vistas of Harlem. Its storefronts, fire
hell and damnation, a Garveyite advocating “back to Af-
escapes, wrought-iron fences, and street orators’ ladders
rica,” a communist speaking out against the failures of
home in harlem 173
Fig 122 Street-corner orator, 125th Street, ca. 1938. Photo © Mor
gan and Marvin Smith. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. Fig 123 Street Orator’s Audience, 1936. Tempera on paper, 241⁄8 x
191⁄8 in. (61.3 x 48.6 cm). Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger W. Peck by exchange, 1995.10. Photo: Richard Nicol.
capitalism, or even a teacher sent out to encourage visits
Harlem scene in greater depth: “If I receive a renewal of
to the public library. 25 The rapt attention of the passersby
the Rosenwald Fellowship I plan to return north and do a
is the real subject. Six pairs of eyes gaze up toward the
set of paintings on Harlem, known as the largest Negro
speaker. A seventh passerby can only listen, for a sign
community in the world. Although I have lived in Harlem
on his cap announces his blindness. We, too, cannot see
nearly all of my life and have done quite a number of
the speaker; we only know that his oratory powerfully
paintings about Harlem and its people, I feel that what I
captures the attention of the community.
have done is far from complete. After having lived in the
Lawrence’s composition impresses us with his aes-
South I find some things in Harlem clearer[.] The added
thetic control of form. The rungs of the ladder frame the
experience in the South has made me better qualified to
audience, the trousers’ stripes direct our eyes to the
do a deeper study of Harlem.” He assured the foundation
faces, and the background brickwork compacts the fig-
that the series, planned as “a sequel to the Migration Se-
ures into a unit. Lawrence deploys his colors with con-
ries,” would contain from thirty to fifty paintings. 27 It
summate skill. The cadmium reds curve around from the
would be an ambitious artistic and sociological project,
shirt of the man on the left to the woman’s hat to the
and he was eager to begin. The Julius Rosenwald Fund
blind man’s necktie. The cadmium yellows cascade up-
renewed the fellowship. 28 Edwin Embree, director of the
ward from the buttons to the eyeglass frames to the blind
fund, knew that Lawrence would tell the truth of everyday
man’s sign to the touch of yellow at the inside hem of the
Harlem life and provide a positive, even “uplifting,” mes-
orator’s coat. This was no naive folk painter.
sage. Lawrence could be counted on not only to portray
These vivid pictures by Lawrence remind us once again
the pathos of Harlemites’ circumstances but also to rep-
of the images that Langston Hughes conjured up in
resent their courage, endurance, and energy in attempt-
words. Both responded not to the topography of specific
ing to bring about change.
streets and landmarks but to the experience of a peopled
Two years earlier, in his novel Native Son (1940), Rich-
place—the cultural geography of home turf. As Lawrence
ard Wright had described in powerful detail the squalid
explained in 1973 to Willie Suggs of ABC News: “All of my
conditions blacks faced on Chicago’s South Side (the
community
novel opens with a rat chase in Bigger Thomas’s tene-
where we lived. Since my work is expressionistic . . . there
ment) and the despair that environment generated. Call-
early pictorial content was of the
harlem
were no specific buildings or sites that I painted. Mine
ing Wright’s book “the publishing sensation of the year,”
was an over-all expression of Harlem.”26 The street
Look magazine commissioned Michael Carter (“a young
scenes always came from Lawrence’s imagination but
Negro scholar who for the last two years has made a
were based on recollections and memories of street life
study of Harlem with members of the Photo League”) to
and the recognizable types of Harlem.
provide texts for a six-page photo essay on Harlem, en-
Except when painting his series panels, Lawrence com-
titled “244,000 Native Sons.” As Look’s editors explained:
posed these genre scenes of Harlem throughout the late
“Mr. Carter’s facts, plus the pictures which illustrate them
1930s for exhibitions or for submission to government of-
so vividly, disclose the essentials of Negro existence in
fices when he was employed by the Federal Arts Project
any American city—whether it be New York City or ‘Na-
during 1938–39. He then returned to Harlem scenes in
tive Son’s’ South Chicago. It is not pleasant—this story of
1942, following his southern sojourn.
how thousands of our fellow citizens live, under conditions which often produce vice and crime—but it is a story which every socially minded American must
painting harlem in
1942 – 43
contemplate.”29 The “facts” included the statistics that in Harlem “a quarter of a million people live in 8,902 dwell-
In 1942, when Lawrence reported to the Julius Rosenwald
ings”; “51 per cent of Negro families have incomes of less
Fund on his progress with the John Brown paintings, he
than $837 a year”; “40 per cent of the Negro families
requested continued funding so he could paint the local
take in lodgers”; the infant mortality rate is “one of every
home in harlem 175
20”; and “the “death rate from disease is about twice that of other parts of the city.” The diseases endemic to poverty are tuberculosis, rickets, and syphilis. The article pointed out that although most Harlemites were poorly paid and assigned to menial jobs as janitors, porters, window washers, and housemaids, they did find enjoyment in such activities as attending church, going to movie houses or dance palaces, playing pool, and strolling along Seventh Avenue. In the fall of 1942 Lawrence set out to find such moments of relaxation and joy in his community, much like the man he depicts shooting scenes of Harlem life in The Photographer (1942, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Pool Parlor (1942, Fig. 124) highlights one of the pleasurable activities that offset Harlemites’ struggles to survive. To Lawrence, children provided a sense of fun and life, shown by the youngsters running through water sprinklers in Play Street (1942, see Fig. 119). From a billboard a sun displays a large grin of approval for the children frolicking below on the street. Lawrence was just completing thirty Harlem paintings for an exhibition at the Downtown Gallery when Roi Ottley’s book “New World A-Coming”: Inside Black America was published in 1943. Ottley, a veteran reporter for the
Fig 124 Pool Parlor, 1942. Watercolor and gouache on paper,
Amsterdam News, explains that he sees Harlem “as a
31 1⁄8 x 227⁄8 in. (79.1 x 58.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1942 (42.147). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
sort of test tube in which the germs of Negro thought and action are isolated, examined, and held up to full glare to reflect Black America.”30 To Ottley, Harlem is “the nerve center of advancing Black America. It is the fountainhead
ings, as well as a series of colorful parades, jazzy picnics, and
of mass movements. From it flows the progressive vitality
easy stomping at the Savoy Ballroom. But comes Sunday,
of Negro life. Harlem is, as well, a cross-section of life in
everybody praises God—faithfully, noisily.
Black America—a little from here, there, and everywhere.
. . . Yet the panorama of Negro life passes before a backdrop
It is at once the capital of clowns, cults, and cabarets,
of tenements. This life is often crude and sinister, with muggers
and the cultural and intellectual hub of the Negro world.”31
flashing switchblades in the darkened corners. The streets are
Another passage describes Harlem visually, evoking many of the same subjects that Lawrence depicts in his Harlem series: Harlem! The word itself signifies a vast, crowded area teeming with black men. . . . Though their skins may be black, brown, yellow, or white, they all are seeking a way out of the impasse
crowded with shabby loiterers, ragged urchins, and overdressed strollers. Long flashy-looking automobiles park at the curbs, monuments of showy splendor. Bosomy women drape the tenement windows, as the rising smell of cooking mingles with the mustiness of dark dank hallways. Juke boxes grind incessantly. Heard, too, are the distinctive calls of the street vendors. 32
of Negro life. To this end, the Negro community is a big forum of soapbox oratory. Day-to-day living seems to be an endless
Ottley is aware that Harlem’s day-to-day characteristics
vigil of picket lines, strikes, boycotts, mammoth mass meet-
“are scorched beyond normal recognition in the crucible
176 home in harlem
of a segregated life.”33 The calculatingly shocking words
City College is like a beacon over Harlem.
conjure up the lynched figures, seen so frequently in news
Mothers and fathers work hard to educate their children.
papers, that were the specters haunting the deep com-
The libraries are appreciated.
munal consciousness of African Americans. But, like
Because of high rents and unfit conditions rent strikes are
Lawrence, Ottley offers more than protest, telling his readers about Harlem’s history, its immigrant population, its religious organizations, its political and social leaders, its celebrities such as Joe Louis and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., its press, and the wartime job situation for African Americans. The titles of Lawrence’s Harlem paintings, perhaps composed with the help of Gwendolyn Knight, could have been captions to the few line illustrations in Ottley’s book: This is Harlem.
becoming more frequent. The people are beginning to organize. They want a good Harlem.
Read consecutively these titles become lines of a poem that is lyrical, sociologically astute, and politically radical— especially with the last message about people organizing to bring about change.34 Viewers of Lawrence’s pictorial narrative at the Downtown Gallery in May 1943 were introduced to a Harlem where the inhabitants were poor and living in substandard conditions but at the same time resilient, finding
Most of the people are very poor. Rent is high. Food is high.
comfort in family and friends. This Is Harlem (Fig. 125)
They live in old and dirty tenement houses.
serves as an introductory map of Harlem, with its streets,
They live in fire traps.
churches, dance halls, bars, beauty parlors, and funeral
Often three families share one toilet.
homes—places that served its citizens from birth to the
This is a family living in Harlem.
grave. Broad sidewalks accommodate pedestrians, and
The mother and father go to work.
streets provide easy access for automobiles. The art his-
The children go to school.
torian Richard Powell has succinctly described this paint-
If the family can afford it, their baby is sent to one of the few day nurseries available. In the evening the mother and father come home from work. When Christmas comes they buy a tree and presents for the children. And then they go to sleep. There are many churches in Harlem. The people are very religious.
ing as a “perspective-defying townscape [that] literally ‘jitterbugs’ before us. Our eyes leap with animated velocity from fire escape to fire escape and from window to window; the contrasting colors and patterns play havoc with our initial sense of order. . . . Though not immediately apparent, this rendering of a community is deeper than mere documentary reportage and illustration: it
There is an average of four bars to every block.
delves into the very psyche of the urban experience.”35
You can buy bootleg whiskey for twenty-five cents a quart.
Indeed, This Is Harlem is a fitting introduction to a group
The rooftops seem to spread for miles.
of paintings that in their totality touch the pulse of Har-
At times it is hard to get a table in a pool room.
lem’s reality.
Many whites come to Harlem to watch the Negroes dance. And Harlem society looks on. In the evening Evangelists preach and sing on street corners. Comedians dance, sing and make jokes in the show houses and cabarets. Peddlers reduce their prices in the evening to get rid of their perishables. Harlem Hospital’s free clinic is crowded with patients every morning and evening. The undertakers do a good business. When it is warm the parks are filled with people.
The next five paintings depict the interiors of tenements. In They Live in Fire Traps (Fig. 126) we join the small children sitting on the edge of the brass bed with its bright red blanket to confront the most terrifying of realities—the burning down of a home (often the result of a defective heating system). The children stand out like jewels against the rubble of charred buildings and the smoke lingering along the upper edge. Lawrence might have been looking at Richard Wright’s book 12 Million Black Voices when he painted Often Three
home in harlem 177
Fig 125 This Is Harlem, 1943. Gouache on paper, 15 3⁄8
x 2211 ⁄16 in. (39 x 57.6 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. Photo: Lee Stalsworth. Fig 126 They Live in Fire Traps, 1943. Gouache on pa-
per, 221 ⁄2 x 15 3⁄8 in. (57.6 x 39 cm). Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, Museum purchase.
Fig 127 Often Three Families Share One Toilet, 1943. Gouache on paper, 211⁄4 x 141⁄4 in. (54 x 36.2 cm). Current location unknown. Photo © Christie’s Images Limited. Fig 128 Russell Lee, Toilet in “Kitchenette” Apartment House, Chicago, Ill. Photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 106. Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Collection.
Families Share One Toilet (Fig. 127), for it bears an uncanny
service from the street, while a woman trudges along the
resemblance to one of the photographs in that volume:
sidewalk, oblivious to the proceedings.
Russell Lee’s Toilet in “Kitchenette” Apartment House (Fig.
Harlem’s bars, poolrooms, and nightclubs stayed open
128). In contrast, This Is a Family Living in Harlem (Museum
late, providing exciting subjects for Lawrence’s art. Some
of Modern Art) strikes a more upbeat mood, showing a
might dispute the statistic in the title There Is an Average
father, a mother, two children, and a baby together at a
of Four Bars to Every Block (Fig. 130), but not the image of
kitchen table in a narrow and tidy room warmed by an
well-dressed black and white, male and female patrons
old stove.
sitting at the bar. People could also celebrate at home. You
The pictures then move outside the narrow confines of
Can Buy Bootleg Whiskey for Twenty-Five Cents a Quart
kitchenette apartments. During the day children go to
(Portland Art Museum, Oregon) depicts two couples in
school and to day care (if their parents can afford it), while
different stages of inebriation, having their whiskey or “their
the parents go to work and return home at the end of the
nip of gin” on a Saturday night, as Hughes would say. A
day. Weekends are reserved for going to church, as shown
radio with its short cord plugged into a wall outlet provides
in There Are Many Churches in Harlem. The People Are
added diversion should the conversation lag.
Very Religious (Fig. 129). Through the storefront window
Nightlife tourism fueled the economy of Harlem, as
of the “Church of God” we get a glimpse of the fervor with
Lawrence reveals in Many Whites Come to Harlem to
which some express their faith. One passerby views the
Watch the Negroes Dance (Fig. 131). 36 The white patrons, home in harlem 179
Fig 129 There Are Many Churches in Harlem. The People Are Very Religious, 1943. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 151 ⁄2 x 221 ⁄2 in. (39.4 x 57.2 cm). Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1987.94. Photo © 2009 Amon Carter Museum. Fig 130 There Is an Average of Four Bars to Every Block, 1943. Gouache on paper, 159⁄16 x 221 ⁄2 in. (39.4 x 57.2 cm). Museum of Art, Rhode
Island School of Design, Providence, Mary B. Jackson Fund, 43.565. Photography by Erik Gould. Fig 131 Many Whites Come to Harlem to Watch the Negroes Dance, 1943. Gouache on paper, 14 x 21 in. (35.6 x 53.3 cm). Private collec-
tion. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
wedged into a table at the upper left corner, observe four
corners, and going to cabarets. He also depicts Har-
dancing couples swinging their arms in widening arcs
lemites buying from pushcart vendors and going to free
across the dance floor. Each figure has his or her own
medical clinics. The Undertakers Do a Good Business
discrete space in which to dance. The angular red and
(Portland Art Museum, Oregon) points to an all-too-
yellow shapes Lawrence uses in the dancers’ outfits punc-
common outcome of neglected medical treatment in Har-
tuate the easy rhythms. From a different perspective, And
lem. However, it is countered by an upbeat image, When
Harlem Society Looks On (Portland Art Museum, Oregon)
It Is Warm the Parks Are Filled with People (Hirshhorn
shows animatedly conversing, middle-class Harlemites in
Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution),
tuxedoes and fancy gowns sipping their cocktails at a
in which mothers sit on park benches, push baby car-
high-style lounge.
riages, tend to infants, and buy ice cream for their chil-
Lawrence then returns to working-class diversions,
dren. The green colors emphasize the park ambience.
such as listening to street preachers, singing on street
The round carriage and ice cream cart wheels echo the
home in harlem 181
figures’ heads, setting up a syncopated rhythm that animates the scene. The next three panels focus on education—on higher education in City College Is Like a Beacon over Harlem (unlocated), on home education in Mothers and Fathers Work Hard to Educate Their Children (Fig. 132), and on self-education in The Libraries Are Appreciated (Philadelphia Museum of Art). To Lawrence’s mentors, such as Alain Locke, education meant advancing the race: good
presents impartially the life and death, work and play and aspiration, evil housing conditions and snatches of beauty in Harlem, and with their extraordinarily factual titles constitute an amazing social document. Lawrence’s color is fittingly vivid for his interpretations. A strong semi-abstract approach aids him in arriving at his basic or archetypal statements. Confronting this work one feels as if vouchsafed an extraordinary elemental experience. Lawrence has grown in his use of rhythm as well as in sheer design and fluency. For a variety of reasons, three stars on the visiting list. 39
for its own sake, it was also a step toward the integration of blacks into white society. Lawrence returns to social issues in the last two paint-
Art Digest described the paintings as relating “the conditions of life in Harlem”:
ings: Because of High Rents and Unfit Conditions Rent Strikes Are Becoming More Frequent (Fig. 133) and The
Lawrence uses simple means to tell his story of what he
People Are Beginning to Organize. They Want a Good
clearly considers distressing conditions in the city within a
Harlem (unlocated).37 Here he acknowledges that strikes
city, which is Harlem. He writes a sort of free verse that be-
and political organizing are a part of living in Harlem and
comes titles to his 30 narrative gouaches; and he paints post-
make fitting subjects for art. Lawrence’s exhibition was an instant hit in its sales and
er-like, bright colored scenes of night and day life, of struggles to get along, of demon drink and hard times, inadequate
critical reception. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
housing and nutriment; of over-crowded medical clinics and
Worcester Art Museum each bought a painting, and the
frequent funerals; of rent strikes and the desire to make things
Portland Art Museum in Oregon purchased five. Private collectors, including Roy Neuberger and the poet Countee Cullen, bought several, and Halpert reserved at least two for her own private collection. 38 Lawrence had already garnered praise for Pool Parlor (Fig. 124), which received sixth prize for watercolor (and $500 prize money) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s national Artists for Victory exhibition, and now the press enthusiastically embraced his 1943 Downtown Gallery exhi
better for the children. . . . He uses the disarming device, in his drive for reform, of a singing and hopeful approach.40
Like many other reviewers, these critics responded to both the sociological message and the art: subjects to provoke thought and feeling, color and design to enhance the emotional response and to keep the viewer looking. Lawrence did not, however, specifically refer to World War II or to the new mood of wariness in Harlem toward the war.41
bition. The New York Times critic Howard Devree declared that even more than in the Migration of the Negro exhi bition at the Museum of Modern Art the previous year, Lawrence had
harlem riot of
1943
Harlem in 1943 was a tinderbox of grievances and resentments. Some of Lawrence’s paintings hinted at them, and
successfully concentrated his attention on the many-sided life
with increasing frequency Hughes’s poems expressed
of his people in Harlem. The current group of thirty gouaches
them outright. In 1953 the literary historian Arthur P. Davis
Fig 132 The Music Lesson, originally titled Mothers and Fathers Work Hard to Educate Their Children, 1943. Gouache on paper, 15 3⁄8 x 221 ⁄2
in. (39.1 x 57.2 cm). New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, Gift of the Association for the Arts of New Jersey State Museum, fa1973-19. Fig 133 Because of High Rents and Unfit Conditions Rent Strikes Are Becoming More Frequent (also known as Rent Strike), 1942. Gouache
on paper, 14 x 21 in. (35.6 x 53.3 cm). Private collection. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY.
home in harlem 183
observed that Hughes developed from a poet of the
Neighborhoods”: “The damage to your stores is primarily
tourist-defined, exotic Harlem of the 1920s to a poet of
a protest against the whole rotten system of Jim Crow
the impatiently frustrated wartime Harlem.42 Hughes
ghettos, Jim Crow cars, and Jim Crow treatment of Negro
sensed, and indeed became the poet of, a changed con-
soldiers. But, you say, you are not responsible for those
sciousness among Harlemites, who were ironically aware
Jim Crow conditions. Why should your windows be bro-
of the overt and much discussed contradiction in their
ken? They shouldn’t. I am sorry they are. But I can tell you
collective American experience: the expectation that they
WHY they are broken.” Hughes lists the grievances: shop-
fight a war “for democracy” in a Jim Crow army.
keepers in black neighborhoods hire black employees only
No wonder Harlem exploded on August 1–3, 1943, when
reluctantly, and, when they do, hire only one; the bank
for three days and nights, in response to a rumor that a
branches in Harlem never hire blacks; store prices in black
black soldier had been shot to death by a white policeman,
neighborhoods are higher than elsewhere; and white
hundreds of residents took to the streets in protest. The
shopkeepers can live in beautiful whites-only suburbs or
series of events unfolded as follows. Margie Polite “cussed”
downtown apartments closed to African Americans.
a white policeman, James Collins, in the lobby of the
Hughes ends: “I do not believe in mob violence as a solu-
Braddock Hotel at 272 West 126th Street and was arrested
tion for social problems. But I do understand what it is
for disorderly conduct. A black soldier, Robert Bandy,
that makes many young people in Negro neighborhoods
intervened and assaulted Collins, who arrested him. When
an easy prey to that desperate desire born of frustration—
Bandy ran, the policeman shot and wounded him. Bandy
to which you contribute—to hurl a brick through a
was taken to the hospital, but the rumor spread that he
window.”45
had been killed. The protest soon metamorphosed into a
The writer for the November 1943 bulletin of the Port-
riot, with the breaking of shop windows and looting. Even-
land Art Museum in Oregon may have had the Harlem
tually some six thousand National Guardsmen were called
riot in mind when commenting on the five paintings from
in, and more than six hundred people were arrested; as-
the Downtown show that the museum had purchased:
sessments of property damage ranged up to five million
“The series Harlem, as a whole, depicts the realities of
dollars.43
the life of the Negro within a white civilization. The per-
As to the causes of the riot, pundits, politicians, and
vading emotion is horror and tragic despair. The dramatic
civic leaders stepped forward to render their opinions.
impact of the paintings is tremendous; by the simplest
Adam Clayton Powell Sr., by then the retired minister of
means the artist is able to speak to every observer. . . .
the Abyssinian Baptist Church, observed:
They are a powerful indictment of man’s inhumanity to man.”46 The last, clichéd sentence seems overly strong,
When Bandy hit Collins over the head with that club, he was not
given Lawrence’s bright colors and the upbeat mood of
mad with him only for arresting a colored woman, but he was
joy in humanity reflected in many of his panels, but the
mad with every white policeman throughout the United States
somber content was certainly also evident.
who had consistently beaten, wounded, and often killed colored men and women without provocation. Those window smashers were not mad with the windows, they were mad with all the white men living or dead who had heaped every insult and indignity upon them for centuries. When they were smashing windows
While the staff at the Portland Art Museum saw the recent works as social protest, Lawrence denied any conscious political aims. In a 1988 interview with the artist and writer Michael Harris, Lawrence stood firm: “I didn’t
they thought they were breaking the skulls of . . . race haters
select what I was going to do as much as doing what was
and race baiters. They were wrong, terribly wrong, but they were
around me. If that turned out to be political or cultural it
mad and mad men are
always abnormal.44
wasn’t because I thought of it in those terms. Street corner orators. The riots. Things like that. This is all taking
Langston Hughes comments on the smashed windows in
place around me, and I didn’t go out and say, ‘well, I’m
his August 14, 1943, column in the Chicago Defender, ad-
going to do a political painting.’ Or ‘I’m going to do a
dressed to “White Shopkeepers Who Own Stores in Negro
painting of people with problems.’ Or that type of thing.
184 home in harlem
But that was my life.”47 Lawrence was painting the life he knew. To him, Harlemites were not pathetic victims but people of unstoppable desire and courage who had to struggle with often intolerable circumstances. And although he shied away from being an activist himself—he wanted to be an artist—he knew, like Hughes, that rioting, like picketing, might at times be psychologically necessary and strategically effective. Although his series reflects the contradictions of Harlem’s environment, he knew Harlem was still not the South—a South that, in Hughes’s words, “begins at Newark.”48 Harlem was a home, a community, a nurturing refuge, a place where leaders such as Adam C. Powell Jr. took an activist role and poets such as Langston Hughes gave voice to the black Everyman. Hughes and Lawrence specifically turned to the subject of the Harlem riot within five years of the event. In OneWay Ticket (1948), Hughes published “The Ballad of Margie Polite,” a poem praised by Arnold Rampersad as a “brilliant fusion of protest and the vernacular.”49 In it, Harlemites declare August 1 to be “Margie’s Day,” com memorating her role for setting the riot in motion. Perhaps tongue-in-cheek, the poem nevertheless delivers a message. Arthur Davis, writing in 1953, commented: “In these thirteen short stanzas, Langston Hughes has distilled, as it were, all of the trigger-sensitiveness to injustice—real or imagined; all of the pent-up anti-white bitterness; and
Fig 134 The Ballad of Margie Polite, 1948. Brush and ink on paper,
all of the sick-and-tired-of-being-kicked-around feelings
24 3⁄4 x 161 ⁄2 in. (62.9 x 41.9 cm). Private collection, New York. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
which characterize the masses of present-day Harlem. It is indeed a provocative analysis of the frictions and the tensions in the black ghetto.” For Davis, the conditions of 1943 had not much changed in a decade. Lawrence, in his black-and-white drawing The Ballad of Margie Polite (Fig. 134), which he contributed to Hughes’s
chaos of an exploding Harlem, not skin color. One senses that Lawrence, if not a participant, shared Hughes’s outlook and the frustrations of his Harlem neighbors.50
One-Way Ticket, presents a parallel comment on the riot. Legs and arms, some holding billy clubs or bricks, others holding loot grabbed from stores, intersect at sharp an-
harlem as a state of mind
gles with a cacophony of faces—some belonging to po-
World War II dictated Lawrence’s absence from New York
licemen, others bloodied—while children scatter off the
for more than two years—from October 1943 to Decem
bottom edges. One child holds a loaf of bread, slices of
ber 1945. When he mustered out of the service that De-
which fall to the sidewalk as he runs. Only that child is
cember, he returned not to Harlem but to Brooklyn—to 385
actually colored black; as in other drawings by Lawrence,
Decatur Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood,
black ink is used to define facial features of a face and
where Knight had been living near her foster family during
only occasionally to indicate race. What stands out is the
his absence.51
home in harlem 185
Yet Lawrence continued to choose those subjects that
shop, in both form and content. . . . is one of the many
implied the sense of place and the state of mind that was
scenes that I still see and remember.”55 The barbershop
“Harlem.” During an interview with Carroll Greene in
was not just a place for grooming but a major site of
1968, Lawrence mused that Langston Hughes had in-
black male urban culture—where men learned from their
sisted he would “never live outside the Negro commu-
elders, heard the news, exchanged gossip, politicized
nity,” but then continued: “I don’t think that I have to live
themselves and others, made life decisions, and consoli-
physically in the Negro community. . . . But the very work
dated their identities as black men. It was a crucial part
I do is so much a part of me that I feel that I could never
of their public sphere. Black barbers specialized in bar-
leave it really.”
52
Perhaps living at a physical distance
bering techniques for black men. They never had white
from Harlem allowed the psychic distance he needed to
clients to cope with, and few women intruded into the male
conceptualize his observations.53 Indeed, by 1972, after
socializing.
he and Gwendolyn Knight had moved permanently to a
In addition to returning to his “Harlem” street scenes
white suburb of Seattle, Lawrence was speaking about
in 1946, Lawrence made paintings of the trades—not only
“many Harlems”: “Most of my work depicts events from
Barber Shop but also The Shoemaker, Watchmaker, Cabi
the many Harlems which exist throughout the United
net Maker, Steelworkers, Radio Repairs, Stenographers,
States. This is my genre. My surroundings. The people I
The Seamstress, and, in 1947, Tailors—fitting subjects, as
know . . . at work . . . at play . . . at worship. A free hospi-
the art historian Lowery Stokes Sims has noted, for ser-
tal clinic . . . vaudeville comedians . . . children in a li-
vicemen returning from World War II and looking for jobs.56
brary. The happiness, tragedies, and the sorrows of man-
As he said in his application for the Guggenheim Fellow-
kind as realized in the teeming black ghetto.”54 Although
ship, he intended “to continue the record of Negro con-
the people and the brownstones of the Bed-Sty neighbor-
temporary life in America” on the basis of his “exhaustive
hood where he lived in the late 1940s looked similar to
study of this material both in literature and in life.”57
those in Harlem, the community was in fact more racially
He also painted images that suggest his reactions to
mixed. Moreover, it lacked the excitement of Harlem’s
his own homecoming from war. Although Gwendolyn
nightlife and the sense of being the “mecca” for African
Knight had visited him when he was stationed in St. Au-
Americans.
gustine and Boston, and he had managed to obtain leaves
As Lawrence stepped back into the life of the streets,
to visit New York, there was nothing like the joy of being
it is not surprising that he painted Barber Shop (Fig. 135),
home permanently. A snapshot taken in February 1946 of
a place where men congregated, whether or not they
Lawrence and Knight standing on a suburban street, with
needed a haircut or shave. He later described the barber-
her clutching her fur coat to her neck, conveys the plea-
shop as vital to the culture and visual kaleidoscope of
sure they found in each other’s company (Fig. 136). And
Harlem: “It was inevitable that the barber shop with its
the subjects of his art refer to that satisfaction in being
daily gathering of Harlemites, its clippers, mirror, razors,
home. In Going Home (1946, Fig. 137), Lawrence empha-
the over-all pattern and the many conversations that took
sizes the overcrowded train, with overhead bins jammed
place there . . . was to become the subject of many of my
with suitcases, people sleeping in the aisles, and a lone
paintings. Even now, in my imagination, whenever I relive
serviceman in khakis wedged into a middle compartment.
my early years in the Harlem community, the barber
The passengers are all black, which suggests a Jim Crow
Fig 135 Barber Shop, 1946. Gouache on paper, 21 1 ⁄8 x 293⁄8 in. (53.7 x 74.6 cm). Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Fig 136 Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight, February 17, 1946. Courtesy Seattle Art Museum. Fig 137 Going Home, 1946. Gouache on paper, 22 x 301⁄4 in. (55.9 x 76.8 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New
York.
home in harlem 187
car, but the image suggests the relief of a return from wartime service.
It was Simple’s Harlem that Lawrence painted in the 1940s—the Harlem of expectations, distortions, contra-
The Lovers (1946, Fig. 138) depicts a man—who could
dictions. In one of Hughes’s sketches, written for the Oc-
be a returning serviceman like Lawrence—cuddling his
tober 5, 1946, issue of the Chicago Defender, Simple
sweetheart. They sit on the davenport listening to the
praises Harlem. The narrator, Hughes himself in the guise
phonograph player beside them. A bottle of whiskey, two
of Simple’s bar stool friend, asks Simple, “What is it that
shot glasses, cigarettes, and an ashtray rest on the low
you like so much about Harlem?” Simple replies: “It is full
table in front of them. The man’s hat rests on the top of
of Negroes. . . . I feel like I got protection,” adding, “I like
the couch cushion, suggesting that he is a visitor. A snake
Harlem because it belongs to me.” When the narrator
plant occupies the table at one side, a flower pot with a
points out that Simple does not own the houses, Simple
pathos plant hangs down, and a pair of photographs in
replies: “I may not own ’em, but I live in ’em, and it would
oval frames rests on the red table. It is a touching mo-
take an atom bomb to get me out. . . . I am in Harlem to
ment of courtship, love, and the promise of family life. In
stay. You say the houses ain’t mine. Well, the sidewalk
End of the Day (1945, Fig. 139), a couple lies in bed, lei-
is—and don’t nobody push me off. The cops don’t even
surely reading the newspapers. The artist seems to be
much say, ‘move on,’ hardly no more.”60
saying that connubial bliss depends on such shared moments of quiet companionship.
Hughes’s Simple owned the sidewalks. He owned the place, Harlem, even if he did not own the particular tenement—the physical space—in which he lived. It didn’t matter if he didn’t own the buildings. Community was about people and their homes, not about the rights of
the street as cultural site in postwar america
property. Even if Harlem produced few jobs, it was still
During the 1940s Hughes had developed the fictional
years of being away.61
character Jesse B. Semple to represent the attitudes of
the ’hood where people could hang out and return after In other writings Hughes also expressed the hopes and
working-class Harlemites. Hughes first introduced the
concerns of New Yorkers who played out the drama of
person he called “My Simple-Minded Friend” in his Chi
their lives on stoops and sidewalks.62 Kurt Weill invited
cago Defender opinion column “Here to Yonder” in Febru-
Hughes to write the lyrics to his opera adaptation of Elmer
ary 1943. Usually Hughes’s column discussed topics of
Rice’s popular play Street Scene.63 When it was first
particular interest to the newspaper’s black readers—
performed at the Adelphi Theater on January 9, 1947,
black soldiers, the Harlem riot of 1943, Hughes’s own
New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson gave it a
travels on the lecture circuit, and being black in racist
rave review, especially for its “sidewalk dances.”64 Life
America.58 The creation of Semple (often called “Simple”)
magazine, which ran a spread on the opera in its February
gave Hughes license to voice directly, without censorship,
24 issue, declared, “With excellent singing in an eloquent
commonly held attitudes about family, girlfriends, land-
score, Street Scene brings new stature to the U.S.
lords, male buddies, racial advancement, education, the
stage.”65 The opera’s drama unfolds on a hot summer
courts, the police, and Jim Crow segregation in a street-
night in the public space in front of a New York tenement
smart vernacular that black readers instantly recognized
where kids play, young people dance, lovers exchange
as truthful and authentic.59
words, and immigrant grown-ups gossip and argue.66
Fig 138 The Lovers, 1946. Gouache on paper, 21 1 ⁄2 x 30 in. (54.6 x 76.2 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New
York. Fig 139 End of the Day, 1945. Gouache on paper, 20 x 291 ⁄2 in. (50.8 x 74.9 cm). Collection Kook Gibbs Family. Image courtesy DC Moore
Gallery, New York.
home in harlem 189
Significantly, the cast of characters included all ethnic groups except African Americans. The cultural import of street life can also be seen in The Street (1946), the first novel of the People’s Voice reporter Ann Petry. This story takes on not just the problems of being black in America but also the ordeals of urban poverty and the vulnerabilities of being both a single mother and an object of men’s predatory sexual desires. Alain Locke called the novel “the artistic success of the year.” To Locke it told the truth “vividly, honestly, objectively” and was “deftly embroidered with the particularisms of Negro life.” Moreover, he admired the book’s realism—not defeatist but Zola-esque.67 The heroine of The Street, Lutie Johnson, struggles to make a living and keep her young son, Bub, out of trouble— to keep him “off the street.” The novel describes in detail
Fig 140 Children at Play, 1947. Tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in.
the dreary tenement Lutie rents on 116th Street, with its
(50.8 x 61 cm). Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Eva Underhill Holbrook Collection of American Art, Gift of Alfred H. Holbrook.
small living space, dank and dark hallways, and broken furniture. A major character is the first-floor tenant, Mrs. Hedges (a Hogarthian character, to Locke), who observes the street from her front window. Mrs. Hedges provides
tling in the streets. Street photographers also focused on
the many characters with information and gossip that
such scenes, as in a photograph of girls playing dodge-
fuel the narrative.68
ball on 142nd Street (Fig. 142). It is not that one artist is
Many of Petry’s passages describe the street in terms
influencing another here, but that they are drawing on
familiar to viewers of Lawrence’s paintings—as “swarm-
shared observations and an understanding that children’s
ing with children,” girls “skipping double dutch rope,”
“play” reflects the community. Activities of children have
boys “shining shoes.”69 But also “here on this street the
meaning and give a community its sense of generational
women trudged along overburdened, overworked, their
continuity.
own homes neglected while they looked after someone
Just how vital street life is for urban communities lies
else’s while the men on the street swung along empty-
at the heart of writings by the activist and urban critic
handed, well dressed, and carefree. Or they lounged
Jane Jacobs. In The Death and Life of Great American
against the sides of the buildings, their hands in their
Cities (1961), she attacked what she viewed as the anti-
pockets while they stared at the women who walked past,
social projects of city planners and devoted three chap-
probably deciding which woman they should select to re-
ters to the social benefits of sidewalks. To Jacobs, side-
place the wife who was out working all day.”70 Lutie con-
walks could help solve the alienation of modern cities:
stantly spins out of her imagination little stories to match
“Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a
the daily comings and goings of people she sees.
city, are its most vital organs.”72 Because residents, pass-
It is hardly a coincidence that Lawrence’s Harlem
ersby, and shopkeepers and other small businesspeople
(1942, private collection) was reproduced in the New York
all kept an eye on these public spaces, they kept crime at
Times review of Petry’s book, since he had become well
bay and made everyone feel secure. Jacobs would have
known as the painter of Harlem.71 The girls in Lawrence’s
liked Ann Petry’s fictional Mrs. Hedges at her window,
Children at Play (1947, Fig. 140) could be playing the
always watching the comings and goings of the street,
games Petry mentions. The boys in his Shoe-Shine Boys
and keeping the neighborhood under constant and be-
(1948, Fig. 141) could be the boys she describes as hus-
nign surveillance.
190 home in harlem
Fig 141 Shoe-Shine Boys, 1948. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x
24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York. Fig 142 Nichols, Girls Playing Dodge Ball on 142nd Street, 1949.
Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Fig 143 The Checker Players, 1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in (50.8 x 61 cm). Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, Gift of Saundra B. Lane in memory of her husband, William H. Lane, and purchased through the Stoddard Acquisition Fund.
For Jacobs, the social responsibility of such eyes is what made cities vital. Children especially benefited. Hav-
their charm is the accompanying sense of freedom to roam up and down the sidewalks.”73
ing adults watch over them gave them a sense of com-
We see this kind of “free” play in Lawrence’s Children
munity and trust. The sidewalks became places where
at Play, where nine skinny girls dance about on a side-
kids could indulge in “unspecialized play,” where they had
walk hopscotch grid. The open spaces with which Law-
the freedom to “slop in puddles, write with chalk, jump
rence surrounds his girls emphasize their freedom. In
rope, roller skate, shoot marbles, trot out their posses-
contrast, Shoe-Shine Boys seems densely packed, as
sions, converse, trade cards, play stoop ball, walk stilts,
three large boys, almost men, march up the streets, de-
decorate soap-box scooters, dismember old baby car-
termined to make a dime and to “shine.”
riages, climb on railings, run up and down. . . . Part of
192 home in harlem
Lawrence also painted men playing games, as in The
Fig 144 Kibitzers, 1948. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, An-
dover, Massachusetts, Gift from the Childe Hassam Fund of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Checker Players (1947, Fig. 143), Kibitzers (1948, Fig. 144),
leaning out of windows, or sitting on stoops observing the
and the many scenes of men playing pool, cards, domi-
goings-on and interceding when necessary.
noes, and
chess.74
The Checker Players shows five figures
in a betting parlor—two players, two onlookers, and one
These postwar works reflect changes in the way Lawrence handled paint and articulated the volume of figures—
man recording the scores of a baseball game in the back-
techniques he may have learned in 1946 from Josef Albers
ground. Written across the top of the board are the names
when teaching at Black Mountain College. One new tech-
of the Negro Leagues.75 In Kibitzers seven hulking figures
nique is his outlining of the facial features. Instead of show-
hover over and offer advice to two barely visible checker
ing round white eyeballs punctuated by black irises and
players. To Jane Jacobs, it was kibitzers like these who
pupils, characteristic of his work before 1946, Lawrence
gave street culture its vitality—people standing around,
has devised a way to outline the eyelids, the pupils, and the
home in harlem 193
edges of the nose and to articulate the fingers. He now
changes, sudden nuances, sharp and impudent inter
uses a reverse method, which he described as “painting
jections, broken rhythms . . . punctuated by riffs, runs,
on either side of the line.” As conservator Elizabeth Steele
breaks, and disc-tortions of the music of a community in
explains, focusing on The Checker Players: “He painstak-
transition,” he could have been describing Lawrence’s
ingly brushed the brown paint up to and just over the
paintings as well.78
edges of the underdrawing, leaving a thin line in reserve
Broken rhythms and riffs abound in the compositional
to depict the eyes and other fine details. . . . He then
structure of Dancing Doll (1947, Fig. 145). Large shapes
painted a transparent yellow over the reserved space.”76
representing the figures’ clothing spread across the mid-
The result is a richer sense of patterning and a more so-
dle band; twelve heads punctuate the top, narrower band;
phisticated handling of the features of dark faces. But with
and the four red, yellow, and green puppets seen at street
this technique figures do not seem to look at each other,
level inject sharp accents.79 Each compositional band has
as they did in the earlier pictures such as Street Orator’s
its own independent rhythm. When asked about the
Audience and Street Scene—Restaurant.
painting, however, Lawrence focused on its subject mat-
Lawrence employs yet another technique to give dyna-
ter: “This is a street scene of peddlers selling dolls which
mism to the figures. Flat, evenly painted forms (see Street
dance. The doll dances as it is manipulated by an invisi-
Orator’s Audience) have given way to a mix of light and
ble string.”80 The dance of the dolls provides an illusion
dark tones that describe figures and their clothing (see
of human animation.
The Checker Players). These tonal variations do not neces-
Lawrence’s scene anticipates a pivotal scene from
sarily conform to a naturalistic pattern of light and dark
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952), just after the pro-
created by a directed light source. In these later works
tagonist’s falling-out with a radical organization to which
Lawrence is using the precepts advocated by Alfred Wes-
he belonged. Hurrying along the streets of Manhattan, he
ley Dow: employing light and dark for pattern rather than
sees a crowd gathered around a man who is moving
for modeling a volumetric form. Now Lawrence creates a
something:
syncopation of rhythms through light and dark rather than through hue shifts (as he did in the 1930s). For
It was some kind of toy and I glanced at the crowd’s fascinated
example, the lower half of Kibitzers consists of long verti-
eyes and down again, seeing it clearly this time. . . . A grinning
cal columns of alternating light and dark forms of the
doll of orange-and-black tissue paper with thick flat cardboard
same hue (the trousers of the kibitzers), but in the top half the light areas are fuller (expressing the bulky backs of the men), thus creating a different rhythm. Accenting the spaces between the foreground men are the red stripes on the shirts of the background figures. This com-
discs forming its head and feet and which some mysterious mechanism was causing to move up and down in a loosejointed, shoulder-shaking, infuriatingly sensuous motion, a dance that was completely detached from the black, mask-like face. It’s no jumping-jack, but what, I thought, seeing the doll throwing itself about with the fierce defiance of someone
positional device recalls the art historian Robert Farris
performing a degrading act in public, dancing as though it
Thompson’s observation, in an essay on African Ameri-
received a perverse pleasure from its motions.81
can quilts, that in traditional African music the listener can hear two different kinds of beat simultaneously—“the
Ellison’s protagonist feels caught up in the humanlike, but
rhythmic clash.” Similarly, with “stepping,” jazz dancers
degrading, antics of the doll—manipulated by an outside
emphasize the off-beats—“shading the count.”77 Many of
agent as he feels is happening to himself. Similarly, in
Lawrence’s compositions from this period—not only Ki
many paintings by Lawrence the viewer senses a sinister
bitzers but also Going Home, Gee’s Bend, Shoe-Shine
undercurrent and a vague premonition that an irrational
Boys, and the drawing Parade—employ these formal aes-
sudden movement might upset the social balance.
thetic effects. When Hughes referred to his Montage of a
In contrast to Dancing Doll, a poignant undercurrent is
Dream Deferred poems as a bebop style of “conflicting
offered by The Fur Coat (1948, Fig. 146). In this sad inte-
194 home in harlem
Fig 145 Dancing Doll, 1947. Egg tempera on hardboard, 201⁄4 x 241⁄8 in. (51.4 x 61.3 cm). Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Mu-
seum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Bequest of Hudson D. Walker from the Ione and Hudson D. Walker Collection.
rior scene visitors come to console a mother whose life-
in the 1946 snapshot, as she leaves the scene. One sus-
less baby lies on the bed. A frightened boy clings to the
pects that the image originated in Lawrence’s personal
chair behind the white visitor. A figure in white, perhaps
memories.82
the mother, sits at the edge of the bed facing away from
Lawrence often depicts women at home; when outside
us, as does another small child. The plastered ceiling in
they are often onlookers or passersby in scenes where
disrepair suggests the family’s poverty. Even the wealthy
men and boys initiate action. In Rummage Sale (1948,
woman in her fur coat, a member of this community of
Fig. 147), however, Lawrence represents five women ac-
mourning, cannot help ease the tragedy. She clutches her
tively rummaging through bins of clothes, bolts of cloth,
coat, in much the same gesture as Gwendolyn Knight did
and shoes, while a small child looks on to learn her elders’
home in harlem 195
Fig 146 The Fur Coat, 1948. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore
Gallery, New York.
Fig 147 Rummage Sale, 1948. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
ways. To Lawrence, the market, more than the street,
the city in the
1950 s
provides an important public sphere for women—where they can meet and exchange news and gossip.83
The year 1950 was one of transition for Lawrence. After
With his paintings of the late 1940s, Lawrence cap-
a year in the psychiatric ward of Hillside Hospital, he re-
tured the spectacle that makes living in the city what it is.
turned home to Gwen and reentered his social and profes-
He also confirmed to the people of Harlem that they ex-
sional life.84 A haunting painting from this time is Slums
isted and were not invisible. Too often the mainstream
(Fig. 148). In this view from a window overlooking the city,
press ignored African Americans. When Life magazine
he represents no part of the living quarters other than the
ran a photo essay on ethnic groups, titled “Peoples of
window frame. Marking the scene as a “slum” is the in-
New York,” on February 17, 1947, it failed to include pho-
festation of vermin—dozens of cockroaches scamper
tographs of any people of African or Caribbean heritage.
along the frame, mullion, and sill as well as on the tightly
Ebony, which began publishing in 1946, offered black
rolled green shade askew near the top. On the sill sits a
readers an alternative to Life by correcting the pictorial
rusted can along with a bloodied mouse caught in a trap
neglect of African Americans and running stories that
and attracting flies. Through the bottom panes, we see
showed their progress in overcoming segregation, their
the fire escape, its railing draped with drying clothes. An
business acumen, and their successes.
outdoor planter contains a few plants struggling to survive.
home in harlem 197
Across the street, similar fire escapes are peopled with
scenes with figures walking on sidewalks, leaning against
the inhabitants of the neighboring buildings. One feels
brownstone facades, and pausing to look at shop win-
confined, trapped like the mouse, with no exit, as Bigger
dows. Perhaps he was inspired by the photographs of
Thomas felt when trapped in his mother’s rat-infested
Roy DeCarava, who had collaborated with Langston
Chicago
tenement.85
Hughes on The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955).88 Hughes
City scenes continued to be viable subjects for Law-
proudly gave Lawrence and Knight an inscribed copy of
rence during the 1950s, even when he was painting his
the book that Christmas. Hughes has his protagonist say,
Performance series, exhibited in 1953 (see Chapter 7),
as the text for one page of pictures, “In Harlem some-
and the Struggle series, exhibited in 1955 (see Chapter 8).
thing is happening all the time, people are going every
The U.S. exhibition at the Venice Biennale during the sum-
which-a-way.” That spectacle of street life was the excite-
mer of 1956, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago
ment that propelled Lawrence to return repeatedly to
curator Katharine Kuh, was called American Artists Paint
Harlem scenes.
the City, a theme that highlighted the differences between
Two years earlier Hughes had begun to adapt his
American and European artists. To Kuh, “When the Ameri-
Jesse B. Semple stories to a musical play. Production
can paints his own cities he is confronted, at least visually,
problems inevitably ensued; it was, after all, a musical
by a new phenomenon, a great mass of structures sprawl-
play about working-class blacks set in a bar. Simply
ing upward and outward with little or no preliminary
Heavenly finally opened in May 1957 at the 85th Street
plan. . . . In American life as in American cities there is a
Playhouse, later moving to the 48th Street Playhouse,
disturbing multiplicity, an overlay of sound, color, light and
and finally, in October, to the Renata Theater on Bleecker
movement which unquestionably influences our artists.
Street. Lawrence wrote to Hughes on a Christmas card
One feels the cumulative effect of too much—too fast—too
that he and Knight had seen it and “enjoyed it greatly.”89
soon.” She then singled out Lawrence’s entry, Chess on
In his art, Lawrence continued to paint street scenes in-
Broadway (1951, private collection), as one of three works
habited by characters like Jesse B. Semple.
that “reflect this seeming chaos.”86
Just how comfortable Lawrence felt painting street
Not surprisingly, at a time when abstract expressionism
scenes of working-class life can be seen in his answer in
was emerging as the exciting new style, only five artists
1962 to a high school student’s question: “How do you go
other than Lawrence did figural art in the Biennale’s Amer
about painting a picture?”
ican section. The twenty-nine other artists Kuh selected depicted city structures in varying degrees of abstraction,
First I have the idea; which may be a street scene. Second, I
with Jackson Pollock emerging as her clear favorite. Chess
compose a drawing. If the street scene is to be a busy one,
on Broadway, however, blended in with these nonobjective
I try to show this by having many things going on in the picture;
works, for it approaches abstraction through its dense patterning, with its piling up of the small grids of the chessboards, and the bands of windows, through which shine a panoply of sparkling Broadway lights. This penchant for enhancing pattern emerges in many of the theater and performance paintings Lawrence did in the
such as—people shopping—children at play—and various types of stores and their wares. After the composition has been worked out, I then begin painting. I try further to create the feeling of a crowded and busy street by the way I use color, shapes and textures. By the juxtaposition of all these elements; I attempt to create the feeling of the excitement which we all feel about the busy city streets.90
early 1950s; it may be Lawrence’s way of modifying his style to accommodate the new aesthetic sensibility of the dominant New York art world. 87 In the late 1950s, however, Lawrence returned to street
In Brownstones (1958, Fig. 149), Lawrence offers us a sidewalk with three tenements in the background. A couple walks at the left, another couple pushes a baby carriage
Fig 148 Slums, 1950. Casein tempera on paper, 25 x 21 1 ⁄2 in. (63.5 x 54.6 cm). Collection of Elizabeth Marsteller Gordon. Photo: The
Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
home in harlem 199
Fig 149 Brownstones, 1958. Egg tempera on hardboard, 31 1 ⁄2 x 371⁄4 in. (80 x 94.6 cm). Clark Atlanta University Art Collections, Gift of Chauncey and Catherine Waddell.
in the middle, and at the right a woman carries a bag of
(1959, Fig. 150), Lawrence choreographs thirty-eight
groceries. Interspersed with the adults, two girls jump
figures on a sidewalk and the stoops, doorways, and
rope, a child bounces a ball, and two others attend to a
windows of three adjacent brownstones. In the foreground
dog. Several figures stand in the doorways, while others
a woman carrying a bundle and a man on crutches set
pause on the stoops. The background windows of the
off to cross the street; behind them, two women dressed
brownstones give the spectator a glimpse of life within the
in red and one man walk along the sidewalk. Thirteen
tenements. In a composition much more elaborate than
men, some sitting on chairs or boxes and others standing,
the street scenes done twenty years earlier, Lawrence
also occupy the sidewalk. Many of them have short
presents a broad sweep of children and family.
sleeves, suggesting summer and fair weather. Lining the
In one of his most notable scenes, Street Shadows
200 home in harlem
wrought-iron fences or standing on the stoops are ten
Fig 150 Street Shadows, 1959. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm). Private collection, New York. Photo: The Jacob and
Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY.
men and a child. Two more men stand in doorways. Be-
railing, who looks up at her. The immediacy of this scene
hind the open window on the left two barbers attend to
is heightened by the paper boats floating in the gutter
their customers. The middle open window reveals a
and the two figures moving toward us in the foreground,
woman arranging flowers while another figure holds a
suggesting a continuity of space between our world and
bundled baby, suggesting a home that is both beautiful
theirs.
and nurturing. The next window is shuttered. The figure
Lawrence’s color choices enhance his rhythmic design.
in the window on the far right looks down on the street
As usual, he deploys light and dark blues and browns in
scene. Her reclining white cat and potted plant code her
the clothing not to reflect light and shadow but to create
as a long-term resident—watching the scene and perhaps
patterns and enhance the overall liveliness of the compo-
exchanging comments with the man seated on her fence
sition. The sidewalk is painted black or purple, depending
home in harlem 201
Fig 1 51 Romare Bearden, The Dove, 1964. Cut-andpasted photo reproductions and papers, gouache, pencil, and colored pencil on cardboard, 13 3⁄8 x 18 3⁄4 in. (34 x 47.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Blanchette Rockefeller Fund. Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/ Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
on the way he wants the figures to contrast with the
friendships, spend the leisure time that their days off af-
background.
ford, and improve their skills at gaming and talking.92
In pictures like this it is the sidewalk that organizes
Lawrence’s work is modern in its comprehension that
public life—allowing people to congregate in the open air,
public life resides in the rhythms, the calls and responses,
to play games, debate politics, or simply hang out, while
of people interacting on the sidewalks and streets and as-
others go about their business. The one boarded-up win-
serting their subjectivity.93
dow suggests that the figures are, in any event, transient—renters who may be forced to leave for renovations and new tenants who will pay higher rents. The streets of Harlem become the public sphere where
n
That street life was a fitting subject for modern art was later emphasized by Romare Bearden, with the collages
civic life takes place. As the social scientist and geogra-
he began to make in the early 1960s. The subject matter
pher Doreen Massey has pointed out, we can think of
of African American urban life as much as his montage
places, not “as areas with boundaries around,” but “as
style made for a compelling art. Bearden made these
articulated movements in networks of social relations
works as the result of a decision to deal more directly in
and understandings.”91 Indeed, the men in Lawrence’s
his art with the issues of the day—specifically segregation.
picture are not merely playing games, kibitzing, loitering,
He and several other artists, including Charles Alston,
or walking from here to there like the disinterested
Hale Woodruff, Norman Lewis, and Emma Amos, formed
flâneurs of Baudelaire. Instead, they are participating in
a group called Spiral.94 Bearden suggested that a worth-
a democratic ritual of community—where whatever they
while group project might be to make collages that re-
do will command respect, whatever they say will be con-
vealed their social concerns; when the others demurred,
sidered. On the streets and sidewalks they consolidate
he made them on his own. He alternated between scenes
202 home in harlem
of Harlem and scenes of Pittsburgh and the countryside
in Lawrence’s painting, their eyes stare at us, seeking
around Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, all places
validation or silently accusing us. In Lawrence’s paintings
where he had spent much of his youth. Lawrence’s street
the figures ignore the viewer as they go about their own
scenes with their collage cubist style were no doubt a rich
business or interact with each other. Both artists, however,
pictorial source for such Bearden works as The Dove
understood that to be modern was to be urban and in
(1964, Fig. 151), The Street (1964, Milwaukee Art Mu-
motion, and nothing expressed that modernity more than
seum), and Childhood Memories (1965–66, private col-
the representation of the streets where people lived to-
lection). Like Lawrence’s Street Shadows these Bearden
gether, in close proximity, respecting the space of their
collages show sidewalks teeming with people. Although
neighbors while trying to improve their circumstances and
the people seem less purposeful in their movements than
opportunities.
home in harlem 203
7
the double consciousness of masks and masking America is a land of masking jokers. We wear the mask for purposes of aggression as well as for defense; when we are projecting the future and preserving the past. In short, the motives hidden behind the mask are as numerous as the ambiguities the mask conceals.
ralph ellison, “Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke” (1958) An iconographic influence . . . cannot be of consequence unless it corresponds to metaphysical ideas already at work in the culture in question.
a. david napier, Masks, Transformation, and Paradox (1986)
At the end of January 1953 Jacob Lawrence’s solo exhibi-
believe of Broadway.” Some of the reviewers, however,
tion Performance opened at the Downtown Gallery. Al-
qualified their remarks about the “lighthearted” qualities.
though numbered like his earlier series, the twelve paintings
For example, Sidney Geist, writing for Art Digest, first
do not demand a serial narrative reading; however, No. 1,
praised the formal qualities: “The glitter and sham of the
Billboards (see Fig. 153), with its bright and sparkling im-
stage are echoed here in studied, prismatic notations.
agery of “coming attractions,” and No. 12, After the Show
There is a profusion of detail as Lawrence paints cos-
(on art market, 2008), a midnight scene of a long recep
tumes, densely patterned floors and backgrounds, and the
tion table behind which hover spectral skulls and ghosts,
sparkle of jewels.” Then he added a note about its content:
serve as appropriate brackets for the ten other paintings.1
“There is a medieval richness of texture sometimes, and
The works were intended to be sold separately, and indeed
in other cases . . . a boldness, even a violence, of construc-
his dealer Edith Halpert immediately sold several of them,
tion and color.” Geist saw Curtain and Marionettes as
as the exhibition proved to be both a critical and a commer
“solid paintings, heavy with portent.” But he did not elabo-
cial success. Reviews were uniformly positive, if not equally incisive.
rate on either the violence or what the painting might have portended. 2
Time magazine called the paintings “a lighthearted view of
At the end of a favorable review, Stuart Preston, critic
the entertainment world” and reproduced Vaudeville (1951,
for the New York Times, also noted disturbing aspects in
Fig. 152) as a full-page color illustration. Carlyle Burrows
Lawrence’s art:
of the New York Herald Tribune praised “their free fantasy content and non narrative quality.” Jet magazine noted that
What strange and savage presences are introduced into these
the paintings depicted “various aspects of theatrical life . . .
performances! Superficially they are sketches of life before
from a children’s Christmas pageant to the gaudy make-
and behind the footlights and with them Lawrence at once es-
Fig 152 Vaudeville, 1951. Egg tempera on hardboard, 297⁄8 x 1915⁄16 in. (75.9 x 50.6 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. Photo: Lee Stalsworth.
Fig 153 Billboards, 1952. Egg tempera on hardboard, 36
x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
tablishes himself as one of the extraordinary illustrators of our
sociological and cultural environment of African Ameri-
time. Feelings of cruelty, pity, or a sort of wild humor conveyed
cans living in Jim Crow America during this time period.
through almost unbearably shrill color and line that cuts like a
Finally, we need to probe the personal and private realm,
hot sharp blade, expose the whole nerve of the theatre and
examining the deeper insights Lawrence developed dur-
entertainment. Anyone who considers that the camera, as a
ing and after the year he spent in the psychiatric ward of
recording agent, has ousted the artist had better look hard at these even if their point of view is not sympathetic. 3
Preston had detected something sinister, but he, too, chose not to develop his observations. A central theme in these Performance paintings is the
Hillside Hospital in Queens, New York.
the historical and political context
idea of masking, which is best understood from three dif-
The decade following the dropping of the atomic bombs
ferent perspectives. First, we need to look at the histori-
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 was marked
cal and political context of America during the cold war
by prosperity, a population explosion in the cities and
of the late 1940s and 1950s. Then we must consider the
suburbs, and an intensification of the military and eco-
206 masks and masking
nomic competition between the United States and the
Not an activist himself, Lawrence nevertheless en-
Soviet Union. By 1947 the USSR had blockaded Berlin;
dorsed progressive causes and organizations and was
by 1949 Mao Zedong and his communist forces had
therefore vulnerable to accusations of subversive radical-
triumphed over Chiang Kai-shek in China. In 1950 the
ism. For example, the State Department had planned to
United States was drawn into the Korean War, which con-
send Lawrence in 1953 to West Africa on one of the
tinued until 1953. Political tensions mounted on the
“goodwill” trips it arranged for artists during the cold war,
home front in reaction to the international events. In Oc-
but then abruptly cancelled the trip. A secret memoran-
tober 1947 the House Committee on Un-American Activi-
dum, dated June 26, 1953, in Lawrence’s FBI file reveals
ties (HUAC) opened public hearings on communism in
that the cancellation occurred because Lawrence was
the film industry. In 1949 eleven members of the Com-
considered “a potential security risk.”8
munist Party leadership were brought to trial under the
The Red Scare and the surge of anticommunism were
Smith Act, which made it a crime even to speak out in
not the only sources of political anxieties in the late
favor of revolutionary change. The Alger Hiss trials of 1949
1940s and 1950s; there was also the threat of the atom
and 1950 and the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial and
bomb, which a handful of artists made an overt subject
appeals lasting from 1950 to 1953 served to justify HUAC’s
for art. On commission from Fortune magazine, the ab-
and Joseph McCarthy’s Senate committee campaigns
stract artist Ralston Crawford witnessed the two test
against the “internal Red menace.”4
bombs detonated by the U.S. Navy at Bikini Atoll in 1946
Those who ideologically or idealistically had been
and then painted Test Able (see Fig. 193), at least seven
drawn to the Left in the 1930s or who were actively pro-
other paintings, and a group of gouaches, which were
testing the buildup of nuclear armaments and the Korean
shown at the Downtown Gallery in December 1946. The
War came under suspicion and often surveillance. Many
curator Barbara Haskell interprets the “fractured, spiked
socially concerned artists caught up in leftist politics
forms” in Crawford’s two paintings as indicating “an art
were targeted. The international touring exhibition Ad
that bespoke a world coming apart, a world whose stabil-
vancing American Art, organized in 1946 by the State
ity and prewar assurance had been irrevocably lost.”9
Department, was cancelled when conservatives objected
More overt in his pessimism, the figurative artist Philip
to the inclusion of left-wing artists. Irate members of
Evergood used symbols to comment on the madness of
Congress made it clear that American art should be, if
a nuclear holocaust in his Renunciation (1946, private
not patriotic, at least upbeat.5 Throughout the late 1940s
collection), an image that envisions apes taking control
anticommunist politicians and journalists intensified their
when the bomb explodes and civilization collapses.
attacks on artists considered subversive. In August 1949,
In their book The Fifties: The Way We Really Were
on the floor of the House, Representative George Don-
(1977), the historians Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak
dero (R-MI), the chair of HUAC, denounced artists and
assessed the effects of the bomb on the daily lives of
museum directors he considered subversive, including
Americans: “The psychic consequences were great. Amer-
Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Philip Evergood, and
icans in general felt powerless, helpless, nervous. Many
Ben Shahn. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover put these and
other factors had contributed to these emotions: the Red
other art world figures under surveillance and paid le-
Scare, the spread of corporate bureaucracy into daily life,
gions of informers to ferret out subversives and “security
mass conformity. But the nuclear threat motivating the
risks.” One informer, for example, reported to the FBI in
cold war was the medium helping these factors succeed.
March 1951 that Shahn associated with a group that had
Americans were manipulated by and through the bomb.
circulated leaflets to “stop the war in Korea.”6 In 1956 the
They backed away from the threats of war and McCarthy-
exhibition Sport in Art, organized in part by the magazine
ism, and rushed instead into dreams of domesticity, reli-
Sports Illustrated, was dropped because of the claim that
gion, material conformity.”10 Among the intellectuals and
four of the artists in the show were included on the at-
writers who focused on the psychological effects of living
torney general’s list of subversives.7
with the bomb was the architectural critic Lewis Mumford.
masks and masking 207
In a 1947 article he warns: “Every precaution taken to avert
modern period of Western Europe. What carnival then
atomic disaster, shuts the door to some cherished aspect
connoted was a world turned upside down, where kings
of living and concentrates even the most remote parts of
bray like animals and fools wear crowns. For the ruling
the personality on one theme alone: Fear. The steady in-
elites and ruled masses alike, carnival explicitly provided
crease in atomic destructiveness reaches a point at which
a place where the peasants, and later the working
everyone realizes that enough potential energy has been
classes, could let off steam, be themselves, and thumb
stored to destroy all the living spaces of the planet: so as
their noses at their masters.18 In post–World War II art
time goes on, the fear becomes more absolute, and . . .
and film, the theme of the carnival and its performers
the prospect of finding a way out becomes more blank.”
reappeared.19 Now, when world annihilation by atomic
Among the consequences, Mumford predicts, would be
bombs was a distinct possibility, the stakes were higher.
“grave psychological disruptions,” such as “escape [into]
During the late 1940s and early 1950s much of the
fantasy,” “purposeless sexual promiscuity,” “narcotic in-
contemporary art seen in galleries, garnering museum
dulgence,” and “outbreaks of catatonic trance.”11 Miller
prizes, and reproduced in mass-market magazines
and Nowak note that “the fiction of holocaust and defor-
tapped into the darkly anxious vein of the carnival theme.
mity was one expression of such fears”—an observation
Philip Guston painted masked children in a rubble-strewn
that applies to the visual arts as well.12
cityscape in If This Be Not I (1945, Washington University
In this climate of fear of nuclear annihilation and dis-
Gallery of Art, St. Louis), which won first prize at the Car-
tress about the repression of intellectual freedoms, many
negie International in 1946. When it was reproduced in
figurative artists turned to abstraction.13 In 1947 Mark
Life magazine, the caption pointed to Guston’s depiction
Rothko did not see much difference between the figura-
of “children at play, wearing masks to emphasize the
tive and the abstract artists. Writing for the magazine
child’s wish to get away from reality.”20 Another example
possibilities, he said: “I do not believe that there was ever
is Alton Pickens’s Carnival (1949, Museum of Modern Art,
a question of being abstract or representational. It is
New York), also reproduced in Life. The editors called
really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of
Pickens’s picture “a ghoulish parody on loud-mouthed
again.”14
Attitudes
frauds who pose as defenders of liberty. Liberty, an ape,
shifted, however, and by the time of a 1951 symposium at
is about to be crowned. A woman shouts hypocrisies—
breathing and stretching one’s arms
the Museum of Modern Art, many artists believed that
scrawny birds pouring from her mouth. Another, with the
abstract art could better express the complexities of so-
book of justice on her head, blows a horn ironically
cial alienation. On that occasion Robert Motherwell
shaped like [the] torch of liberty.”21 Yasuo Kuniyoshi, a
claimed: “The emergence of abstract art is one sign that
Japanese artist living in the United States who had faced
there are still men able to assert feeling in the world. Men
government challenges to his loyalty during World War II,
who know how to respect and follow their inner feelings,
included the mask motif in many of his paintings and
no matter how irrational or absurd they may first appear.
lithographs of the period. He also portrayed circus people
From their perspective, it is the social world that tends to
juggling and performing in impossible acts. In Juggler
appear irrational and absurd.”15 However, the artists who
(1952, Fig. 154), a pen-and-ink study for a large painting
remained both figurative in their art and leftist in their
of the same subject, the masklike face grimaces at the
politics continued to feel that they could better capture
round ball impossibly balanced on his long, pencil-thin
that irrational and absurd world with the themes and
nose. The two men in Ben Shahn’s Conversations (1958,
symbolic forms of representational art.16
Fig. 155) wear multiple masks, symbolic of dissembling
One set of themes and motifs that figurative artists
one’s real self and thoughts to the point where face and
turned to came from the world of carnival—a world in-
mask become interchangeable, an effective tactic in an
habited by clowns, masked harlequins, magicians, human
ambience of repression, duplicity, and suspicion that your
skeletons, hustlers, tarted-up show girls, menacing chil-
friends may be secretly informing on you.22 Like Law-
dren, and grotesque dolls.17 These had been frequent
rence, Shahn and Kuniyoshi showed their work at Edith
subjects for the visual and performing arts in the early
Halpert’s Downtown Gallery, where they gathered to par-
208 masks and masking
Fig 154 Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Juggler, 1952. Ink on cardboard, 22 x 28 in. (55.9 x 71.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase 53.37. Art © Estate of Yasuo Kuniyoshi/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Fig 155 Ben Shahn, Conversations, 1958. Watercolor on paper, 391⁄4 x 27
in. (99.7 x 68.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art 58.21. Art © Estate of Ben Shahn/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
ticipate in a formal group picture for the March 17, 1952,
the imagery of performers and masks, we cannot ignore
issue of Life magazine. All three shared a political outlook
the climate of the cold war period as a possible effect on
that was liberal, antiwar, and close to the politics of the
his art. Another factor, however, was the vernacular culture
communist Left.23
of Harlem’s community.
Lawrence for his part consistently minimized the cold war and McCarthyism as a factor in his art. Although the FBI had tagged him as potentially subversive in 1953, Lawrence later denied that the McCarthy witch-hunts had affected his art. As he explained: “What’s new for one
the cultural and sociological context
ethnic group might not be new in the black community.
Lawrence’s works are “double-voiced” in the sense used
We didn’t go into a frenzy because of McCarthy.”24 He
by Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The Signifying Monkey: A
pointed out that black artists had always experienced re-
Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. Gates
pression, specifically from racism and the segregation
points out that the African American literary greats of the
imposed by Jim Crow laws and customs. On another oc-
twentieth century, such as Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright,
casion, he again acknowledged the oppressiveness of
Zora Neale Hurston, Ishmael Reed, and Alice Walker, drew
McCarthyism during the 1950s but specifically denied its
on both the literary tradition of Western Europe (which
effect on his art: “I felt . . . anything that was repressive
includes African American authors writing in that tradition)
to people in the arts, [but] I didn’t do anything pertain-
and black vernacular culture, but that the elements of the
ing to that in my work.”25 Nevertheless, when exploring
black vernacular give their novels a particular inflection. 26 masks and masking 209
What Gates defines as “double-voiced” relates back to
experience of the ethnic, communal working-class African
W. E. B. Du Bois’s “double-consciousness.” In The Souls of
American culture that his personal past had transmitted
Black Folk (1903), Du Bois observed: “One ever feels his
to him. Lawrence was the agent of his own dialectic, and
twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts,
we see in the development of his art a perpetually renew-
two unreconciled strivings.”
27
The historian Nathan Hug-
gins has elaborated on Du Bois’s meditation by turning specifically to the African American artist:
ing synthesis. Thus, although Lawrence’s Performance paintings resonate with works done by his white colleagues during the cold war, his choice of masks and masking as a theme
The Negro artist in the United States lies in a peculiar province—a spiritual geography. His art is self-consciously national while, at the same time, special—ethnically regional. It attempts to speak with two voices, one from the stage of national culture and the other from the soul of ethnic experience. Nor is this condition wholly a matter of the artist’s will or intent. It is his ethnic fact. It is as if it were defined in the eternal constitution of things that to be a Negro artist in America one must, in some way, be a
race-conscious artist. 28
must also be considered in relation to African Americans’ attempts to confront and overcome Jim Crow segregation and racism in the post–World War II period. Masks had become a part of vernacular African American culture in ways that did not have the same resonance with mainstream white artists. In Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s masks—as physical artifacts—had a special place in the visual culture of the community. Exhibitions of African artifacts
With Lawrence, we can clearly see that he knew and
were frequently mounted at the 135th Street branch of
responded to the imagery and styles of the Euro-American
the public library and also in the commercial galleries of
artistic tradition but also chose subjects from black
midtown and downtown Manhattan. 33 Charles Alston,
working-class life and respected black cultural practices.
Lawrence’s first teacher, had helped Alain Locke install
In 1946 he wrote: “My pictures express my life and experi-
one such exhibition of African sculpture and masks at
ences. I paint the things I know about and the things I have
the 135th Street library. 34 To scholars such as Locke,
experienced. The things I have experienced extend into
African masks not only pointed to the ancestral legacy
my national, racial and class group. So I paint about the
but also were reminders of the African contribution to
American Negro working class.”29 Close readings of Law-
the development of European modernism and interna-
rence’s art allow us to explore that double-voiced quality
tional culture. 35
in Lawrence’s work and tease out meanings not immedi-
As noted in Chapter 1, civic leaders from Harlem, as
ately evident in his subject matter and style. As Gates
well as artists and writers, journeyed to midtown for the
remarks: “It is in the vernacular that, since slavery, the
first extensive exhibition of African artifacts, held at the
black person has encoded private yet communal cultural
Museum of Modern Art in the spring of 1935.36 Even be-
rituals.”30 Put another way: if, in the dialectic of Lawrence’s
fore MoMA’s big show, however, examples of African
work, the national (the “American”) is the thesis and the
masks and sculpture began appearing as motifs in the
vernacular-cultural (the “African American”) the anti
work of contemporary African American artists, such as
thesis, then the agency of the personal resolves Du Bois’s
Palmer Hayden, Lois Mailou Jones, and Malvin Gray
“two unreconciled strivings” by setting the dialectic in
Johnson. In 1933 Hayden received a $100 prize from the
motion. 31 It becomes the compelling need of any courageous and
Harmon Foundation for his Fétiche et Fleurs (Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles). This academically com
socially concerned artist, such as Lawrence, to reconcile
posed table still life containing a Fang reliquary sculp-
Du Bois’s contradictions through his or her personal
ture and piece of Kuba cloth along with a vase of lilies
practice of art, just as it takes a movement of people (and
declared the dual cultural heritage he embraced.37 Malvin
their actions) to effect the changes necessary to push
Gray Johnson’s Negro Masks (1932, Fig. 156) hung in the
forward and resolve the contradictions inherent in his-
1933 Harmon Foundation exhibition; when he painted his
tory. 32 In short, Lawrence made his art by confronting the
Self-Portrait (1934, Smithsonian American Art Museum,
national, time-specific culture of the cold war with his lived
Washington, D.C.), he paid homage to Africa by including
210 masks and masking
Fig 156 Malvin Gray Johnson, Negro Masks, 1932. Oil on canvas, 281⁄4 x 191⁄8 in. (71.8 x 48.7 cm). Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. Fig 157 Lois Mailou Jones, Les Fétiches, 1938. Oil on canvas, 251 ⁄2 x 21 1⁄4 in. (64.1 x 54 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wash-
ington, DC, Museum purchase made possible by N. H. Green, R. Harlan, and F. Musgrave. Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY.
Negro Masks in the background.38 Lois Mailou Jones, in
When the work of James Lesesne Wells’s students
her Paris-executed Les Fétiches (1938, Fig. 157), empha-
from the Harlem Art Workshop was exhibited in Septem-
sized style affinities with African art and used fluid forms
ber 1933, a New York Herald Tribune reviewer singled out
to create decorative patterns, rhythms of identical shapes,
“the colored papier-maché masks” as “among the most
and contrasting colors.39
striking objects.” “In these lurid and occasionally gro-
In a basic sense, masks are imagined faces, not repre-
tesque productions can be seen influences of the African
sentations of reality. When worn, they allow the wearer
primitive,” the critic claimed. “Some bear a striking re-
temporarily to take on another persona. As discussed in
semblance to the masks of voodoo doctors, grinning
Chapter 1, Lawrence showed an affinity for masks early
prognathous faces ornamented with furs and tufts of
in his art training, while studying at Utopia House under
feathers.”42 But that was not what Wells thought. A press
Charles Alston. Alston was struck by Lawrence’s original-
release issued by the Harlem Adult Education Committee
ity, imagination, and “very curious vision” that led the
noted that Wells saw the masks as “largely imaginative.
young artist to manipulate line and color to make “fan-
He felt that they contained an exaggerated grotesque-
tastic masks” without having ever seen ones from Afri-
ness, which made them rather exceptional studies. He
ca.40 A few years later, at the Harlem Art Workshop, Law-
stated that an unusual interest was taken in making them
rence made three-dimensional papier-mâché masks,
and that while he lectured on African Masks and showed
which may have looked like the ones photographed by
pictures of them only one revealed any African influence,
James L. Allen in Fig.
8.41
the rest were original in treatment.”43 The critic from the masks and masking 211
Herald Tribune assumed that when African American stu-
for the masking theme that took hold in Lawrence’s art
dents made masks they would want to imitate African
in the early 1950s, months after he returned home from
masks. One suspects that the “grinning prognathous
the psychiatric ward of Hillside Hospital in Queens.46
faces” were in the eye of the critic beholder. The teacher, however, insisted that although African art may have been a starting reference point, the masks were not copies but original inventions. We might say that the stu-
the personal/private context
dents had reached that balance of “influence and auton-
The personal context of Lawrence’s work was inevitably
omy” that Henry Louis Gates Jr. learned to respect from
informed by the cultural context for African Americans in
the jazz musician Skip James, who bent tradition with
New York in the late 1940s. What Ralph Ellison recom-
creative improvisation to create innovative music.44
mends as a fruitful way to engage literature has relevance
Making masks was not just an activity for students.
to Lawrence’s work: “Perhaps the ideal approach to the
The New York Amsterdam News reported in July 1936 on
work of literature would be the one allowing for insight
the “masks of African types” made by Beulah Woodard,
into the deepest psychological motives of the writer at
a Los Angeles–based African American artist then visiting
the same time that it examined all external sociological
New York. Woodard explained: “I found the types inter-
factors operating within a given milieu. For while objec-
esting, picturesque, colorful; in the primitive African there
tively a social reality, the work of art is, in its genesis, a
is much of which Negroes today should be proud. My love
projection of a deeply personal process, and any ap-
of the African lore and my admiration of the primitive
proach that ignores the personal at the expense of the
types made me want to do my share towards helping to
social is necessarily incomplete.”47 In the late 1940s El-
preserve them. In a few years they will be gone, and un-
lison was acutely aware of the psychological divide be-
less we work now they will be lost to us forever. . . . I am
tween African Americans and whites. At that time Law-
recording types as rapidly as I can.”45 The masks she dis-
rence was directly confronting his own psychological
played did not emulate African masks used in ritual
issues. Therapy brought him to a new consciousness,
dances; instead, they presented, in a naturalist style, the
which in turn generated a greater complexity in the post-
faces of a Masai warrior, Emperor Haile Selassie, Booker T.
1950 paintings.
Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass.
In July 1949 Lawrence had himself admitted to the
In Harlem, as elsewhere in the United States, people
psychiatric ward of Hillside Hospital in Queens, where he
donned masks for Halloween, a subject that appealed to
stayed for more than a year, with time out for an ex-
Lawrence. Lawrence chose this subject for Halloween
tended Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday in the winter of
Sand Bags (1937, see Fig. 22), an early work in which
1949–50.48 His dealer, Edith Halpert, arranged for him to
the masks are not just decorative objects but devices for
have experienced doctors, began supplying him with
alluding to racial ambiguity and violence. On an urban
painting materials, and helped Gwendolyn Knight find a
sidewalk a male figure wearing a white head mask with
job at Condé Nast Publications. Lawrence’s stay at Hill-
a pointed hood wields a sandbag; his hands are black
side was beneficial, and he never showed any qualms
and his legs are a yellow tan. He targets a youth with a
about letting others know he had received psychiatric
black head and pink hands and feet—perhaps a cos-
help there.
tume, perhaps not. At the left a male of indeterminate
Lawrence never made clear, however, the circum-
age with a white face and pink hands intervenes, either
stances that led to his illness, although he reported to FBI
to rescue or pin down the youth. Strolling pedestrians
investigators in 1977 that he had been hospitalized “be-
with either white or black faces ignore the incident. Only
cause of exhaustion and tension from overwork.”49 His
the white-faced baby in the arms of a woman turns to
artist friends offered their own comments and explana-
look at the trickster wielding the sandbag. But can we,
tions. Elton Fax reported that the news “came as a sur-
as viewers, really take this as a matter of course, as just
prise . . . that Lawrence had ‘suffered a breakdown’ ”
a child’s game? This image helped lay the groundwork
when he seemed to be at the height of his career.50 Ro-
212 masks and masking
mare Bearden and Harry Henderson have speculated that
Hughes but by communists, and the Daily Worker had
Lawrence’s very success had brought him anxieties about
always reviewed it favorably. Although the FBI did not be-
whether his creative abilities would ever develop beyond
gin a file on Lawrence until 1953, and Lawrence never
his popular narrative paintings of the 1930s and early
joined the Communist Party, he was involved in activities
1940s and that his fame had alienated him from the com-
organized by communists and leftist artists.55
munity of black artists. In their words: “Lawrence was
A review of his FBI file reveals the names of organiza-
troubled by the recognition that poured down on him
tions to which Lawrence belonged and gives a good sense
while many of his Harlem artist friends, whom he consid-
of what the government considered “subversive” activi-
ered fine painters, were ignored. He grew nervous about
ties. In 1946 he participated in an exhibition held in De-
painting problems he was now tackling. Like other artists,
troit under the sponsorship of the New Masses and the
he was extremely sensitive and plagued with self-doubt.
National Negro Congress. The New Masses had also hon-
His success became unreal to him. Maybe, he felt, he had
ored him at a banquet in January 1946.56 In October 1947
only been lucky.”
51
he participated in a conference sponsored by the Na-
Later informants and second-guessers may have for-
tional Arts, Sciences, and Professions Council of the Pro-
gotten the flare-up of cold war anticommunism in 1949,
gressive Citizens of America, an organization on the FBI’s
which would have affected Lawrence and his friends on
list of subversive organizations, and earlier that year he
the
Left.52
In January 1949 the Smith Act trial began in
Manhattan: twelve New York City leaders of the Commu-
had been a sponsor of the group’s participation in a May Day parade.
nist Party, including the black New York City councilman
The most controversial activity with which Lawrence
Benjamin Davis Jr., were accused of advocating the over-
was associated, as both a sponsor and a panel speaker,
throw of the U.S. government. Langston Hughes, then
was the communist-organized Scientific and Cultural
under surveillance by the FBI, wrote in the February 5 is-
Conference for World Peace, held at the Waldorf-Astoria
sue of the Chicago Defender that the trial was
Hotel during late March 1949. This was a watershed moment, when anticommunism ratcheted up and the mass
the most important thing happening in America today . . .
media joined with HUAC and the FBI in “naming names.”57
because it is your trial—all who question the status quo—who
The April 4 issue of Life magazine devoted five pages to
question things as they are—all poor people, Negroes, Jews,
an article, headlined “Red Visitors Cause Rumpus,” on
un-white Americans, un-rich Americans are on trial. . . . They
the conference and its attendees, including visitors from
are being tried because they say it is wrong for anybody—
the Soviet Union such as Dmitri Shostakovich. The last
Mexicans, Negroes, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Armenians—to
two pages printed a gallery of photographic mug shots of
be segregated in America; because they say it is wrong for anybody to make millions of dollars from any business while the workers in that business do not make enough to save a few hundred dollars to live on when they get old and broken down and unable to work anymore; they are being tried because they do not believe in wars that kill millions of young men and make
fifty American writers, artists, politicians, and others whom Life referred to as “dupes and fellow travelers.” Those pictured included Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Norman Mailer, Thomas Mann, Lillian Hellman, and, closer to home for
millions of dollars for those who already have millions of dol-
Lawrence, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Langston Hughes.
lars; they are being tried because they believe it is better in
To Life, “These are the prominent people who, wittingly
peace time to build schools, hospitals, and public power proj-
or not, associate themselves with a communist-front or-
ects than to build warplanes and battleships.53
ganization and thereby lend it glamour, prestige, or the respectability of American liberalism.”58 Though Law-
By this time Lawrence was a friend of Hughes. Just three
rence later insisted that McCarthyism had never affected
weeks before these remarks, Lawrence and Hughes at-
his work, as a supporter of the Waldorf conference and
tended the opening of the Downtown Gallery exhibition
other communist-affiliated groups, he must have known
of Lawrence’s drawings for Hughes’s One-Way Ticket.54
it was just a matter of time before he might also see him-
Lawrence’s work had long been admired not only by
self pictured in Life or Time as a “communist dupe.” masks and masking 213
Lawrence no doubt followed the controversy surround-
ment of his doctors.63 When he emerged from Hillside
ing the singer Paul Robeson’s speech at the World Peace
Hospital in August 1950, he had produced eleven paint-
Congress in Paris in April 1949, which the press inaccu-
ings, called the Hospital series, which were exhibited at
rately described as a declaration that African Americans
the Downtown Gallery from October 24 through November
Union.59
And Lawrence
11, 1950. Lawrence’s project to give social significance to
must have been distressed to learn that the baseball
personal adversity was noted by both the New York Times
would not fight against the Soviet
player Jackie Robinson had become one of HUAC’s star
Magazine and Ebony magazine, which ran spreads on the
witnesses by pillorying Robeson.60 Could any sensitive
artist’s work. Aline Louchheim (Saarinen) wrote the Times
person not be affected by this turn of events involving (in
piece before the Downtown Gallery show opened. She
different ways) two of his heroes? Meanwhile, the trials of
mentioned Van Gogh in the asylum at St. Remy as a pre-
the “Hollywood Ten” were under way in Washington, D.C.,
decessor to Lawrence but quickly qualified her remark:
with ten directors and scriptwriters accused of bringing subversive content to post–World War II films. There was, in fact, intense psychological pressure on black artists and others, such as Jackie Robinson, to affirm their patriotism. African Americans faced a difficult choice. Either you turned your back on the progressives who had fought with you to end segregation, or you risked
Actually, there is no genuine parallel between the Dutchman and the young American. Dr. Emanuel Klein, who has been Lawrence’s doctor and has long studied the relation between art and neurosis, explains: “Unlike Van Gogh, Lawrence simply had nervous difficulties neither particularly complicated nor unique, which became so much of a burden that he voluntarily sought help. These paintings did not come from his temporary
alienating yourself from the embattled black community,
illness. As they always have—and as is true for most real
which wanted you, as a “race representative,” to be per-
artists—the paintings express the healthiest portion of his
ceived as “patriotic.” Langston Hughes, whose art was
personality, the part that is in close touch both with the inner
nourished by the black community, was caught in this
depths of his own feeling and with the outer world.”64
dilemma. As recounted in detail by Arnold Rampersad, Hughes often spoke out as a man of the Left, but he began
Louchheim insisted on the continuity between the early
to retreat from the overtures of his communist and pro-
1940s narrative series of African American community life
gressive friends during this period. Moreover, just being
(the Harlem series) and history (the Migration, John
an African American coping with racism could have dam-
Brown, and War series) and the new “hospital” paintings.
61
aging psychological effects. As J. Saunders Redding ob-
Ebony, in its April 1951 issue, headlined the article on
served in On Being Negro in America (1951), “Having to
Lawrence: “New paintings portraying life in insane asy-
avoid prejudice and segregation is itself unwholesome,
lum project him into top ranks of U.S. artists.” The writer
and the constant doing of it is skating very close to a
assured the magazine’s readers that Lawrence deserved
psychopathic edge.”62
to be placed in the “front ranks of America’s foremost
Professional pressures, a fear of losing his base of
artists. . . . There is general agreement among art experts
support in the Harlem community, the climate of racism,
that the new pictures are emotionally richer, technically
and anticommunist persecution of progressives and lib
more advanced and socially more significant than Law-
erals, compounded by overwork—all, in my opinion, pre-
rence’s previous work.”65 Ebony also quoted Lawrence’s
cipitated Lawrence’s breakdown. By the summer of 1949
doctor and attempted to elicit a response from Lawrence
he could no longer function normally. He, his wife, and
about his hospital stay, but he only commented: “This is
his dealer recognized that he needed immediate medi-
a record of what happened. There is nothing for me to
cal help.
add in words.”66 Later, in 1961, he could publicly admit: “I gained a lot: The most important thing was that I was
n
able to delve into my personality and nature. You have
Although Lawrence had the courage to enter the psychi-
people to guide you, and I think it was one of the most
atric ward voluntarily, he was fortunate to have the emo-
important periods of my life. It opened up a whole new
tional support of Knight and Halpert and the encourage-
avenue for me; it was . . . a very deep experience.”67 In
214 masks and masking
Fig 158 Square Dance, 1950. Casein tempera on paper, 215⁄8 x 295⁄8 in. (55 x 75.3 cm). Williams College Museum of Art, Bequest of
Leonard B. Schlosser, Class of 1946 (91.20).
1985 he repeated: “It was very important to my develop-
their dominance.”69 Lawrence, had he been a writer, might
ment and growth. . . . Coming in contact with those who
have said the same. In conversations with interviewers,
were in the hospital and doing a series of works on that
Lawrence always stressed the importance of his personal
particular experience . . . was a very valuable experience
experience in the making of his art and the necessity of
for me. . . . It gave me a dimension, another dimension,
being disciplined when he went about it. By controlling his
that’s been very helpful.”68 In addition to learning about
painting techniques and following a regular work schedule,
himself, as the only African American on his ward, Law-
Lawrence learned to compose his fears.70
rence came to understand white people and realized that they shared many of the same fears.
The paintings Lawrence did at Hillside focus on patients’ taking part in various forms of therapy and hence
In On Being Negro in America, Redding had also argued
have titles such as Creative Therapy, Recreational Ther
that as a prelude to freedom it was necessary to gain an
apy, and Occupational Therapy No. 1 and Occupational
understanding of one’s demons, which could be achieved
Therapy No. 2. Others indicate the activities the patients
only through analysis: “To observe one’s own feelings,
participated in together: Drama—Hallowe’en Party,
fears, doubts, ambitions, hates; to understand their begin-
Square Dance (Fig. 158), and In the Garden.71 In Depres
nings and weigh them is to control them and to destroy
sion (1950, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), masks and masking 215
Fig 159 Psychiatric Therapy, 1949. Casein tem-
pera on paper, 18 3⁄8 x 23 3⁄8 in. (46.7 x 59.4 cm). Hillside Hospital North Shore—Long Island Jewish Health System. Photo courtesy Sotheby’s Inc. © 2009.
somber men, heads bent, walk on the ward, isolated from
masking—literal and psychological—engaged in protec-
one another; in Sedation (1950, Museum of Modern Art,
tively by black people throughout American history and
New York), pajama-clad men, standing together, stare at
of the necessity of performance to hide and preserve one’s
their pills. Psychiatric Therapy (Fig. 159) is unusual be-
inner integrity. Some fifty years earlier, in 1895, the black
cause of the close-up view and detail with which Law-
poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote his famous fifteen-line
rence renders the features of the two men involved in a
poem “We Wear the Mask,” a meditation on the cultural
therapy session. The figure on the left, probably the psy-
dissembling that is at the heart of masking. The poem
chiatrist because of his assured stare and upright pos-
reads:
ture, listens to the hunched figure, the patient, whose eyes are closed while he appears to be speaking. The
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
theme of the blind man who makes his way through life
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
occurs in several of Lawrence’s early paintings, for ex-
This debt we pay to human guile;
ample, Blind Beggars (Fig. 25), but here the “blind”
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
man—a surrogate for Lawrence—is concentrating so in-
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
tensely on understanding his inner life that he shuts out
Why should the world be overwise,
his surroundings.
In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.
masking and performance in african american culture
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
Perhaps it was through therapy, when probing his psychic
But let the world dream otherwise,
past, that Lawrence became keenly aware of the role of
We wear the mask!72
216 masks and masking
Dunbar’s poem expresses what African Americans have
avenue for African Americans searching for independence
implicitly known from the era of slavery, through Jim Crow,
and a decent wage. Harlem embraced talent, and its
to today—that psychological masking is necessary as a
theaters and nightclubs showcased major jazz musicians,
buffer from insults and humiliation and as a way to keep
singers, and actors; these stars were the pride of the whole
private both one’s inner self and the codes of one’s group:
community.77 Lawrence found inspiration in the vaudeville
“let them only see us, while / we wear the mask.”
and theatrical productions he saw in Harlem. He later re-
As Lawrence explained in a 1983 interview, his strategy
called, “Going to the Apollo Theater was a ritual of
for dealing with racism was to stay above it and not let
ours . . . to see the comedians—vaudeville. I grew up with
himself be personally affected: “We grew up with it. If I
this. The actors made the circuit of the East Coast and
went out now, and I had a negative kind of experience, I’m
came back every four weeks. We got to know the
ready for that, because I grew up with that. . . . How do
performers.”78 By turning to the black performer as a
you feel about it, how are you going to handle it?” He
subject, Lawrence was reconnecting to the cultural codes
quickly answered his own question: “You try to protect
of the black vernacular.
yourself by not allowing yourself to become a victim of this thing if you possibly can help it.”73
Lawrence surely knew of the history of minstrelsy and the black theater in the United States. Enslaved African
The phenomenon of masking is not confined to Ameri-
Americans performed on southern plantations, drawing
can blacks but shared by other colonized persons. In
on dance and movement traditions they had brought
1952 Frantz Fanon, a black medical doctor and psychia-
from Africa. As early as 1827, white actors became celeb-
trist from the Antilles who became an activist writer,
rities by borrowing and distorting African American cul-
wrote Black Skin, White Masks, a psychologically probing
ture— blackening their faces with burnt cork, speaking in
analysis of the futile efforts of his black countrymen to
an exaggeratedly black vernacular speech, and perform-
become white Frenchmen. His insights have bearing on
ing a caricature of black life for white audiences.79 Then
many of Lawrence’s paintings. In a chapter entitled “The
black men, such as Billy Kersands, took over the minstrel
Fact of Blackness,” Fanon observes: “As long as the black
roles, imitating and even embellishing the grotesque wa-
man is among his own, he will have no occasion, except
termelon-eating caricatures created by white actors. Both
in minor internal conflicts, to experience his being
white and black performers suspected that many in the
through others.”74 In contrast, once the black man begins
white audiences had a psychological need to see enact-
moving among white people, he becomes self-conscious
ments of the stereotypes of blacks as stupid, lazy, and
that he is being measured by a standard other than that
immoral. Such a doubled travesty was humiliating for
of his own community. Fanon’s observation is a varia-
black actors, even though it meant acting roles. 80
tion on W. E. B. Du Bois’s “double-consciousness”—“this
Ralph Ellison weighed in on minstrelsy and masking in
sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of
his 1958 essay “Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke.”
others.”75 The double consciousness can be almost for-
Agreeing with the literary historian Stanley Edgar Hyman,
gotten on those occasions when one is enveloped by
Ellison sees the “darky” entertainer as a product of “the
one’s own community.
Anglo-Saxon branch of American folklore,” a folklore that
The ideas of masking and double consciousness seem
views the world in terms of the polarities of evil and good,
integrally connected to performers, who present one face
darkness and light, depravity and purity. The dramas that
on stage and another off. When Lawrence told me in 1985
emerge from this folklore and its cast of characters are
that “the comedian developed out of . . . the mask,” he
the fantasies of whites and are controlled by whites.
meant that the impulse to masking came first and that
Hence the “darky” performer is a white man acting out
performance provided a justifiable opportunity to conceal
the role of darkness. When black entertainers take the
and mask one’s true persona.76 In choosing to depict
role of the Minstrel Man, they are enacting “a symbolic
performers, Lawrence was also aware that throughout
role basic to the underlying drama of American society,”
American history the performing arts had provided an
so they “assume a ritual mask—the identical mask and
masks and masking 217
role taken on by white minstrel men when they depicted
lection of short stories, Laughing to Keep from Crying. Its
comic Negroes.” The role thus played “makes use of ne-
epigraph reads: “When you see me laughing / I’m laughing
gro idiom, songs, dance motifs and word-play”; however,
to keep from crying.” The epigraph is credited to “Tradi-
it does not “grow out of the Negro American sense of the
tional Blues”—that is, to the vernacular tradition in music.
comic . . . but out of the white American’s Manichean fas-
(Huggins may also have been thinking about the blues
cination with the symbolism of blackness and whiteness
when he used the phrase.)
expressed in such contradictions as the conflict between
The white actor W. C. Fields allegedly referred to Bert
the white American’s Judeo-Christian morality, his demo-
Williams, a black actor specializing in blackface routines
cratic political ideals and his daily conduct.” Ellison adds:
in the early twentieth century, as “the funniest man I ever
“Being ‘highly pigmented,’ as the sociologists say, it was
saw and the saddest man I ever knew.”85 Williams, a light-
our Negro ‘misfortune’ to be caught up associatively in
complexioned man, had to press hard on the black cork
the negative side of this basic dualism of the white folk
to create the required degree of blackness for his routine.
mind, and to be shackled to almost everything it would
But even if Williams had been blacker, he would still have
repress from conscience and consciousness.”81
needed to perform the ritual of blackening his face to en-
In other words, Ellison interprets the drama of the Min-
act the cultural construction of blackness.86 In that physi-
strel Man as psychologically controlled by and for the
cal act he could distance himself and thus preserve his
white man, who wants to combat the forces of “darkness”
inner self from the external travesty—the self-deprecating
that lurk within white American folklore: “The mask, this
jokes, the banter, the display of stupidity paired with cun-
willful stylization and modification of the natural face and
ning, the songs, the jerking, shuffling, dancing, and acro-
hands, was imperative for the evocation of that atmo-
batics that were all part of the expected formula for the
sphere in which the fascination of blackness could be
construction of blackness.
enjoyed, the comic catharsis achieved. The racial identity
Langston Hughes understood the expectations of the
of the performer was unimportant, the mask was the
audience and the contradictions the entertainer faced
thing (the ‘thing’ in more ways than one) and its function
when he wrote his poem “Minstrel Man,” included in Alain
was to veil the humanity of Negroes thus reduced to a
Locke’s anthology The New Negro (1925):
sign, and to repress the white audience’s awareness of its moral identification with its own acts and with the human
Because my mouth
ambiguities pushed behind the mask.”82 To Ellison, this
Is wide with laughter
travesty affects both performer and audience, creating
And my throat is deep with song,
“self-humiliation” for the black performer and “a psychological dissociation from this symbolic self-maiming” for the white audience.83 It is tragicomic, for through the putative comedy the audience achieves a tragic catharsis— the release from the need to cry. Nathan Huggins similarly described the pain that African Americans who played minstrel roles experienced: “But the rub is that the contempt for self and race on which such humor turns must be ever-present to make it work. Lurking beneath the surface of amused accommodation was the uneasiness—‘you have to be one to know
You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long. Because my mouth Is wide with laughter, You do not hear My inner cry, Because my feet Are gay with dancing, You do not know I die.87
one’—which might at any moment bubble up, twisting the smile into a grimace of hurt. Truth to tell, it was laughing
Laughing to keep from crying; dancing to keep from dying.
to keep from crying.”84 By using this last phrase, Huggins
Hughes’s only novel was titled Not without Laughter
may have been referring to Langston Hughes’s 1952 col-
(1930).
218 masks and masking
Much of the minstrel tradition continued into the mid– twentieth century, but in Harlem it was modified to “grow out of the Negro American sense of the comic,” as Ellison wanted. It is likely that Lawrence and his friends attended the nightclubs, theaters, and vaudeville in Harlem along with other African Americans to have a good time, to hear the great jazz of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, the Ink Spots, and Hazel Scott; to see the dancing of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, the young Sammy Davis Jr., Katherine Dunham, and Ethel Waters; and to hear and see the great comic actors, such as Eddie Anderson, famous as the “Rochester” character on the Jack Benny radio show.88 Elements of minstrelsy may have remained, but in Harlem the consciousness was different. Harlem was their place, where they could forget the stereotypes of Broadway and Hollywood. At the Apollo Theater Lawrence and his friends must have had a good time—laughing with performers such as comedians Tim Moore and Johnny Lee (Fig. 160) and not at them. Like the commedia dell’arte of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, black vaudeville on the “chitlin circuit” had its stock characters, some dressed in baggy or motley clothes repugnant to bourgeois tastes, and they could be very funny.89
Fig 160 Comedians Tim Moore and Johnny Lee at the Apollo, late
1930s. Photo © Morgan and Marvin Smith. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
lawrence’s performance paintings The contradictions between laughing at and laughing with
and yellow leaves drift about them, suggesting the passing of time. Their exaggeratedly white faces are the masks of
the masked or minstrel figure provide the thick context
Greek tragedy and comedy, common motifs in Western
in which Lawrence developed his twelve Performance
European art. Comedy, on the right, extends his arms
tempera paintings, shown in late January through mid-
outward and wears a bright red shirt under his somber
February 1953 at the Downtown Gallery. Although masks
brown-black jacket. His legs, clad in brown trousers, cross
figure prominently as motifs in the performance pictures,
at the knee. His bright red grinning lips and red painted
masking—in all its permutations mentioned above—in-
fingernails heighten the contrast with the black-clad figure
forms the content of the series as a whole. Close read-
of Tragedy, hunched over at the left, hugging his chest and
ings of six of those paintings suggest the double-voiced-
weeping giant tears. Comedy grimly grins, whereas Trag-
ness of Jacob Lawrence.
edy succumbs to his pain. To Lawrence, tragedy has ele-
Among all the masks depicted by artists in the cold war era, the crying mask was unique to Lawrence’s oeuvre.
ments of the comic and comedy can encompass the tragic. Laughing to keep from crying.
This is not surprising given Lawrence’s familiarity with the
This melancholy-comic dialectic pervades black folk-
laughing-to-keep-from-crying trope in African American
lore and black literature.90 For example, Claude McKay
culture. The crying mask first occurs in Tragedy and
writes in his novel Home to Harlem: “He [the protago-
Comedy (Fig. 161). Two figures sit on a park bench as green
nist] remembered once the melancholy-comic notes of a
masks and masking 219
Fig 161 Tragedy and Comedy, 1952. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 32 in. (61 x 81.3 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
‘Blues’ rising out of a Harlem basement before dawn . . .
showing us all his teeth in a smile made for us. And his
melancholy-comic. That was the key to himself and to his
smile as we see it—as we make it—always means a gift’ ”)
race. . . . No wonder the whites, after five centuries of
and Geoffrey Gorer (“The whites demand that the blacks
contact, could not understand his race. . . . No wonder
be always smiling, attentive, and friendly in all their rela-
they hated them, when out of their melancholy environ-
tionships with them”).92 High laughter, deep laughter,
ment the blacks could create mad, contagious music and
laughter from the belly could be an effective assault on
high laughter.”91 The strategy was to keep one’s human-
the sensibilities of those in positions of power. As the his-
ity; the tactics were to use humor defiantly as a weapon
torian Joseph Boskin has observed, unrestrained black
in that cause.
laughter usually provoked whites: “The passionate guffaw
Whites expected grinning from blacks, especially ob-
was a marvel and an annoyance.”93 But in his work Law-
sequious grinning. Frantz Fanon riffs on this theme, quot-
rence represses laughter to a controlled grimace, which
ing Bernard Wolfe (“ ‘It pleases us to portray the Negro
gives him greater moral leverage.
220 masks and masking
Grinning and guffawing as a defense had its psycho-
often depicted with a black face, black mask, or half-black/
logical price. The poet Derek Walcott could have been
half-white mask, was of African origin, perhaps modeled on
speaking of Lawrence’s Tragedy and Comedy when he
an African slave.97 Certainly the diamond pattern on the
observed: “So the people, like the actors, awaited a lan-
trousers of the figure on the left in Lawrence’s painting
guage. They confronted a variety of styles and masks,
suggests the triangular patterns characteristic of Harle-
but because they were casual about commitment,
quin’s costume.98 The background may provide a clue for
ashamed of their speech, they were moved only by the
interpretation. Time magazine reported that Lawrence had
tragic-comic and farcical. The tragic-comic was another
described Vaudeville as “my memories of the Apollo The-
form of contempt. They considered tragedy to be, like
ater at 125th Street . . . real vaudeville . . . I wasn’t thinking
English, an attribute beyond them.”94 Indeed, Tragedy in
of any particular act. The decorated panel behind? I never
Lawrence’s picture is a passive, huddled, and pathetic
saw it; I made it up. You can’t just put together things
figure—he is the tragicomic figure, not the heroic, larger-
you’ve seen. I wanted a staccato-type thing—raw, sharp,
than-life, Promethean figure we expect. And Comedy is
rough—that’s what I tried to get.”99 Although the “raw,
farce—not a sophisticated wit, but someone who paints
sharp, rough” decorated panel enforces the mood of un-
his fingernails red.
ease that we experience from looking at the two vaudevil-
McKay’s remarks about the melancholy-comic apply
lians, the patterned background is directly behind only the
equally to Lawrence’s Vaudeville (see Fig. 152). Here two
Minstrel Man. Behind the Harlequin figure is a dark, color-
elaborately costumed black figures stand against a quilt-
less panel, and an emphatic black shadow outlines his left
like decorative backdrop of circles, triangles, and bands
side. For contrast, artists often set a patterned costume
of color. The left figure wears baggy green clothes, a
against a flat uniform background but put a black costume
broad-brimmed hat, and white gloves. He holds a long ba-
against a more colorful background. Here the effect is that
ton with a top in the shape of a rooster, and he grimaces
the Harlequin figure seems to emerge from a darkened
at his companion. Large tears roll down the face of the fig-
portal into the colorful world of Minstrel Man.100
ure on the right, who is dressed in formal attire with tails
Lawrence’s painting Makeup (Fig. 162) depicts a scene
and a bashed-in silk top hat. The art historian Richard
in a theater dressing room. In the background four ra-
Powell astutely observes: “The two black comedians—
cially ambiguous figures stare into their mirrors and con-
frowning, crying, and confronting one another as if facing
front the reflected images of masklike faces, one side
off in a dramatic, solemn pas de deux—digress from their
black and the other white. Are the images in the mirrors
expected comedic roles and, instead, offer a strange, un-
reflections of the figures or allusions to yet other masked
settling image. Juxtaposing broad gestures and exagger-
figures? While the half-black/half-white mask is associ-
ated, clownlike clothing with sorrowful faces and a frag-
ated with Harlequin, it also suggests a syncretic culture
mented background, Lawrence turned this world of
and a symbiotic interdependency of the races. African
slapstick humor, off-color jokes, and malapropisms into
American culture may originally have had its roots in vari-
something introspective and serious. . . . Rather than pre-
ous African cultures, but it grew, flourished, and developed
senting his black vaudevillians as shallow buffoons, Law-
into something else within white European American
rence pictorially energized and humanized them, making
culture and in the process became centered as an integral
them—and ultimately the entire black performance tradi-
part of modern American culture. The result is an ambigu-
tion of which they are a part—into vehicles of culture,
ity of identity—with the biracial masks mirroring aspects
truth, and, most significant, compassion.”95
of us all.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. suggests that these two figures
In the foreground two white figures—a female on the
represent Harlequin on the left greeting Minstrel Man on
left and a male on the right—face each other and play
the right.96 In his literary study Figures in Black Gates
cards (a game of fortune). Are they innocently passing
draws on late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century visual
the time, or will the draw of a card affect the figures in
evidence to argue that the European Harlequin, who is
the background? Game playing—whether chess, cards, or
masks and masking 221
Fig 162 Makeup (also known as Dressing Room), 1952. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Courtesy of Michael Rosen-
feld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY.
pool—has been a frequent theme in Lawrence’s work.101
of a skull, and a whimsical skull at that—a memento mori,
While often suggesting male socializing, it also taps into
a reminder of death, which slyly looks over at the figure.
the notion of life as a game, just as the world is a theater
In the distance, on the spotlit stage, a top-hatted black
in which each of us is an actor, like Hamlet, performing
man stretches out his arm holding a skull. Blood drips
his or her destiny.
from his hand, and at his feet lies another skull. Between
In Night after Night (Fig. 163), a foreground figure, am-
the foreground figure and the actor on stage two ominous
biguous in gender, stands in the wings of a stage and
figures stand in the wings. The black hoods of their robes
looks down on a table or ladder, or perhaps a lectern
mostly obscure their faces. Their presence and the skulls
stand, on which papers are strewn. On the far right is a
suggest the finality of death—the final performance of the
crumpled object, the lower part of which bears the face
night after many nights.102 Near at hand are the ropes
Fig 163 Night after Night, 1952. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 18 in. (61 x 45.7 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
Fig 164 Marionettes, 1952. Egg tempera on hardboard, 181⁄4 x 241 ⁄2 in. (46.4 x 62.2 cm). High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and Edith G. and Philip A. Rhodes, 1980.224.
that could bring down the curtain at any moment. The
All the world’s a stage,
exaggerated top hat and formal suit of the black-faced
And all the men and women merely players;
actor on stage suggest minstrelsy—vernacular American
They have their exits and their entrances;
culture; the skull held by the actor alone on stage sug
And one man in his time plays many parts.
gests Hamlet—high European culture. The image is thus double-voiced. Lawrence’s own imagination attempts to
Jacques refers to how an individual can play many parts
reconcile the two striving ideas: the blood dripping from
over a lifetime. But even within the same moment one can
the hand suggests his effort to strip away the actor’s
play many parts—a fact that can lead to the pathologies
mask, then the face, down to the elemental humanity of the
about which Frantz Fanon wrote.
skull. To Death—and at death—all skulls are the same color. The scene itself also reminds us of Jacques’s speech in Shakespeare’s As You Like It: 224 masks and masking
Lawrence designed Marionettes (Fig. 164) with eighteen masklike heads and one dog’s head spread across the bottom of the picture frame, with large loops of string lacing them together and draped curtains crushing down
Fig 165 Curtain, 1952. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Private collection.
upon them. The heads are variously masks, dolls, and
voids that create the illusion, as social manipulation itself
skulls. Ambiguity resides here as well—do the strings
is generated by illusions. What might be the source of this
manipulate hands, or do the hands manipulate the strings?
image, the spectacle that would stir his imagination?
On close inspection we see that one white hand, at the
Perhaps Lawrence had seen the WPA’s “all Negro” puppet
lower left, halfway to the center, firmly holds a string at-
troupes that put on minstrel shows, popular in the North,
tached to some of the heads. The strings going upward
where puppets leapt, jigged, and did splits to minstrel
seem to go nowhere—in fact, on close inspection, we see
tunes. He may even have seen such puppet shows at the
that they have been formed by Lawrence’s method of
CCC camp in Middletown, New York, where he worked in
“painting on either side of the line.”
103
In this case black
the late spring and summer of 1936.104
and gray shapes are painted up to the penciled line on the
“For sheer horror there is ‘Curtain [Fig. 165],’ ” wrote the
underpainting, leaving the underpainting to represent the
New York Times critic Stuart Preston. He described how
strings. Thus the strings have no substance—they are the
“a shroud of descending damask decapitates the line of masks and masking 225
smiling performers” and concluded: “A slightly ridiculous
clenched teeth through which the ventriloquist throws his
moment has been captured and given a macabre twist.”105
voice literally pierce the dummy’s mouth. The dummy’s
Indeed, Curtain, like Marionettes, contains figures crowded
voice is a performed blackness, but would it be controlled
into the lower horizontal band of the painting with swags
by the ventriloquist or by the conventions of white men’s
of curtain bearing down on them. Five figures in formal
bigotry? Does it make a difference? On closer inspection
evening wear—three women and two men—confront the
we see that only the black dummy has a body; the ven-
audience. Unlike Preston, I do not interpret the figures as
triloquist is merely a head with a stalklike neck. The blue
decapitated; rather, they are very much present in the
shape, which we might first perceive as a body, is just a
world of African Americans. The thin, scrimlike band
shape. The hand to the left of the head is actually the
stretched horizontally across the top half of their faces
hand of the patron to the left. In short, the roles are re-
is—in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois—“the Veil that lay
versed, as if to suggest that it is the dummy who speaks
between [the black individual] and the white world.” Show-
for the African American. Ventriloquism becomes com-
ing beneath the veil in this painting are white cheeks,
plexly layered; it is another form of masking, of speaking
chins, and grimacing teeth. The ambiguity of the double-
transgressively while maintaining the illusion that the
ness is apparent, and we should recall Du Bois’s further
words come from someone else’s mouth.107
thoughts: “The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a
During the early 1950s Lawrence continued to paint
veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—
pictures with mask motifs and masking as a theme. A
a world which yields him no true-self-consciousness,
small painting of 1954, The Masquerade (Fig. 167), re-
but only lets him see himself through the revelation of
peats a theme seen in an earlier 1946 painting, The
the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-
Masked Ball (private collection). In both paintings Law-
consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self
rence suggests a gothic interior with a red-and-black
through the eyes of others.”106 The veil calls to mind Dun-
checkerboard floor. Whereas the earlier work suggests
bar’s “mask that grins and lies . . . hides our cheeks and
figures in various costumes dancing, with the figure of
shades our eyes.” The blood-spattered shirtfront of the
Death hovering in the upper right, in the 1954 painting
central male figure suggests Dunbar’s line “With torn and
Death takes a more active role by manipulating the fore-
bleeding hearts we smile.” Yet the actor in Lawrence’s
ground woman, who curtsies to the right. In the back-
painting still stands at the end of the act—facing his audi-
ground at the left, two formally dressed, rigidly standing
ence despite either being assaulted from the outside or
men, one wearing a yellow mask and the other a red
hemorrhaging from within.
mask, flank another woman also attired in formal clothes
Ventriloquist (Fig. 166), also known as Harlem Night
and wearing a black mask. The man wearing the red
club, portrays another facet of the Minstrel Man, who is
mask dangles from his hand a black mask. This strange
not only seen but also heard. It is an integrated scene
picture suggests the closeness of death to the unmasked
with black and white couples, the men dressed in tuxe-
black woman in the foreground who does not play by the
does and the women in evening clothes, many wearing
codes and masquerade as the others do. The image re-
hats with light net veils partially covering their faces. The
calls the George Balanchine ballet La Valse, which de-
diagonal placement of the tables evokes a sense of move-
buted at the New York City Ballet in February 1951 and in
ment that the other paintings of the Performance series
which ballerinas and their male partners dance increas-
do not have. The plant fronds placed in crystal vases on
ingly faster to the frenzied rhythms of Ravel’s music as
the tables provide further visual agitation. At the center
Death stalks the stage.
of the composition, the focus of the nightclub patrons’ at-
Dancing also engages the four couples in Celebration
tention, is the ventriloquist, whose brown face codes him
(1954, Fig. 168). The sparkling lights that radiate from the
as an African American. He holds on his lap his black-
women’s earrings obscure their faces; and bling, as we
faced, white-lipped, top-hatted stereotypical Minstrel
know, can be an effectively intimidating masking. Red and
Man dummy. We see the dummy’s head in profile; the
yellow flowers both decorate their hair and lie strewn on
226 masks and masking
Fig 166 Ventriloquist, 1952. Egg tempera on board, 197⁄8 x 24 in. (50.5 x 61 cm). Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Daniel A. Pollack, Class of 1960, American Art Fund and Gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, Class of 1907, by exchange, TL40616. Photo: Imaging Department, © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Fig 167 The Masquerade, 1954. Egg tempera on hardboard, 87⁄8 x 117⁄8 in. (22.5 x 30.1 cm). The State of New York; Collection of the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, New York.
Fig 168 Celebration, 1954. Egg tempera on hardboard, 237⁄8 x 171⁄8 in. (60.6 x 43.5 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. Photo: Lee Stalsworth. Fig 169 Masks, 1954. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 173⁄4 in. (61 x 45.1 cm). Collection of Elizabeth Marsteller Gordon.
the floor beneath their feet. The middle figure wears a
rest on the table at the back. At the upper right is a crying
dress with a red, yellow, black, and tan diamond pattern
mask, which, as Henry Louis Gates Jr. has observed,
(like Harlequin). The men, though more soberly dressed,
resembles Harlequin.109 On the floor at the bottom edge
sport impressive rings that also radiate sparkling lights.
sits a black cat on a green rug. Tints and shades of green,
Thin vertical lines across the composition suggest stream-
a color Lawrence did not frequently use, dominate the
ers or perhaps webs entrapping them within a glitzy gaiety
palette. The masks, skulls, and puppets have overwhelmed
that suggests artificiality.
the artist’s private studio and seem as if they might pro-
Lawrence’s 1954 Masks (Fig. 169) depicts a studio
liferate and threaten his ability to express his inner experi-
interior filled with masks and masklike forms. Stuart
ences through paint. The face on the canvas propped
Preston, in a short review for the New York Times, dis-
against the easel looks more like a mask that reveals no
missed the work as “a litter of symbols.”108 In the center
emotion than a portrait expressive of the sitter’s personal-
an easel holds a portrait of a black man, perhaps meant
ity. Who is this man on the easel? We do not know what
to be an artist’s self-portrait. On the table and floor are
Lawrence chose to conceal. A year earlier, in 1953, he
ten masks, either representations of masks in paint or
had been rejected by the government as a security risk
actual masks. A jointed wooden model of the human
to go overseas under the sponsorship of the U.S. Informa-
figure and a human skull, both common art studio props,
tion Agency. 110 This was a fact he concealed—masked—
228 masks and masking
Fig 170 Supermarket—All Hallow’s Eve, 1994. Gouache on paper, 195⁄8 x 25 5⁄8 in. (49.8 x 65.1 cm). Private collection.
Image courtesy of Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle. Photo: Eduardo Calderón.
when he later told scholars that he had “declined” the
the ultimate visage that seals memories and puts to rest
agency’s invitation. Perhaps he would have declined
the private person.
anyway, but in the U.S. government’s view he was a
In summary, Lawrence, like the novelists of Harlem,
transgressor who had supported too many of the wrong
knew and responded to the imagery and styles of the
organizations.111
Euro-American artistic traditions, but he also drew on shared black vernacular cultural practices. What he
n
painted came from deep experience, reading, and reflec-
At the end of his life, in 1994, Lawrence did a series of
tion that he could not always articulate verbally, but of
twelve paintings set in the supermarket. Most of the works
which he became acutely conscious after his therapy at
show shoppers selecting merchandise, but in Supermar-
Hillside Hospital. His paintings are, indeed, veiled autobi-
ket—All Hallow’s Eve (Fig. 170) the theme of masking reap-
ographies. As we have seen in this chapter, during the
pears. Four figures stand in the foreground. The central
1950s he, as an African American with progressive politi-
figure, a man with a skull-like head, holds a skull, and
cal beliefs, had to confront tensions on two public fronts:
another skull floats next to his knee. He looks down at a
in the world of cold war political repression and that of
small dog, the head of which is also a skull like the man’s.
Jim Crow racism. Through the trope of masking, Lawrence
Even within the supermarket the rituals of tricksters pre-
was able to compose within himself, and thus psychologi-
vail. But there is the solace that death is the final mask—
cally control, those two persisting tensions. masks and masking 229
8
the paintings of the protest years, 1955–70 In order to do justice to their subject matter, in order to depict Negro life in all of its manifold and intricate relationships, a deep, informed and complex consciousness is necessary, a consciousness which draws for its strength upon the fluid lore of a great people, and moulds this lore with the concepts that move and direct the forces of history today.
richard wright, “Blueprint for Negro Literature,” 1937 I like to feel that the Negro struggle is a symbol of man’s struggle. . . . You see, early maybe I didn’t think this. Maybe I thought the Negro struggle was unique. And, of course, all struggles are unique in that when and where they take place they have a uniqueness. But generally I think it’s all one.
jacob lawrence, interview with Carroll Greene (1968)
The art historian Milton Brown has noted that in the mid-1950s, “at the height of the McCarthy era, [Lawrence] returned in the Struggle series to the revolutionary history of the American people. And he also returned to the sources of his art, to the Mexican muralists and social realism.”1 At a time when many socially concerned realist artists either were attempting to construct new iconographies to express their despair about contemporary political conditions or had abandoned figuration altogether for abstraction, Lawrence returned to American history—its victories and its infamies. Soon afterward, however, during the 1960s, Lawrence focused attention on contemporary struggles, on the civil rights and antiwar movements. The underlying humanism of Lawrence’s “protest” art is apparent in these paintings as well as later works, such as the 1983 Hiroshima panels, a re-
lawrence’s struggle series As the civil rights movement was just beginning, Lawrence decided to create another series on American history—one that integrated blacks into the struggles of the young American nation beginning with the colonial era. In an interview with Selden Rodman, conducted about this time, he explained: “The history of the United States fascinates me. Right now, I’m reading in it, looking for any episode that suggests a symbol of struggle. The part the Negro has played in all these events has been greatly overlooked. I intend to bring it out. We were not just slaves before the Civil War. We were volunteers in all the wars. We played a great part.”2 Later, in an interview with Carroll Greene in 1968, Lawrence elaborated on his rationale for presenting a new version of history that included African Americans:
sponse to John Hersey’s account of the devastating
As late as a few years ago in the 1950’s the Negro had not
consequences of the atom bomb’s explosion over that
been included in the general stream of history. . . . Now . . .
Japanese city.
there’s a more conscious effort to put the Negro back where
Fig 171 American Revolution, 1963. Gouache and tempera on paper, 23 x 15 in. (58.4 x 38.1 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Peg Alston Fine Arts, New York.
he belongs in American history. I mean up till now he’s been
hastily put together. These weaknesses may reflect the
taken out, just excluded, or put aside. . . . Historians have
fact that Lawrence no longer had Alain Locke to mentor
glossed over the Negro’s part as one of the builders of Amer-
him or the savvy dealer Edith Halpert to help him polish
ica, how he tilled the fields, and picked cotton, and helped to
the grant application and line up recommendations. Per-
build the cities. Now I don’t want to be sentimental and say well the Negro did all this. . . . This wouldn’t be true either. I mean there were many other groups coming from Europe who contributed. However these other groups always get mentioned. The Polish, the Italians, the English, they’re all mentioned as to their contributions. . . . So . . . I thought it would
haps he was applying too soon after his 1945–46 fellowship. In any event, the Guggenheim Foundation turned him down.6 Lawrence did, however, get smaller fellowships from the Yaddo Foundation at Saratoga Springs, New York, for the summer of 1954 and the fall of 1955. From the
be a good thing if I did[,] plus the fact I think American his
Chapelbrook Foundation in Boston he received a substan-
tory is a fascinating subject. . . . Again this had to do with
tial fellowship for 1955.7
struggle, the struggle of man and showing as part of the
Halpert no longer represented Lawrence because in
struggle . . . the American Negro. . . . This was not a Negro
1953 she had made a deal with her assistant, Charles
series. It isn’t just Negroes. It dealt with . . . Negroes who were
Alan, who was eager to open his own gallery. She kept the
with Washington when he crossed the Delaware. Not as slaves.
older artists whose works she had been handling for
These people . . . had signed up to take part in the American
decades, and Alan took the younger artists, including
Revolution. 3
Lawrence. Although not as ambitious as Halpert or as skilled at public and press relations, he did help Lawrence
With his series Struggle . . . From the History of the
by sending paintings off to major exhibitions, such as the
American People, Lawrence aimed to restore African
Whitney annuals; exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of
Americans to their rightful place in history.
Fine Arts, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Brooklyn Mu-
As he had done with the Migration series, Lawrence
seum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts;
planned his Struggle series carefully. Seeking funding,
and, importantly, the Venice Biennale. 8 He did not give
the artist applied in January 1954 to the Guggenheim
Lawrence a solo exhibition until December 1956, when
Foundation for a year’s grant. The project, he explained,
Lawrence had finished thirty panels of the Struggle
would “consist of a series of paintings depicting selected
series.
events from the history of the United States and covering
Lawrence did not paint the Struggle panels all at once,
the period beginning with the landing of Captain Christo-
as he had with his earlier history series; instead, he
pher Newport on Chesapeake Bay in 1706 and ending
painted them individually, when he could find the time.9
4
with the armistice of World War I on November 11th 1918.”
The slashing diagonals and vigor of movement character-
Excited about the new series, he thanked Langston Hughes
istic of the Struggle paintings, so different from the static
for sending him a copy of Famous American Negroes,
brilliance of the Performance paintings, imply an urgency
which “will aid me greatly in my
research.”5
to convey an immediate and direct content. Most of the
In his project outline to the Guggenheim Lawrence pro-
panels deal with war and violence, with flailing swords,
vided a long list of historical dates and topics—four sin-
firing cannons, and man-to-man combat; the captions are
gle-spaced pages—and estimated that the series would
often long quotations from historical figures, such as Pat-
total almost eighty panels. For example, under the rubric
rick Henry, Paul Revere, Thomas Paine, and Henry Clay,
“The Civil War,” he listed fourteen specific incidents, from
or anonymous participants. In this respect Lawrence cre-
“The underground railroad, 1850” to “A president assas-
ated a revisionist history a decade before young scholars
sinated 1865,” but then noted there would be ten paint-
in the universities began to reject the “great man” ap-
ings (not fourteen) selected in that group. A reader of his
proach in favor of a social history “from below.”
outline might be baffled by the project’s ambitious scope
Black slaves, Native Americans, and women occupy the
and its plethora of topics. No informing narrative with a
spotlight of Lawrence’s chronicle. For example, Panel 5
rationale was included with the application, which seems
(Fig. 172)—“We have no property! We have no wives! No
232 the paintings of the protest years
children! We have no city! No country!—Petition of Many
ample of 1950s critics’ responses to realist works that
Slaves, 1773”—depicts a slave revolt, with black men fight-
included imaginative and comprehensible symbols.
ing with pikes against their white owners while their arms are still shackled. In Panel 27 (private collection), the text
Lawrence’s temperas throughout are spirited, colorful, and rise
highlights the cry of a Georgia slave in 1810: “For freedom
above the sheer realism and postery effects (into which they
we want and will have, for we have served this cruel land
might so easily have fallen) by virtue of the emotion he has
long enuff.” Two black men at the center of the composi-
brought to his task and through his consistent symbolizing
tion fend off two white men who attack them with knives
rather than merely representing his themes—it is the spirit of
and swords. The clenched teeth of the white men press against the flesh of the black men, who hold their ground. Some panels, however, are much more abstract. In Panel 23 (private collection)—based on Henry Clay’s 1813 statement that “if we fail, let us fail like men, and expire
the events he has chosen rather than mere realistic representation. Quotations from letters, documents and speeches have been selected rather than titles for the pictures and help to explain the rather exalted mood which the artist has maintained throughout—the opening words of the Constitution to accompany an interpretation of the convention, the petition of slaves for redress of their wrongs, the wintry silence of Valley Forge
together in one common struggle”—irregularly shaped
and the enduring figures against the snow. Such moments he
areas of white, representing sails on a ship, dominate the
has made to live again. Beginning in low key he has brightened
composition. In the lower register, we see just the flung-
his palette as he unfolds his story and his flatly stylized forms
back head and arm of a small figure as he drops his sword
nevertheless have striking emotional impact.10
after his eye has been pierced by a sweeping black line—a sword thrust at him by an unseen assailant from behind
Devree recognized that such symbols were not arcane but
a sail at the upper right. As Lawrence had learned from
easily understood, as in a good history lesson.
his earlier panels, the artist does not need to show the
Other reviewers were equally enthusiastic. The Time
whole figure; the part will stand for the whole. Similarly,
magazine reviewer declared that Lawrence had “broad-
in Panel 13 (Fig. 173), labeled “Victory and Defeat,” the
ened his range, taken in not only the Negro, but the whole
long arm of a British officer (note the red sleeve) offers
nation. His ambitious subject: the birth of the U.S. and its
his sword to the hand of his victorious opponent over a
struggle for freedom.” The reviewer ended by praising
pile of cannonballs. Panel 11 (Fig. 174), “An Informer’s
“An Informer’s Coded Message”: “By showing a dramatic
Coded Message,” focuses in on the heads of two men in
closeup of the two informers, he has neatly rendered the
a dark place; the informer’s teeth (the only white in the
feeling of furtiveness and secretiveness in espionage.”11
picture) press against the ear of the listener. Some of the
J.R.M., in a brief review for Arts, felt that the paintings
panels call to mind the subjects of Goya’s Disasters of War.
deserved to be murals: “They possess the thematic de-
For example, the subject of Panel 12, “And a Woman Mans
velopment, the dramatic simplicity and the straightfor-
a Cannon” (private collection), is a woman with a white
ward sense of rhythm and movement that would show to
bonnet who fires a rifle alongside a man, while another
better advantage as full-scale murals. The thrusting di-
standing woman, a pistol tied to her body by her dress
agonals, the reduced palette maintain a consistency of
sash, turns to look at the action while presumably tending
approach from the dramatic figure of Patrick Henry to the
to the cannon. Goya’s What Courage! similarly showed
ponderous and awkward shapes of the covered wagons
women in the thick of battle, with one firing a cannon.
in the final painting of the selection on view. One can
The critics’ reviews in January 1957 praised the thirty
imagine that in the thirties, under the auspices of the
small (12 x 16 inch) but powerfully imagined panels. Law-
W.P.A., such a series would have found its proper place
rence could not have asked for a more positive review
in a public building. A similar opportunity today is no
than that offered by Howard Devree of the New York
doubt lacking.”12 While the Time reviewer revealed the
Times. The review deserves to be quoted at length not
era’s concern with conspiracies, the Arts reviewer
only for what it says about Lawrence but also as an ex-
yearned for the 1930s era of public murals.13
the paintings of the protest years 233
Fig 172 Struggle . . . From the History of the American People, Panel 5: “We have no property! We have no wives! No
children! We have no city! No country!—Petition of Many Slaves, 1773,” 1955. Egg tempera on hardboard, 16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
Fig 173 Struggle . . . From the History of the American People,
Panel 13: “Victory and Defeat,” 1955. Egg tempera on hardboard, 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York. Fig 174 Struggle . . . From the History of the American People,
Panel 11: “120.9.14.286.9.33-ton 290.9.27 be at 153.9.28. 110.8.17.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8 . . . —An Informer’s Coded Message,” 1955. Egg tempera on hardboard, 1515⁄16 x 11 15⁄16 in. (40.5 x 30.3 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
the early years of the civil rights movement
the 1960s. Sit-ins at segregated lunch counters began in
In the mid-1950s Lawrence watched with interest the pro
earnest in 1960, and the following year blacks and whites
The civil rights movement gained momentum during
gress of the civil rights movement. In 1954 the Supreme
known as Freedom Riders journeyed together on inter-
Court made a landmark decision for that cause in Brown v.
state buses to the South to put to the test a Supreme
the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It ruled that
Court ruling against segregated transportation. Although
“separate but equal” public school systems were uncon-
the Freedom Riders were beaten and jailed, they contin-
stitutional because they deprived black children of their
ued their rides and the pressure for integration. More civil
Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under
rights workers flooded the South, registering voters as
the law. The social psychologist Kenneth B. Clark, with
well as participating in demonstrations. Though they were
whom the Lawrences had been friends since Clark’s days
committed to the principles of nonviolent civil disobedi-
as a student of Augusta Savage, helped win the plaintiffs’
ence, they frequently encountered attacks by police and
case by testifying about the psychological studies he had
local racists.16
done with children and dolls. In monitored tests, when he
In 1963, when black civil rights leaders challenged
had asked black children to choose the dolls they wanted
segregationist policies in Birmingham, Alabama, they
to play with, they had invariably chosen white over “col-
received major media coverage. The well-orchestrated
ored” dolls. His conclusion was that such children had
desegregation campaign of the Southern Christian Lead-
developed an inferior self-image—preferring to be “white”
ership Conference (SCLC) began on April 3 with boycotts
rather than “colored”—and his manuscript “Effect of Preju-
of stores, kneel-ins at white churches, and sit-ins at lunch
dice and Discrimination on Personality Development” was
counters, followed by massive arrests. The strategy of
subsequently cited in the Court’s decision.
nonviolent confrontation had been crafted by the Rever-
Lawrence seemingly takes his cues from Clark in Play
ends Fred Shuttlesworth, Wyatt T. Walker, Martin Luther
room (1957, Fig. 175), which shows three girls seated in a
King Jr., and Ralph Abernathy. To prevent King and others
playroom surrounded by dolls—some nine in all. The dolls
from marching, Eugene “Bull” Connor, an ardent segre-
are of different colors—black, white, brown, blue, half-
gationist in charge of Birmingham’s police and fire de-
black/half-white, part-red—but also of different genders
partments, obtained an injunction that the civil rights
and different classes; note the elegant blue female doll in
leaders defied on Good Friday, April 12. King, Abernathy,
the background and the white tuxedoed male doll who
and Shuttlesworth were arrested and jailed, but the
leans on her, in contrast to the wooden puppets the mid-
demonstrations continued. The entire African American
dle girl holds. The dolls take on an emotional intensity;
community of Birmingham was united in its determina-
the skeletal white, black-cloaked doll in the foreground
tion to expose racism in the South and in Birmingham in
seems to look at the brown decapitated doll lying next to
particular.
it. Choosing dolls is serious business, as Clark had ob-
Protests were carefully planned in the weeks that fol-
served: “Learning about races and racial differences,
lowed. On May 2 at 1:00 p.m. a phalanx of fifty teenagers
learning one’s own racial identity, learning which race is
left the SCLC staging area inside the Sixteenth Street
to be preferred and which rejected—all these are assimi-
Baptist Church singing “We Shall Overcome” and
lated by the child as part of the total pattern of ideas he
marched toward the white business district. Police im-
acquires about himself and the society in which he
mediately arrested them. More waves of children poured
lives.”14 Perceptions about one’s race, as Clark and Law-
out of the church all afternoon and into the vans of the
rence knew, affect one’s social and emotional
health.15
arresting police. By the end of the day, 959 children had
Fig 175 Playroom, 1957. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm). The William H. Lane Collection, Boston.
236 the paintings of the protest years
Fig 176 Charles Moore, Police Dogs Attacking Demonstrator dur ing Anti-segregation Protest in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963. © 1963 Charles Moore/Black Star. Fig 177 Two Rebels, 1963. Lithograph, 301 ⁄2 x 201⁄8 in. (77.5 x 51.1
cm). Private collection.
been sent to jail. The next day photographers were on hand as more young people and adults continued to protest. Connor called out eight police dog units to halt civil rights demonstrators from marching downtown and had firemen in readiness with high-powered water hoses to stop the marchers.17 Photographs of the attacks, taken by Bill Hudson, Charles Moore (Fig. 176), and others, were sent around the world by wire services, and Life pub-
we existed [in] or we perceived to exist. . . . It’s like say-
lished Moore’s images in its May 17, 1963, issue. Still the
ing, ‘See? I told you so. There it is.’ ”19 The Lawrences ad-
demonstrations continued—in Birmingham and soon
mired the bravery of the Birmingham protesters and hoped
across the country. According to a U.S. Department of
for the movement’s success. Lawrence and his friends had
Justice report, there were 1,412 demonstrations in three
always known that small and large, individual and collective
months of 1963.18 Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight must have
acts of resistance against racial injustice can have a cumulative effect toward change.
watched with horror and disgust as the attacks in Birming-
Just before the events in Birmingham, Lawrence, with
ham unfolded on television and in the newspapers and
the encouragement of his friends Robert Gwathmey and
newsmagazines, but they were hardly surprised by the
Philip Evergood, had agreed to have a solo exhibition at
police’s harsh treatment of blacks. Police brutality, vicious
the Terry Dintenfass Gallery in New York. To publicize
dogs, and repressive tactics were part of the collective ex-
the exhibition, Dintenfass asked Lawrence to make an
periences of African Americans since the days of slavery
ink drawing for a poster. Lawrence based his design
and Reconstruction, and African American authors had
(Fig. 177) on one of his tempera paintings, Two Rebels
portrayed that violence in their fiction. Lawrence later re-
(1963, Harmon and Harriet Kelley Foundation for the
called that he had not been shocked by the events in the
Arts), which portrayed four white policemen carrying two
life of Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright’s protagonist in his
black men. The heads of some fifteen witnesses crowd in
novel Native Son (1940): “It reinforced that condition which
on the tempera scene. In the poster that number has been
238 the paintings of the protest years
reduced to ten heads that float like moons of light above
although challenged, were still on the books in southern
a single protester and his police captors with their billy
states. Yet the symbolism expressed by the fine attire
clubs dangling from their hands.
and formal nature of the double wedding portraits also
Although the poster might seem to announce a theme of social protest for the exhibition, half of the paintings
suggests the couples’ calculated and preplanned decision to marry across race. 21
did not focus directly on civil rights activities. Instead,
Critical attention, however, highlighted five paintings
Lawrence painted themes from previous years: two paint-
with immediately apparent ties to current civil rights
ings depicted children (Boy with Kite, 1961; All Hallow’s
struggles. Vivien Reynor wrote for Arts: “In his new paint-
Eve, 1960); one, entertainment (Cabaret, 1962); two, mi-
ings Lawrence is chiefly occupied with events in the
gration (Travellers, 1961; Northbound, 1962); and two, a
South. . . . He translates the issues of racial dispute into
library (Library II, 1960; Library III, 1960). The remaining
condensed patterns that administer sharp jabs rather
seven works all clearly indicted racial prejudice, although
than knockout blows. Praying Ministers in their robes fol-
reviewers would not as readily connect two of these (In
low their mission surrounded by soldiers; Ordeal of Alice
visible Man among the Scholars, 1963; Taboo, 1963) to
represents the Negro child in a white dress—she is riddled with arrows and beset by grimacing white female
current events. In Invisible Man among the Scholars (1963, private col-
devils. If Lawrence’s work has become less lyrical, his
lection), the “invisible man”—a clear reference to the title
skill at expressing his feelings in dense, well-composed
of Ralph Ellison’s 1947 novel—is isolated in a black co-
patterns continues to be impressive.”22 Praying Ministers
coon in the left background and ignored by the white stu-
(1962, Spelman College, Atlanta) presents a number of
dents sitting at a seminar table with their notebooks. The
black and white ministers and rabbis bending their heads
rhythms of the painting and the glances of the students
and praying while behind them stand protesting students,
pull our eyes toward the white professor, at the right,
one of whom waves a flag. A white and a black soldier
draped in his colorful academic robes, who presides over
flank the scene, prominently displaying their rifles and
the scene, holding his lecture notes. When Lawrence
ammunition. Police or soldiers appear in three other
painted this picture, he may have had in mind James
paintings: Two Rebels, Soldiers and Students (1962), and
Meredith, a former air force staff sergeant and African
Four Students (1961). We can surmise that news photo-
American who had attempted to transfer from an all-
graphs and television images of the events of the early
Negro college to the segregated University of Mississippi
1960s triggered these paintings.
in September 1962. Though he was at first rejected by
Ordeal of Alice (Fig. 179), which raised the level of in-
the university, the courts ruled in his favor; then the gov-
tensity in Lawrence’s paintings, drew the most comment
ernor of Mississippi personally blocked his entrance into
from critics. Arrows pierce the white dress and stockings
the main campus building. After some hesitation Presi-
of the black schoolgirl carrying books and walking along
dent John F. Kennedy called in the National Guard, and
a pathway bordered by small flowers. Bright red blood
Meredith, accompanied by federal marshals and state
from her wounds stains her clothing. The symbolism refers
troopers, was allowed to register. Once enrolled, he found
to the martyr Saint Sebastian, who was sentenced by the
himself isolated and ignored by the white students, like
Roman emperor to be shot with arrows when his Christian
the figure in Invisible Man among the Scholars, but he
faith was discovered. 23 Alice in her neat attire contrasts
stayed and graduated in the summer of 1963.
20
with the six leering red, blue, and brown trolls who taunt
The image in Taboo (Fig. 178) is more static, with two
her with their grinning ivory teeth. Such creatures were a
couples facing us like formal wedding portraits: a white
new element in Lawrence’s work. Their gyrations and
groom and his elaborately attired black bride and a black
menacing gestures press against her, blocking her access
groom and his equally richly dressed white bride. The
to an education.
painting’s title alerts us to the social transgressiveness of
Alice’s “ordeal” should be seen in terms of history.
the figures’ actions; in 1963 antimiscegenation statutes,
Eight years had passed since the 1954 Supreme Court
the paintings of the protest years 239
Fig 178 Taboo, 1963. Egg tempera on hardboard, 197⁄8 x 237⁄8 in. (50.5 x 60.6 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the Zelda and
Josef Jaffe Family, 2002. Fig 179 Ordeal of Alice, 1963. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm). Private collection, New York. Image courtesy DC
Moore Gallery, New York
ruling in the Brown case that the states must desegre-
rassed by a mob of white women as she walked toward
gate public schools “with all deliberate speed.” But racist
Central High in Little Rock on September 4 (Fig. 180).
school boards resisted. The most publicized confronta-
Lawrence’s picture of Alice resonates with this photo-
tion occurred in Little Rock, Arkansas, between racists
graph, but the artist exaggerates the reality into grim
and nine African American teenagers attempting to de-
poetry.
segregate that school system in 1957. 24 Governor Orville
Lawrence knew that racism and racial taunting by ig-
Faubus called out the National Guard to protect the seg-
norant and ranting bigots leave long-lasting scars on
regationists. A famous news photograph by Pete Harris
black children. Many instances of such traumas have
depicts one of the nine children, Elizabeth Eckford, ha-
been recorded in African American history and literature,
240 the paintings of the protest years
and they were part of every black person’s personal experience. One child who experienced such assaults was Ruby Bridges, who integrated the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960 when she was six years old. White parents boycotted, picketed the school, and threatened violence, so marshals accompanied her to school. For an entire school year one sympathetic white teacher, Barbara Henry of Boston, met alone with her, while the Harvard child psychiatrist Robert Coles counseled her weekly. In 1964 Coles published Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear, in which he gives the history of Ruby and paraphrases her own impressions of her ordeal. 25 As we have noted, the integration of public schools and resistance to it were issues well covered by the media in the early 1960s. Lawrence called his young girl “Alice,” alluding to the figure from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland who must negotiate the bizarre world of taunting irrational adults, as Ruby Bridges
did. 26
When interviewed by Newsweek,
Lawrence admitted he had painted a nightmare, com-
Fig 180 Pete Harris, Elizabeth Eckford, One of the Little Rock Nine, Pursued by the Mob outside Little Rock Central High School, Sep tember 4, 1957. © Bettmann/c o r b is .
menting: “It must be hellish . . . it must be like a dream— out of this world. You see they’re human beings, and yet they’re like animals.” He explained how Alice had become
parochial.”29 Here, as in many other remarks, Lawrence
the focus of these racists’ irrational hate. “The little girl
spoke of himself as a conduit for universal experience, of
becomes a symbol where they can get it [their hate] out.
which his own experience, as well as that of African
These people have no insight. It’s sad that they’re that
Americans, was paradigmatic.
way. They’re worse off than the girl.” The interviewer noted
The editors of Motive, a magazine sponsored by the
that “Lawrence paints the nightmare, but with the natural
Methodist Student Movement, trusted Lawrence to speak
unforced compassion of a man who is not at war with
for them when they asked him to paint a picture for their
himself.”27 Discussing the gnomelike figures in an inter-
October 1963 cover “to help underscore the urgency of
view in 1995, Lawrence reiterated that they were meant
our times and expose the raw face of hatred and evil and
to represent “an ugly situation” that could be expressed
oppression.”30 With memories still vivid of James Mere-
characters. 28
dith at the University of Mississippi in September 1962
only by distorting the
At the time of the 1963 Terry Dintenfass exhibition,
and the police dogs of Birmingham in May, Lawrence
Lawrence told a Chicago Defender reporter: “Yes, it would
submitted American Revolution (1963, see Fig. 171). A
be valid to call me a social protest painter, . . . but I don’t
black man wearing a suit and tie stands erect in the mid-
feel I protest only, or purely, because I’m a Negro. I use
dle of a composition while snarling, lunging dogs and
the Negro symbol because of my personal experience—
men wearing canine masks menace him from the edges.
naturally, I couldn’t use the Indian or Chinese or Euro-
One dog-masked figure at the right manipulates a stick
pean symbol because these people aren’t mine—but I like
puppet of an Aunt Jemima–type figure in front of the pro-
to think I go beyond the regional and deal with humanity.
tagonist. The bright primary colors with tints of the same
I expect to continue with the Negro symbol, because it’s
hues shrilly scream at the viewer. Both the girl in The Or
the one I know best, but I hope I transcend the strictly
deal of Alice and the man in American Revolution endure
242 the paintings of the protest years
and violence, Warhol does not personalize the event. We have no idea what Warhol might feel about the situation. In contrast, Lawrence’s small, cabinet-size image projects the anguish that he and others felt. The vast support for the civil rights movement became clear to the nation when A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the activist Bayard Rustin mobilized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Both had agitated for a similar march some twenty years earlier. Other civil rights leaders joined them: Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Whitney Young Jr. of the Urban League, and Martin Luther King Jr. of the SCLC. The turnout numbered at least a quarter million demonstrators. 33 King’s “I Have a Dream” speech electrified his audience, and souvenir pictures—reproductions of collages made from Life magazine photos of the police dog and fire hose attacks in Birmingham and other civil rights scenes—were sold for a dollar. 34 The counterattack came when a bomb went off in a Birmingham church a few weeks later, on September 15, killing four black children. To Lawrence, children meant family, family meant com munity, and communities determined the health of the nation. The future held uncertainties, and Lawrence felt Fig 181 Andy Warhol, Red Race Riot, 1963. Synthetic polymer paint and silk screen ink on canvas, 11 ft., 5 in. x 6 ft., 10 1 ⁄2 in. (3.5 x 2.1 m). Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Art © 2009 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: The Andy Warhol Foundation, Inc./Art Resource, NY.
the psychological tensions generated by the intense racism. What kept his emotions in control was translating those feelings into art. In his interview with Mort Cooper of the Chicago Defender, Lawrence elaborated: “Most of us Negro artists react to our positions and conditions as other Negroes do: emotionally. It has nothing to do with art. My
the almost paralyzing effects of fear as they face the vicious snarling beasts. 31
job is to strive for the proper transition from the emotional to the intellectual. And if I want to grow, as both a man
Andy Warhol also explored the possibilities for imagery
and a painter, I have to develop compassion so I won’t be
in the Birmingham attacks, but his approach differs con-
one-sided in what I wish to get across. Compassion has
siderably from Lawrence’s. In Red Race Riot (1963, Fig.
to be part of anger if a truly powerful statement is to be
181), Warhol chose the moment when police dogs tear a
made.”35 The tight control Lawrence exercised over his
protester’s clothes from his body. Warhol’s very large
art is palpably apparent in The Family (1964, Fig. 182).
canvas, with its repeating images stacked up like televi-
This picture presents a family at mealtime. An adult
sion sets, is the public, news service image that draws on
sits at the end of a table facing the viewer, with two chil-
media spectacle.32 Although the color red signals danger
dren on either side; they all bend over their plates. In the
the paintings of the protest years 243
Lawrence had never thought of himself as an organizer or leader, but he had acquired prestige, especially when Ebony magazine ran an article in its September 1963 issue, “Leading Negro Artists,” stating that Lawrence was “hailed by many as the dean of current Negro painters.”37 Because of his preeminence as an artist, groups called on him to lend his name and support to fund-raising for the civil rights movement. Lawrence found himself in the position of heading up an art committee to raise funds for SNCC. His friend Philip Evergood praised his work for SNCC, but the mounting pressure of events and the overwhelming responsibility of making a commitment to a cause that would take him away from his art making and his teaching created anxieties for him. 38 Terry Dintenfass, his dealer, later recalled that Lawrence had been suffering psychologically because of the demands that his involvement with the civil rights movement made on him. One day, when Mrs. Arthur B. Spingarn, wife of the lawyer and NAACP president, dropped by the Terry Dintenfass Gallery to see an exhibition, she was moved to ask Dintenfass about Lawrence’s health. Fig 182 The Family, 1964. Egg tempera on hardboard, 24 x 20 in.
(61 x 50.8 cm). Private collection.
background hover two massive cloaked and masked figures; on the knobs of the chairbacks are tiny, rounded
Dintenfass’s account of that visit, as told to Paul Cummings, deserves to be quoted at length because of her frank description of Lawrence’s mental distress:
It was a civil rights exhibition [at the Terry Dintenfass Gallery]. It was really political. It was when the blacks turned “black” from being “Negro.” Everybody was very confused. I had Ray-
grimacing faces, like voudou charms. I asked Lawrence
mond Saunders who had been Negro one week and black the
about the small demonlike faces and whether they held a
next. Jake wasn’t comfortable being black, and his paintings
connection to voudou or Santeria, a folk religion prac-
were getting very tight. His doctor came into the gallery and
ticed in the Brooklyn community where the Lawrences
asked if Jake was all right. I said I thought he was all right but
lived. Lawrence seemed amused by the question and
not the greatest. The doctor said he thought Jake was getting
chuckled that perhaps they were part of his “racial mem-
uptight again and couldn’t I arrange to have him sent some-
ory.” When pressed, he became serious and stated that
where. I said there’s no money. Just after the doctor left this
the picture related to the way he felt then; he used the demons as a “symbol” of his own subjective response to “hard times.” “They represent emotional intensity, hate. We are surrounded by it.”36 Yet the soaring plant stems with their bright green leaves and large red flower grow-
old, old lady [Mrs. Spingarn] came in. . . . She sat down and asked, “How is Mr. Lawrence?” I said, “Well, he’s pretty good.” She said, “What do you mean ‘pretty good’? You know he’s been sick.” I said yes, I knew he was sick, but that he was fine. But it seemed that because of the whole situation, a great deal of weight was put on Jake be-
ing up from the large seeds placed in front at the bottom
cause they wanted him to be like the leader, and Jake is really
edge of the picture also symbolize Lawrence’s enduring
not a leader. He’s a painter. And he was very nervous about it.
optimism.
His doctor had been in, and . . . thought it would be a good
24 4 the paintings of the protest years
idea if we could send him away. She said, “Well, where would you send him?” I said, “Well, he wants to go to Nigeria.” She said, “Is he married?” . . . I said, “Yes, he is.” “Does he have children?” I said, “No.” “Well, how much does it cost to go to Nigeria?” I hadn’t the faintest idea. She was a bossy old lady. She said, “Go to the telephone and find out.” So I went to the phone, and it was $960 round trip. She said, “Oh.” And with that she got up and left. She didn’t buy anything. About an hour later a chauffeur came in with an envelope with $2,500 in it saying, “This is for Mr. Lawrence to go to Nigeria.” I almost dropped dead. I called up Jake, and he couldn’t believe it. He said he knew who she was, but he had never met her. I said he better quickly arrange it. 39
Lawrence had visited Nigeria for a week in late October and early November 1962, when the Mbari Artists and Writers Club, through the New York–based American Society of African Culture, had invited him there to accompany an exhibition of his work.40 For the tour Lawrence selected part of the Migration series, which was subsequently shown in both Lagos and Ibadan.41 His brief visit
Fig 183 Festival of the Images, Ilobu, in Ulli Beier, Art in Nigeria,
1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960). Courtesy Cambridge University Press.
opened his eyes to the visual spectacle of Nigeria and its creative arts (Fig. 183). He returned to New York with the hope of planning a longer stay in Africa with his wife, and
States.43 The Cuban Missile Crisis in the fall of 1962 had
Mrs. Spingarn’s largesse now made that possible. They
increased cold war tensions, and travel abroad was se-
left for an eight-month sojourn, from April to November
verely restricted.
of 1964.
After the Lawrences finally did set themselves up in Lagos, however, they found the Nigerians to be gracious
escape to nigeria
hosts. Ulli Beier, a leading German scholar whose book Art in Nigeria, 1960 must have been known to the Law-
The U.S. State Department did not sponsor Lawrence and
rences, introduced them to other artists and offered them
Knight’s trip. The couple paid their own travel and living
the use of his house in Oshegbe.44 In Lagos, Lawrence
expenses. In fact, the U.S. government made both the trip
gave informal weekly workshops to young Nigerian artists
to Africa and their stay there difficult for them. Knight was
at the center of the American Society of African Culture.45
denied a U.S. visa, but because she was born in Barbados,
After their successful exhibition at the Mbari Club in La-
a British protectorate, she was able to obtain a British
gos, the U.S. government, in a flip-flop typical of the cold
passport. Knight recounts that when they got to Lagos in
war period, encouraged the Lawrences to exhibit their
April 1964 they were “black-listed upon arrival, unable to
work at the State Department’s auditorium.46 They ac-
secure housing, and under constant surveillance” by
cepted the offer, and their paintings were also sent to
American government officials.42 Although the Lawrences
Ibadan under State Department sponsorship.
did not realize it then, the reason for the hostile responses of the U.S. officials hinged on the fact that Lawrence
Lawrence produced at least eight tempera paintings and five drawings in Nigeria in 1964. One of these paint-
had an FBI file, which documented his former affiliations
ings, Antiquities (1964, James E. Lewis Museum of Art,
with organizations considered subversive to the United
Morgan State University), repeats the motif of skulls
the paintings of the protest years 245
Fig 184 Street to Mbari, 1964. Tempera, gouache, and graphite on paper, 221⁄4 x 307⁄8 in. (56.5 x 78.4 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
frequently found in his earlier paintings. It shows a tur-
focuses on women in the marketplace selling commodities
baned market woman presenting a tray of small African
rather than on male socializing.
deities, amulets, and skulls. However, the majority of the Nigerian paintings, such as Street to Mbari (Fig. 184), Meat Market, Four Sheep, and Roosters, emphasize an overall scene filled with people and objects typical of African marketplaces: vendors, shoppers, children, tables, foodstuffs, skulls, chickens, sheep, flies, roosters, statuettes,
return to the united states: the role of the artist in the freedom struggle
bolts of fabric, and the corrugated iron roofs of the street
In late 1964 the Lawrences returned to the United States,
stalls—all organized into colorful patterns of repetitive
to the intense reality of the unfolding civil rights drama.
forms. When asked in 1995 whether the patterns were
While they were in Africa, riots had erupted in Harlem,
inspired by African textiles, Lawrence replied that he had
Rochester, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Philadelphia,
always been conscious of patterns in his Harlem com-
and the Chicago suburb of Dixmoor, and riots continued
munity, from his earliest memories.47 His Nigerian street
to erupt after their return. In fact, it is not clear whether
scenes differ from his Harlem scenes, however, in that he
Menagerie (1964, Fig. 185) was completed before Law-
246 the paintings of the protest years
Fig 185 Menagerie, 1964. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 21 1 ⁄2 x 301⁄4 in. (54.6 x 76.8 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore
Gallery, New York.
rence left Africa or when he returned to the United States.
they are also symbolic reminders of the nightmarish riots
Two policemen lean down to sort out a pack of chickens;
that occurred during the Lawrences’ absence in Africa.
behind them are cages holding strange animals. One of-
The male figure in Dreams grits his teeth as he attempts
ficer holds a long-tailed creature with a red head and
to get some respite, but sleep cannot banish the small
horns. Floating to the right are disembodied grimacing
reminders of hate and bigotry that surround him. This
faces looking down at a snake that slithers along the bot-
image is far removed from the cozy End of the Day (see
tom edge. Lawrence’s message seems ambiguous: are
Fig. 139), with its couple lying in bed and leisurely reading
the police maintaining authority or imposing their own
the newspapers, which Lawrence painted when he came
chaos?
home from the war to Gwendolyn Knight.
As if the interlude in Africa had never happened, Law-
In the few weeks before the couple moved, in early
rence painted Dreams No. 1 (1965, Fig. 186), which in its
1965, to the Boston area, where Lawrence would begin
iconographic and emotional intensity recalls The Family
his appointment as a visiting artist at Brandeis Univer-
(Fig. 182). A couple lies sleeping on a brass bed, on the
sity, Lawrence began a series of large ink drawings, called
rails of which hang small amulets of spirit forms and
Struggle, on the subject of violent confrontations of pro-
devils. Visually these are related to voudou objects, but
testers with the police.48 Executed in black and white with the paintings of the protest years 247
Fig 186 Dreams No. 1, 1965. Gouache on paper, 31 x 221 ⁄2 in. (78.7 x 57.2 cm). New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, Charles F. Smith Fund, 1989.03. Photo: E. Irving Blomstrann.
Fig 187 Struggle III—Assassination, 1965. Brush
and ink and gouache on paper, 22 x 301 ⁄2 in. (55.9 x 77.5 cm). DC Moore Gallery, New York. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
touches of red, the drawings purposely obscure the racial
ment to attend to inequities and injustices at home.
identities of both the civilians and the police. Lawrence’s
Protest Rally (ca. 1965, Colby College Museum of Art),
drawings were timely, for violence continued to mark na-
which depicts a student holding up his arms in a gesture
tional events. Struggle III—Assassination (Fig. 187) also
of solidarity before a crowd of other students, thus reso-
may have referred to the assassination of Malcolm X on
nates with both the civil rights and the antiwar move-
February 21, 1965, when the Lawrences were just leaving
ments, of which Lawrence would have been aware on the
the New York area. They arrived at Brandeis in March
campus of Brandeis. In his drawing Confrontation (1965,
1965, the month of the famous march from Selma to
Fig. 188), Lawrence shows the police moving in to block
Montgomery, which had its own standoffs between police
the students. At the end of the spring 1965 semester, after
and marchers. By making these drawings Lawrence was
Lawrence wrapped up his responsibilities at Brandeis, the
controlling his emotional responses to horrific events.
couple moved back to New York—this time to 211 West
During 1965 the antiwar movement gained momentum.
106th Street in Manhattan.50
Already in 1964 the War Resisters League had held a
In July 1966 Time magazine commissioned Lawrence
demonstration to protest U.S. military involvement in
to paint a portrait of Stokely Carmichael, then the chair-
Southeast Asia. Many New York artists friendly to Law-
man of SNCC, for a cover.51 Carmichael had been in the
rence had formed a group called Artists and Writers Pro-
news since his role as a leader in the June 1966 “March
test against the War in Vietnam.49 It was clear that the
against Fear.” It had begun on June 5 as a much-publicized
Vietnam War was escalating. Although Lyndon B. Johnson
solo march by James Meredith, the man who had inte-
had won the presidential election in 1964 in part be-
grated the University of Mississippi. Meredith wanted to
cause a large segment of the citizenry rejected the “bomb
call attention to continuing segregation problems, but only
Hanoi” rhetoric of Republican candidate Barry Gold
thirty miles out of Memphis he was shot and wounded by
water, Johnson himself was secretly planning just such
a sniper. This event galvanized Carmichael and others to
an offensive.
finish the march. That July, at a CORE convention in Bal-
The goals of the antiwar and the civil rights move-
timore, Carmichael gave the keynote speech, in which,
ments began to merge; both movements wanted govern-
according to a Time report, he “launched an attack on
the paintings of the protest years 249
fig 188 Confrontation, 1965. Brush and ink on paper, 24 x 171 ⁄2 in. (61 x 44.5 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery,
New York. Fig 189 Portrait of Stokely Carmichael, 1967. Casein tempera, gouache, and brush and ink on paper, 223⁄8 x 141 ⁄2 in. (56.8 x 36.8 cm).
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. NPG.91.145.
just about everyone.” The Time reporters were repelled
Lawrence accepted the commission and traveled to
by Carmichael’s “Black Power” rhetoric and the direction
Atlanta, where he stayed several days making study
in which the civil rights movement seemed to be headed.
drawings of the SNCC leader. Lawrence later recalled that
Time quoted Carmichael: “This is not a movement being
Carmichael was “fiery, very active, and very much in
run by the liberal white establishment or by Uncle Toms.
command.”53 The portrait (Fig. 189) shows Carmichael
What you have been doing all the time is letting them
dressed in denim overalls and a work shirt, the garb he
define how we are going to fight. The extremists in this
wore when traveling in the back country of Lowndes
country are not us. They are the ones who forced the
County to persuade African Americans to register to vote.
Negroes to live in the conditions they are now in.” The
Heavy-lidded and focused, Lawrence’s Carmichael ges-
convention, according to Time, passed a resolution urging
ticulates with his hand as he speaks. Around his shoulder
that “black power replace assimilation and moral suasion
comes a panther, the symbol of the Lowndes County
as the dominant philosophy, theme and method of the
Freedom Organization in Alabama and later the symbol
movement.”52 After Carmichael’s election as chair of
of the Black Panther Party.54 Lawrence portrayed his
SNCC, the organization dropped white staff and volun-
subject in the way Carmichael wanted to be seen—as a
teers from its membership.
man of the people.
250 the paintings of the protest years
Events of the later years of Lyndon Johnson’s presi-
ratism and black nationalism, but Lawrence believed that
dency—the formation of the Black Panthers in late 1966,
the black experience was inseparable from the American
student protests against the war in Vietnam, the urban
experience.58 When questioned in 1968 by Carroll Greene
riots of 1966 and 1967, the assassination of Martin Luther
about his stand on these issues, Lawrence replied: “I like
King Jr. in 1968, and the demonstrations and arrests at
to think I’ve expanded my interest to include not just the
the 1968 Democratic Party convention—kept up the pres-
Negro theme but man generally and maybe if this speaks
sure on Lawrence and other artists of social conscience.
through the Negro I think this is valid also. . . . I would
Urban blacks demanded that colleges and universities
like to think of it as dealing with all people, the struggle
incorporate black studies programs into their curricula.
of man to always better his condition and to move for-
Artists and art students edged toward militancy, and
ward. . . . I think all people aspire, all people strive toward
books and articles appeared championing the new, mili-
a better human condition, a better mental condition
tant black consciousness and the Black Power movement.
generally.”59
Addison Gayle Jr., in his introduction to an anthology of
When Lawrence participated on a panel of black
essays entitled The Black Aesthetic (1971), declared: “The
artists—also including Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam Jr.,
serious black artist of today is at war with the American
Richard Hunt, Tom Lloyd, William T. Williams, and Hale
society as few have been throughout history.”55 The Black
Woodruff—at a symposium held at the Metropolitan Mu-
Power movement was consolidating itself.
seum of Art preceding the Harlem on My Mind exhibition
Lawrence has recalled that the black students at Pratt
in 1969, he reiterated his beliefs that the struggles of Af-
Institute, where he returned to teach after his visit to
rican Americans had a universal significance. Lloyd,
Brandeis, often displayed antagonistic and ambivalent
younger than the other artists and also a member of the
feelings toward him. Lawrence was black, but as a teacher
Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, argued that black
he represented tradition and authority. In a 1982 inter-
artists should create a “black art.” Lawrence, with the
view Lawrence elaborated:
concurrence of the other artists, argued that there is no “black art”—only “art,” although artists may be black. As
That was the time when all the black students would sit to-
to his support for the civil rights movement, he said: “I
gether in the cafeteria. If you didn’t sit with these students,
think you can relate in any number of ways, and the indi-
you were criticized, and if you did sit with the students, the
vidual artist has to solve it in his own way. He may par-
attitude was “What are you doing here?” I had those kinds of
ticipate through the content of his work, or by donating
problems, but they didn’t bother me too much.
[to civil rights fundraising efforts] a piece that has no
Of course, I was a black but I was also in a position of authority, and those students were striking out in all directions. If you were seen as part of the Establishment, they didn’t realize that your struggle had been as great as theirs. What I found is that you could accept the health of this rebellion in-
specifically relevant content. I know that we all relate to the civil rights movement, and we all make contributions. We give because we want to give. It’s an obvious way of helping, not a spiritual one, but it’s a way that has an im-
tellectually, but emotionally you couldn’t. You’d want to tell
mediate, definite benefit.”60 Lawrence did not adopt the
these people, “Look, I’ve been through some things, too, and
stridency of the young radicals, but he did produce pic-
so have the people before my generation, and they’re the ones
tures that captured the violence inherent in the struggle
who made it possible for you to have this kind of
protest.”56
for racial equality. Wounded Man (1968, Fig. 190) represents both the ef-
In a 1995 interview Lawrence added that he knew at the
fects of violence and a determination to stay the course.
time that black students were “very angry about our so-
A well-built young black man, partially obscured by the
ciety” and that he felt other black and white academics
wooden boards of a building, stands defiantly. Blood
were not sufficiently sensitive to black students’ desire to
spurts from a chest wound, recalling the wounding of
address issues of race and not just master the techniques
Christ by the centurion’s spear at Calvary. The tenseness
of art making.57
of his hands and his facial expression alert us to his re-
Many of the young, black art students advocated sepa-
sistance and resolve to continue fighting. When composthe paintings of the protest years 251
Fig 190 Wounded Man, 1968. Gouache on paper, 291 ⁄2 x 22 in. (74.9 x 55.9 cm). The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art. FIG 191 Cover for Freedomways (winter 1969). Courtesy School of Theology Library, Boston University. Lawrence’s drawing is based on his painting Wounded Man (Fig. 190).
ing the image in 1968, Lawrence may have recalled the
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
1919 poem by Claude McKay, “If We Must Die”:
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!61
If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursèd lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy
In his youth Lawrence had admired McKay, and he would have known that McKay had intended his poem to speak about all oppressed people.62 Lawrence’s wounded man image became an iconic symbol that he used again when asked to do the winter 1969 cover for Freedomways (Fig. 191), a journal of opinion for the civil rights movement
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
that vigorously promoted integration rather than black
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
nationalism.
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
The image of “mad and hungry dogs” in McKay’s poem
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
and in Lawrence’s 1963 painting American Revolution
What though before us lies the open grave?
continued to function as a powerful symbol to depict rac-
252 the paintings of the protest years
Fig 192 Confrontation at the Bridge, 1975. Gouache on paper, 221 ⁄2 x 301⁄4 in. (57.2 x 76.8 cm). Commissioned by Transworld Art, New York, for portfolio of silkscreen prints. Private collection.
ists’ barbarism. The motif appears again in Lawrence’s
“The Role of the Artist in the Freedom Struggle.”64 Rustin
1975 print Confrontation at the Bridge (Fig. 192), which
made it clear that the racialized concept of a “black art”
takes as its subject the 1955 civil rights march from
did a “disservice to the artistic process”: “The black art-
Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, the state capital.63 The
ist, whether or not he considers himself as such, is an
marchers were repeatedly stopped by the Selma police
essential member and a most important member of the
at the Edmond Pettus Bridge just outside Selma. In Con
freedom struggle. In saying this, I do not want to imply
frontation the dog and menacing background shapes
that the Negro artist should resemble in any way the so-
threaten the crowd of people on the bridge. The people,
cial artist. The very concept of a social artist, an artist
symbols of persistence and endurance, do not falter; they
whose objective is to sell a cause or to sell a political
seem to heed the refrain of the song “We Shall
party or even to sell Negroes, is a vulgarity and would be
Overcome.”
a misunderstanding of the nature of art and of the Negro
In the summer of 1970 the NAACP awarded Lawrence
struggle.” Rustin’s point was that Lawrence differed from
the Spingarn Medal at a ceremony in Cincinnati. Bayard
the “social artist” who made “protest art” as propagan-
Rustin, in presenting the award, delivered the address,
da.65 To Rustin, Lawrence had placed himself inside the the paintings of the protest years 253
struggle through his creative acts: “What we have, there-
York, such as Brooklyn Stoop (1967, frontispiece), which
fore, is that the black artist is a part of the very struggle
shows a black child and a white child playing with a single
for justice and freedom by the fact that he paints or cre-
blue-faced doll. Unlike the children in his 1957 Playroom,
ates a poem because, by so doing, he is expressing the
the girls are outdoors. Their doll is neither black nor
imaginative creativity and creation, and every time our
white; its race is indeterminate. And Lawrence has
recipient tonight paints a great picture, he automatically
painted the doll’s eyes in such as way as to suggest that
adorns the struggle.” Rustin compared Lawrence’s art to
the doll could be looking at either of them. Even in times
other great art in its tendency to “create a consciousness
of street violence and social upheaval, Lawrence could be
amongst men” and concluded: “The black artist’s role is
an optimist. His scenes of black and white builders work-
to reveal to all the human core of the human experience
ing together and children playing together are potent
as seen through the black experience. It is because Jacob
symbols of integration and a hope for the future.
Lawrence, with his beautiful canvases, has done precisely that, that we honor him.” Lawrence responded to Rustin’s words by acknowledging that any “degree of success as a creative artist” he had achieved was “mainly due to that black experience
coda: the hiroshima paintings Lawrence took the opportunity to transcend racial and
which is our heritage—an experience which gives inspira-
national consciousness in the eight tempera and gouache
tion, motivation, and stimulation.” Lawrence consistently
paintings he designed in 1983 for the reissue of John
and repeatedly expressed these thoughts over the follow-
Hersey’s Hiroshima. When Sidney Shiff, owner of the
ing decades. He never forgot the “encouragement which
Limited Editions Club, New York, commissioned him to
came from the black community”—to convert the black
choose any book he wanted for a deluxe hand-crafted
experience into the human experience and in so doing to
edition, Lawrence chose Hersey’s gripping narrative of the
create a consciousness of all people’s struggles for a bet-
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, first published in the New
ter life.66
Yorker on August 31, 1946, and then published as a book.
Later, Lawrence insisted that his pictures were not
In this series the artist attempted not to illustrate Hersey’s
“protest paintings.” In doing so, he might seem to have
account but rather to evoke the horror in metaphoric vi-
retreated from his 1963 statement to the Chicago De
sual terms.
fender that “it would be valid to call me a social protest
Hersey’s narrative follows the lives of six people, includ-
painter.” However, like Alain Locke, he considered propa-
ing a German Catholic priest and a Japanese Methodist
ganda to be one-sided and felt that the label of “social
minister, from the hours before the bomb exploded on
protest painter” would subvert his determination to use
August 6, 1945, to the moment of the blinding blast at
“the Negro symbol” to represent the Everyman who
8:15 a.m., through the following hours, then days. The
struggles for freedom. When President Jimmy Carter in-
most able of the six struggled to help their neighbors;
vited Lawrence to the White House in 1980 to honor him
those too wounded endured their agonies as best they
for painting pictures that protested racism, he declined,
could. Hersey weaves together the subjective impressions
telling a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter: “I never use
of all six with the raw physical facts, such as the location
the term ‘protest’ in connection with my paintings. They
of the epicenter, statistics of the human toll, and medical
just deal with the social scene. . . . They’re how I feel
descriptions of the progress of radiation sickness. We are
about things.”67 Lawrence, by his own assessment, was
told about the “noiseless flash”:
beyond protest. Indeed, throughout the years of protest Lawrence painted many pictures that did not treat protest at all:
There was no sound of planes. The morning was still; the place was cool and pleasant.
pictures of people studying in libraries, socializing in pool
Then a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky. Mr.
halls, and hanging out on the streets and stoops of New
Tanimoto [the Methodist minister] has a distinct recollection
254 the paintings of the protest years
that it traveled from east to west, from the city toward the
After reading John Hersey’s powerful and very moving book
hills. It seemed a sheet of sun. Both he and Mr. Matsuo [his
“hiro s him a” in preparation for these illustrations, I went into a
friend] reacted in terror—and both had time to react (for they
mental retreat. Because this book is such a strong statement
were 3,500 yards, or two miles, from the center of the explo-
of man’s inhumanity to man, I found this work to be a most
sion). . . . Mr. Tanimoto took four or five steps and threw him-
challenging book to illustrate. In my attempt to meet the chal-
self between two big rocks in the garden. . . . He felt a sudden
lenge, I read and reread this work several times and, in doing
pressure, and then splinters and pieces of board and frag-
so, I began to see great devastation in the twisted and muti-
ments of tile fell on him. He heard no roar.68
lated bodies of humans, birds, fishes and all of the other ani-
Hersey tells us of the fires that raged throughout the
fauna and the land that was at one time alive, was now seared,
city, started primarily from flammable material falling as
mangled, deformed and devoid of life. And I thought, what
debris on cooking stoves, and about the surviving popula-
have we accomplished over these many centuries? We have
tion who took refuge in the parks and along the rivers. A
produced great geniuses in music, the sciences, the arts,
mals and living things that inherit our earth. The flora and the
few passages give the flavor of Hersey’s account—the stoicism, the heroism, and the pathos:
dance, literature, architecture and oratory among many other disciplines. And we have in the meantime, developed the means to destroy in a most horrible manner, that life that is
To Father Kleinsorge, an Occidental, the silence in the grove
our god given right.
by the river, where hundreds of gruesomely wounded suffered together, was one of the most dreadful and awesome phenom-
Lawrence ends: “I do hope that these illustrations have
ena of his whole experience. The hurt ones were quiet; no one
done full justice to John Hersey’s poignant statement.”72
wept, much less screamed in pain; no one complained; none
Lawrence was not the first artist to paint the atomic
of the many who died did so noisily; not even the children cried;
blasts. In Chapter 7 I discussed Philip Evergood’s Renun
very few people even spoke. And when Father Kleinsorge gave
ciation, a realist painting that relies on symbolic forms to
water to some whose faces had been almost blotted out by
project its message. I also mentioned Ralston Crawford,
flash burns, they took their share and then raised themselves
another Downtown Gallery artist, who was commissioned
a little and bowed to him, in thanks.69
by Fortune to travel to the test site at Bikini Atoll in 1946
Mr. Tanimoto, who had commandeered a boat, tried to ferry people stranded in the tidal estuaries of Hiroshima to higher ground:
and translate what he had witnessed into paintings. In December 1946 the Downtown Gallery mounted Ralston Crawford: Paintings of Operation Crossroads at Bikini, an exhibition that Lawrence no doubt saw, since he and
He reached down and took a woman by the hands, but her skin slipped off in huge, glove-like pieces. He was so sickened by this that he had to sit down for a moment. Then he got out into the water and, though a small man, lifted several of the men and women, who were naked, into his boat. Their backs
Gwen always attended the openings of Downtown Gallery artists. When the December 1946 issue of Fortune reproduced two of Crawford’s paintings, the text accompanying Test Able (Fig. 193) quoted Crawford: “My forms and colors are not direct transcription; they refer in paint
and breasts were clammy, and he remembered uneasily what
symbols to the blinding light of the blast, to its colors,
the great burns he had seen during the day had been like: yel-
and to its devastating character as I experienced them
low at first, then red and swollen, with the skin sloughed off,
in Bikini Lagoon.”73 Crawford’s forms suggest things com
and finally, in the evening, suppurated and
smelly.70
ing apart and flying through the air by combining jagged edges with smoothly straight and curved contours—
Heroism merges with horror in Hersey’s relentlessly pite-
characteristics Lawrence might have recalled when he
ous account.71
began his own panels.
After Lawrence submitted the eight paintings to Shiff,
Lawrence, however, in respecting the narrative of Her
he wrote a statement, dated September 6, 1983, that de-
sey’s book, represented the effects of the first blast (at Hiro
serves to be quoted in full:
shima) on the thousands of civilians who were unwilling
the paintings of the protest years 255
Fig 193 Ralston Crawford, Test Able, 1946. Oil on canvas, 23 5⁄8
x 175⁄8 in. (60 x 44.8 cm). Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Eva Underhill Holbrook Collection of American Art, Gift of Alfred H. Holbrook. This image was reproduced in Fortune (December 1946).
victims of the devastation. His panels (Pennsylvania Acad-
The colors Lawrence chooses are blasted primaries: the
emy of the Fine Arts) evoke both the horrors graphically
pink is the blinding flash on red; the yellow, an eerie glow;
detailed by Hersey and the quietude suggested in those
the blue, a chalky cobalt. Brown and black representing
passages portraying the community’s shared trauma.74
trees and the earth give accent to the other colors. The
Lawrence’s faces are skulls—white in front with red, pink,
forms have no neat edges—like “skin sloughed off.” Indeed,
or brown eye sockets and red at the base: “faces . . . almost
the savagely ripped shapes jerk our eyes about—as if we
blotted out by flash burns.” The scenes suggest the mo-
were viewing a war zone through the lens of a hand-held
ment when the noiseless flash occurred: the figures in
movie camera from a fast-moving jeep. Lawrence’s flat
Farmers look up to see the sky, arrested in their work as
collage aesthetic is perhaps the most appropriate style
Mr. Tanimoto was. The chaos Mr. Tanimoto and others
for conveying the enormity of the cataclysm, the universal-
experienced occurs in Market (Fig. 194) and Street Scene,
ity of suffering, and pathos without sentimentality.
where large pieces of building debris fly through the air
With this series Lawrence revealed his engaged human-
past people’s heads. The stoicism of the figures in People
ism—his sensibility that understands art not as Matisse’s
in the Park (Fig. 195) suggests the image Father Kleinsorge
“good armchair,” which comforts the weary, but as a ter-
describes where “no one wept, much less screamed in
rible beauty with transformative powers to awaken us to
pain.”
our humanity.
256 the paintings of the protest years
Fig 194 Hiroshima: Market, 1983. Tempera and gouache on paper, 23 x 171 ⁄2 in. (58.4 x 44.5 cm). Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Alexander Harrison Fund. Fig 195 Hiroshima: People in the Park, 1983. Tempera and gouache on paper, 23 x 171 ⁄2 in. (58.4 x 44.5 cm). Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Alexander Harrison Fund.
epilogue Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.
charlie parker, 1949
move to seattle
and colleague in the art department. One of his graduate painting students, Allan Kollar, recently recalled Lawrence
In the last three decades of Jacob Lawrence’s life, he and
as “a soft spoken man, who was fully engaged with the
Gwendolyn Knight made their home in Seattle, Washing-
individual he was communicating with. . . . He never
ton. They often spoke about going back to New York when
turned away students who sought his guidance.”4 After
they retired, but they returned only on brief trips to visit
retirement he devoted himself full time to his art in the
friends and see exhibitions.1
quiet of his attic studio in suburban Seattle (Fig. 196).
They had been lured to the West in September 1969 by
Seattle provided the Lawrences with a fresh start, and
a teaching job at California State College in Hayward. 2
civic leaders and museum directors quickly drew him into
Knight and Lawrence moved to Berkeley, and Lawrence
the local art scene. He received commissions from the
took up his duties as a visiting artist for two academic
Washington State Capitol Museum for five paintings on
quarters. In March they moved on to Seattle, where Law-
the life of George Washington Bush (1973) and from the
rence held another visiting artist appointment at the Uni-
Seattle Art Commission for a poster design for Bumber-
versity of Washington for the spring quarter. That sum-
shoot, an annual arts festival, in 1976.5 In 1978 he com-
mer, when they were back in New York, the university
pleted a mural commission, Games, for the Kingdome
offered him a full-time appointment as full professor, but
Stadium in Seattle.
he stayed on at Pratt Institute.3 In 1971 Lawrence finally
Seattle liberated the Lawrences from the frantic pace
accepted the offer from the University of Washington,
of the New York art world and gave them more time for
and the couple moved to Seattle, where he taught until
themselves. When Lawrence lived in New York he con-
his retirement in 1983. He became an admired teacher
stantly received requests to contribute or lend his name
259
Fig 196 Mary Randlett, Jacob Lawrence on
the Stairs to His Attic Studio, Seattle, 1983(?). © Mary Randlett, University of Washington Libraries.
to charitable institutions, progressive organizations, and 6
certain kind of growth, a certain kind of development.”8
radical groups. While he maintained cordial relationships
Indeed, Lawrence’s works in Seattle, with the exception
with many contemporary New York black artists, he was
of the powerful Hiroshima series, lost some of their edge.
not part of the groups that formed in the black artistic
They became more subdued in color, as he explained to
community during the 1960s. When Romare Bearden,
the Seattle reporter Bonnie Hoppin: “I think the greyness
Hale Woodruff, Merton Simpson, Norman Lewis, Emma
[of the Seattle area] has been a great influence. . . . Prior
Ames, and others formed the group Spiral in 1963, they
to my coming here, I didn’t grey my colors. Out here, you
did not include Lawrence or Knight. One of Spiral’s goals
can’t help but grey color to get it more atmospheric. . . .
was to increase exhibition opportunities for its members,
It’s not grey color; it’s the greying of color.”9 Lawrence’s
many of whom were still struggling for national recogni-
works also became more decorative, with none of the
tion, while Lawrence had already achieved success in the
demon faces and prickly forms of his works from the
art world. They made him aware that they did not need
1960s.
him for their group.7 When the Studio Museum in Harlem
That the couple’s lifestyle differed in Seattle is evident
was founded in 1968, it was Bearden, not Lawrence, who
in the photographs of the two of them captured by Mary
was involved. Perhaps most important, teaching at both
Randlett in the mid-1980s. Unlike the studio photographs
Pratt Institute and the Art Students’ League was draining.
by Irving Penn and Arnold Newman taken in the late
It is not surprising that Lawrence responded positively
1940s, in which Knight and Lawrence are dramatically
when universities outside New York asked him to teach.
presented as an art world celebrity couple, Randlett
During an interview with the literary historian Henry
shows them relaxed outdoors, in a park near their home
Louis Gates Jr., Lawrence acknowledged differences be-
(Fig. 197). As in many photographs of the couple, the
tween living in the West and in the East: “You have all of
camera focuses primarily on Lawrence, and he recipro-
the tensions and all of the negative factors and problems
cates by looking back. Gwen is seated next to him and
in the East but I wouldn’t give up that experience and in
looks off into the distance, but she projects a strong, in-
the West it’s so easy to live but I guess it can prevent a
dependent presence.
260 epilogue
Fig 197 Mary Randlett, Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence in Seattle, mid-1980s. © Mary Randlett, University of Washington Libraries.
gwendolyn knight
listened to the older artists around us and then we would talk
As they had been from the very beginning of their relation-
amongst ourselves and she was one of the people who in-
ship, Lawrence and Knight were close companions in the
spired me in those early days and has continued to inspire me
Seattle years. She was with him everywhere—in photo
as an artist and as a thinker. Those things are very important
shoots, traveling to exhibition openings and to universi-
and have become even more important because you realize
ties to accept honorary degrees, and abroad. As a young couple they had talked and encouraged each other, and she had helped him prepare his gessoed panels and select captions for his works. To an interviewer in 1987 Law-
it’s fate that certain things come together and certain people come together and it’s a very learning and a very rewarding experience . . . and a very stimulating experience for me. [. . .] Before our marriage, we worked in the same studio together . . . it’s been a collaboration . . . I don’t know what
rence emphasized her importance to him from their early
you’d call it . . . a very abstract kind of relationship as well as
Harlem days:
a physical relationship [. . .] but then she always also gave another kind of experience, that’s difficult to verbalize . . . the
Gwen came into my life in about 1934 and with the passage of
putting together of the panels was physical . . . but the criti-
time, I realized how important this meeting was. We had many
cism, the comments, and the talk about the series was maybe
artists in the Harlem community [. . .] she was one in my age
even more important . . . and this is what she gave me. And
group and we stimulated each other, we talked about art and
that series [The Migration of the Negro], I guess, came into
Gwen was always [. . .] very productive and curious . . . We
being because of her stimulation as well as mine. 10
epilogue 261
Asked by a Seattle Times reporter about her marriage,
printmaking. In 1976 the Seattle Art Museum gave her a
Knight replied that she and Lawrence were always mutu-
solo exhibition, and she began to submit paintings to
ally supportive. There was “a meeting ground because we
group exhibitions.14 When the Lawrences moved to Hori-
talk about the art scene. Our life together has been about
zon House, an assisted living facility in downtown Seattle
11
looking at art. We have this in common.” They also liked
in December 1995, they took three adjoining apartments:
reading and seeing friends together. They usually both
the middle apartment was their joint living space, and the
painted at home, but in the later Seattle years Knight
two bracketing apartments provided studio space for
rented her own studio space about a mile away.
each of them. They showed together in a two-person ex-
Knight was always a painter, even if at mid-career she
hibition at the Minneapolis Museum of Art in 1998. The
did not exhibit her work. She had spent two years at
Women’s Caucus for Art honored Knight in 1993. Three
Howard University studying art, and when she came to
years after Lawrence died, in 2003, she had a major ret-
New York she took classes with Augusta Savage. In the
rospective at the Tacoma Art Museum.
late 1930s she received recognition as an artist, showing
Lawrence encouraged her efforts and praised her art
with the Harlem Artists Guild artists and in exhibitions at
to an interviewer in 1987: “She’s a very lyrical painter,
the Harlem Community Art Center.12 After her marriage
very poetic, very romantic in her painting, entirely differ-
to Lawrence, during their years in New York, she painted
ent from me. She has a feel for color that is very lyrical
occasionally but did not push herself forward, as was not
and [has] a certain kind of rhythm. Her approach is feeling
untypical of women married to successful male artists.
out the canvas as she goes[,] for clothing [it] with color,
The artist Whitfield Lovell, who became friends with
with lines and form and light and dark. . . . I can appreciate
Knight after Lawrence died, had the impression “that
Gwen . . . because we are so different.”15
there was no lack of artistic talent, but Gwen probably did not work at her art career aggressively. She may have taken a supportive back seat position to Jake. . . . There were many obstacles inherent in being an artist. Gwen was not only black but she was also a woman. She
lawrence’s privacy The artist Rudolf Baranik taught at both the Art Students’
happened to be married to a very successful artist, and
League and Pratt Institute along with Lawrence in the
so it might have been a challenge navigating through an
1960s. May Stevens, Baranik’s wife, later recalled Law-
already volatile art scene.”13 Many others share his as
rence as “handsome, well dressed, gentle, amiable and
sessment.
quiet. But he was not easily knowable.” Stevens believes
Knight would be the first to admit that although she
that Baranik admired Lawrence because he was serious
liked to paint she did not have the single-minded focus of
and honorable and a unique and arresting artist. To Bara-
her husband. Other activities interested her, including
nik, it was enough to have such moral men and women in
dance, especially modern dance. When Lawrence taught
the world; they did not need to reveal their inner lives.16
at the children’s camp Wo-Chi-Ca in the summer of 1943,
Lawrence’s reserved manner protected his privacy; he
Knight directed a play in which the children participated,
would never reveal any personal animus. His anger was
and she painted the scenery as well. At Black Mountain,
the abstract anger against world injustices that he chan-
during Lawrence’s summer school teaching in 1946, she
neled into his art. He would not let outside worries disturb
set up informal dance lessons. When Lawrence was hos-
his psyche and perhaps trigger another nervous break-
pitalized in 1949, she took a job with Condé Nast and
down. He knew he was vulnerable, and he did not want to
worked there for about ten years. But when they lived in
lose control again. Staying above his anxieties was a way
Nigeria for eight months during 1964, she painted along-
to maintain his balance and to keep his mind free to focus
side him.
on his art. When the artist Jack Whitten confessed to Law-
Removed from the very social art world of New York,
rence that he felt close to a nervous breakdown because
Knight took herself more seriously and tried her hand at
of pressures on himself as an artist and a black man, Law-
262 epilogue
rence responded, “Keep your mind on the plastic”—that
Lawrence’s dealer in Seattle, Francine Seders, helped
is, concentrate on the formal structures of art.17
out, and Bridget Moore, his New York dealer, attended to
Lawrence protected himself by deflecting questions
the couple’s needs when they were back East.
that might penetrate the wall of his hard-won composure. Those of us who came to know him through our interviews respected that. Many questions I dared not ask.
professional life in seattle
Although I would attempt to approach sensitive issues
In the last twenty-five years of Lawrence’s life his paintings
through indirection, Lawrence seldom responded. When
became nationally known to a new generation. The Whit-
I asked him about incidents of racism he had experi-
ney Museum of American Art organized a traveling retro-
enced, he would say, “Oh, it wasn’t so bad,” or “You
spective exhibition of his work in 1974, and the Seattle Art
learned to live with it.” I would not press him further. I
Museum mounted an even larger traveling show in 1986. 21
was always conscious that I was of a different generation,
The book-length essay by Ellen Harkins Wheat for the
a different race, a different gender.
18
He was most relaxed sitting in a cocktail lounge, smok-
Seattle exhibition was the first definitive study of the artist. Two focused exhibitions traveled in the 1990s: the Hamp-
ing a cigarette, sipping a martini, and talking with Knight
ton University Museum’s Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick
and other people he trusted. At moments when no tape
Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series of 1938–40 (1992),
recorder was whirring away, when no probing questions
curated by Wheat, and the Phillips Collection’s Jacob
were being asked, when there was just friendly talk about
Lawrence: The Migration Series (1993), curated by Eliza-
world politics, national and regional news, or, at times, art
beth Hutton Turner. 22 Lawrence also had smaller solo
world gossip, he could let down his guard. On one such
exhibitions across the country. During the 1970s and
occasion he told me that as a young artist he had had to
1980s Terry Dintenfass continued to be his dealer in New
walk a fine line with some art world groups—for instance,
York, and Francine Seders represented him on the West
the communists who attempted to recruit him for their
Coast. In the 1990s Midtown Payson Gallery and then DC
meetings and the gay intellectuals and writers with whom
Moore Gallery represented him in New York. He increas-
he enjoyed talking and who admired him. He liked and
ingly garnered national honors, awards, and honorary
learned from both groups, but he felt he had to tread
degrees, including the National Medal of Arts from Presi-
carefully so as not to embarrass or offend either one. At
dent George H. W. Bush. 23
that point he would chuckle over his own shrewd maneu-
In Seattle he was involved in many printmaking
verings, inhale his cigarette, and sip the martini; Knight
projects—often supervising the printmakers who trans-
would give way to peals of laughter.19 She always actively
formed his older paintings into lithographs or silkscreen
contributed to the conversation and would provide the
prints. During these years he worked with master print-
words for him when he became tongue-tied or hesitant.
makers to produce over ninety screenprints and litho-
Lawrence never rejected anyone who helped him. They
graphs. Peter Nesbett, when working at the Francine
were all, to him, a part of his community; and when speak-
Seders Gallery, gathered information on the prints, and in
ing publicly, he would regularly recite all the groups who
1994 the gallery produced the first edition of the catalogue
had contributed to his education—the Garveyites, the
raisonné of Lawrence’s prints. 24 The following year the
church preachers, the communists, the Harlem intel-
Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project was set up
lectuals and artists. 20 Without hesitation he always cred
as an independent organization, with Nesbett as director.
ited those who had guided and reached out to him along
He soon brought in Michelle DuBois as co-director. The
the way.
two of them worked full time on recording and photograph-
Toward the end of their lives, the Lawrences relied on their friends in Seattle, particularly Barbara Earl Thomas,
ing all of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and murals, with the active participation of Lawrence and Knight.
a talented young artist who had been Lawrence’s student,
In 2000, the year Lawrence died, the University of Wash
to drive them to market and to doctors’ appointments.
ington Press published Nesbett and DuBois’s two-volume
epilogue 263
Fig 198 Cabinet Maker, 1957. Casein tempera on paper, 301 ⁄2 x 221 ⁄2 in. (77.5 x 57.2 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966. Photo: Lee Stalsworth.
Fig 199 Poster Design . . . Whitney Exhibition, 1974.
Gouache and tempera on paper, 301 ⁄16 x 221 ⁄4 in. (76.4 x 56.5 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York.
set: the catalogue raisonné and Over the Line, a book of
and admired Addison Bates, a dancer and cabinetmaker
essays by leading Lawrence scholars. To coincide with
who had mounted an exhibition of Lawrence’s work on
these publications, Elizabeth Hutton Turner of the Phillips
the walls of his apartment at 306. Like the figure in Cabi
Collection mounted a traveling retrospective exhibition for
net Maker (Fig. 198), Bates was a large, muscular man. 26
which Over the Line served as the
catalogue. 25
The artist had always remained fond of him, and Bates undoubtedly was the inspiration for the painting. Lawrence marveled that carpentry tools seen in Italian Re-
the late builder scenes Lawrence never stopped painting street scenes of chil-
naissance paintings were still in use and saw “aesthetic beauty in how the tool emerges from the hand and how the hand itself is a beautiful tool.”27
dren playing, women shopping, and men strolling along
His 1974 painting Poster Design . . . Whitney Exhibition
and kibitzing, but increasingly, beginning in the 1970s,
(Fig. 199), created for the retrospective at the Whitney
carpenters and construction workers came to dominate
Museum of American Art, combines the nuclear family of
his street scenes. Carpentry tools and the people who
father, mother, boy, and girl with a racially integrated crew
used them had fascinated him since his youth. He knew
of three builders in the background. Although walking
epilogue 265
along the sidewalk, the family has access to the spaces
patterns created by workers, scaffolding, piles of lumber,
where new buildings are being erected, in contrast to The
and tools all made for vibrant and varied compositions.
Wall of 1941 (see Fig. 92), which symbolizes the impenetrable wall of segregation. Lawrence produced some twenty paintings of builders
Although Seattle was peaceful, with its lush gardens, rolling hills, lakes, harbors, gray skies, and Pacific Ocean, Lawrence yearned for the streets and tenements of his
and carpenters in the 1970s, four or five paintings in the
youth, the glare of neon lights, and the dense parade of
mid-1980s, occasional paintings in the early 1990s, and
humanity hurrying along crowded sidewalks. Indeed, when
twelve in 1998 alone, with numerous drawings in all three
he painted The Studio in 1994 (see the print version in Fig.
decades. In these pictures Lawrence stressed the harmo-
201), showing himself at work in the attic studio of his
nious racial integration of workers, a necessary ingredient
suburban Seattle house, he included a scene through the
for building strong communities; in Builders (1980, Fig.
window of colorful tenement houses. In describing the
200), even women participate as builders. To Lawrence,
picture for an exhibition at the Bellevue Art Museum, he
the work ethic commanded respect—not just because
commented: “The window in the back represents the New
work puts bread on the table but because it can be exhila-
York tenements where I grew up. When I look out the
rating and labor brings people of all races together. 28 The
window in my studio now, there is a blank wall. I decided
266 epilogue
Fig 200 Builders, 1980. Gouache on paper, 34 x 251 ⁄2
in. (86.4 x 64.8 cm). Private collection. Photo: The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Fig 201 The Studio, 1996. Lithograph, 30 x 221⁄8 in. (76.2 x 56.2 cm). Private collection. Image cour- tesy Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle. Photo: Spike Mafford. Fig 202 Schomburg Library, 1987. Lithograph, 26 x 20 in. (66 x 50.8 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle. Photo: Spike Mafford.
to bring some of New York into it by introducing what I
pentry, to African Americans as the path for their
remembered of the city.” He told the conservator Elizabeth
economic advancement. W. E. B. Du Bois, on the other
Steele that he “liked the pattern and the design” of the
hand, had championed a liberal arts education and ac-
shapes.
29
Memories of Harlem still lingered—of that place
where community meant emotional support.
cess to voting in order to advance integrated citizenship. To Lawrence, both the builders and the librarians were
In the last dozen or so years of his life, he not only did
necessary, as indicated by his text caption for one of his
paintings on the builder theme but also returned to ear-
1947 paintings: “Knowing the value of an industrial skill
lier themes, such as men playing games—pool, chess,
as well as an academic education the Negro, for many
and cards 30—and people in libraries (Fig. 202). Law-
years, has worked hard to obtain both.”
rence’s library pictures give pictorial form to intellectual
In the mid-1990s Lawrence discovered a new theme—
labor and recall a debate he had been familiar with since
the modern supermarket with aisles loaded with produce,
his youth, about whether African Americans should focus
canned goods, toys, flowers, meat and fish counters, and
on economic advancement or social and political integra-
people jostling toward the checkout counters (see Fig.
tion. Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee In-
170). Once he and Knight were retirees in the suburbs
stitute, had advocated teaching basic skills, such as car-
who had to rely on taxicabs or their friends to drive them
epilogue 267
to the markets, trips to the mall and the supermarket
excelling in a field where no one of your race, gender,
loomed large in their lives.
background etc. has been accepted and embraced.”32
our assessment of lawrence today
and inspiration for the African American community. I first saw his work in person at the Museum of Modern Art in
Artists continue to admire Lawrence both for his work and
casso. . . . This was very meaningful for me.”
More than that, however, Lawrence was “a source of pride
for his integrity as an artist. Floyd Coleman, former chair
galleries along with Clyfford Still’s, Jackson Pollock, Pi In 1996, when Lovell met Lawrence at the Skowhegan
of the art department at Howard University, has described
School for Painting and Sculpture in Maine, he was im-
how he first encountered reproductions of Lawrence’s
pressed with the older artist’s gentleness and genuine
work in 1956 as a student in a drawing class taught by
interest in the art of younger students:
Hayward L. Oubre, the chair of the art department at Alabama State College, Montgomery. It was fascinating to read about Lawrence, his achievements and to see how he dealt with the figure in his compositions. I knew of Henry Ossawa Tanner’s work since high school, but did not know of Lawrence’s work until I was at Alabama State. Oubre emphasized composition and design in beginning painting. Again, Lawrence’s work was so helpful to me to see how to use color, line, shape and principles of design—proportion, rhythm and balance to create compelling creative narratives. Lawrence’s work was also very instructive in that it revealed again and again how an artist could deal with issues such as Black migration, segregation, poverty, and police brutality without eclipsing artistic concerns. In a word, Lawrence’s prodigious work and art world recognition helped me, and no doubt many others, to believe that it was possible for a black artist to achieve a high measure of success in the art world in the United States.
I believe that Jake had to be incredibly strong to have made such a name for himself when he did. In fact it must have been a huge responsibility for all those who dared to be creative in the face of discrimination and oppression. Still there did not seem to be an ounce of bitterness in him. He seemed aware of his contribution and he desired to graciously pass the baton to the next generations of black artists. All that he did with his life helped those of us who came along after him. He followed his path and did not waver. He did not succumb to temptation to delve into the trends of the concurrent modernist movements of his time.
Passing on the baton is an apt metaphor for Lawrence’s role in the history of American art. Lawrence rarely did sports figures, but in 1949 he painted The Long Stretch (Fig. 203). In a split-second moment a black player reaches base, passing the umpire seconds before the opposing team’s infielder catches the
Coleman added: “Lawrence, at times, had severe emotional
ball. The stretch of the runner’s leg and the stretch of
problems. Nevertheless, he produced a large body of high
the infielder’s arm compete for a successful play, but the
quality work. What puts Lawrence in the forefront is his
black runner wins. The umpire’s prominently outstretched
high productivity and the consistent high quality of his work
hand declares the runner is safe. Lawrence allegedly was
from the time he was quite young until his death.”31
inspired by baseball player Jackie Robinson, who inte-
When I asked the artist Whitfield Lovell to comment on
grated major league baseball when hired by the Brooklyn
the ways Lawrence might have been an inspiration to him,
Dodgers in 1947. 33 It was a blow to Jim Crow segregation
he said that Lawrence exemplified an African American
that should have happened sooner. That same year Law-
who had succeeded as an artist: “Coming along as a young
rence painted another baseball painting, Strike (Howard
art student in the 1970’s there were very few role models
University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which repre-
for African Americans in Art. I would like to be able to say
sented a white batter, a black catcher, and an integrated
that I did not need an example of a successful black artist
crowd of baseball fans behind.
in order to persevere. At the time I did not think that was
Passing on the baton was the specific message of Law-
important at all. However, in retrospect I realize that no
rence’s Study for the Munich Olympic Games Poster (1971,
matter what one says, it is very difficult to imagine oneself
Fig. 204). Editions Olympia commissioned twenty-eight
268 epilogue
Fig 203 The Long Stretch, 1949. Egg tempera on hardboard, 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York. Fig 204 Study for the Munich Olympic Games Poster, 1971. Gouache on paper, 351 ⁄2 x 27 in. (90.2 x 68.6 cm). Seattle Art Museum, PONCHO. Photo: Paul Macapia.
artists to create designs for a limited edition of screen-
The word struggle, so often used by the Left to sug-
prints.34 In this representation of black athletes, three relay
gest what is necessary to gain justice and freedom for all
runners appear to reach the finish line simultaneously,
groups, had a deep meaning for Lawrence and frequently
followed by two other runners. The winner gets to the finish
came up in his conversations. Consistently, it was the one
line only because other athletes carried the baton first. To
word that symbolized his views on art and life. He told a
Lawrence there was opportunity for many to excel; just to
Seattle Times reporter in 1998 that early in his career he
be in the race was sufficient reason to take pride in the
had to struggle because he wasn’t very skilled. “So, with
accomplishments of oneself and one’s community.
formal problems and other things, I had to work harder.
Like the West African griots who keep the histories of
So there was a tension in the works. Now I have more
their communities vivid to future generations through the
skill but I would hope that there still is some struggle.
oral retelling of events, Lawrence aimed to tell the story
When you don’t feel struggle, there is no passion. It’s true
of working people’s lives—their work, their struggles
in civil rights, and in art.”35 In a lecture in 1982 he said,
against oppression, their small pleasures, and their pri-
“Man’s struggle is a very beautiful thing. . . . The struggle
vate moments—as he had known and observed them
that we go through as human beings enables us to de-
through the decades. This remained the creative goal of
velop, to take on further dimension.”36 Indeed, for Law-
Jacob Lawrence and his contribution to both our history
rence, the experience of struggle was the key to life. He
and our art. That was the goal, and the moral lesson was
learned that in Harlem in the 1930s, it defined his mod-
“struggle.”
ernism, and it stayed with him all his life.
270 epilogue
acknowledgments
In my research and writing of this Jacob Lawrence book
I want to thank the office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences
my debts are many. First I want to thank Henry Louis Gates
at Boston University and Walter O. Evans and Barbara Earl
Jr. for his unflagging support and encouragement of my
Thomas of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Founda-
efforts to interpret African American art, from the time
tion. Jan and Warren Adelson, valued friends from long-
he arrived at Harvard University in September 1991 to take
time standing, unexpectedly and generously contributed
up the duties of teaching and directing the W. E. B. Du
to the production costs of printing so many of the Law-
Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
rence paintings in color.
During that academic year I was fortunate to be a fellow at the Institute, as I was again during 2006–7.
Many colleagues read all or parts of the manuscript in its various draft iterations and offered suggestions
Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Hu-
and constructive criticism. They include Richard Cour-
manities in 1995 and later, during 2005–6, from the
age, Roy Grundmann, Anita Patterson, Kymberly N.
Humanities Foundation of Boston University, the Gilder
Pinder, Kim Sichel, Maren Stange, May Stevens, Diane
Lehrman Institute of American History, the Smithsonian
Tepfer, Margaret Rose Vendyres, and Alan Wallach. I
American Art Museum, and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
thank them all. Additional colleagues and friends who
Research Center provided me with funds to carry out my
gave me research tips, wrote letters of recommendation,
research in different parts of the United States while on
relayed information, loaned books and photographs,
leave from my teaching responsibilities. Funds from the
listened to my ideas, and cheered me on include Brian
Society for the Preservation of American Modernism
Allen, Richard Anderson, Alejandro Anreus, Mary Ann
allowed for additional travel. For assistance with the ex-
Calo, Susie Cohen, Robert Cozzolino, David C. Driskell, Ruth
penses of acquiring images and paying for permissions,
Fine, Ilene Forte, Edmund Barry Gaither, Deborah Gardner,
271
Ann Gibson, David D. Hall, Jeanne Hamilton, halley k
National Portrait Gallery, especially SAAM Director Eliza-
harrisburg, Erica Hirshler, Mamie Hyatt, Paul J. Karl-
beth Broun, Virginia Mecklenberg, JoAnn Moser, Wendy
strom, Mary Kiffer, Leslie King-Hammond, Lizzetta
Wick Reeves, William H. Truettner, and the librarians Ce
LeFalle-Collins, Therese Leininger-Miller, Gail Levin, Di-
cilia Chin, Alice Clarke, and Stephanie Moi. Judy Throm,
ana Linden, Chris McKay, Wilson Moses, Greg Nolan,
the Chief of Reference Services for the Archives of Ameri-
Francis V. O’Connor, Richard J. Powell, Karen Quinn,
can Art, was a fount of knowledge about the Archives, as
Robert Ribera, Michael Rosenfeld, Joan Saab, Dread
is her successor Marisa Bourgoin; Liza Kirwin, Curator of
Scott, Helen M. Shannon, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw,
Manuscripts, has always been most helpful. I do not want
Sidney Shiff, Lowery Stokes Sims, Aimee Soubier, Diane
to forget the generosity of Robert Brown, when the AAA
Robbins Tepfer, Elizabeth Hutton Turner, Ann Prentice
had offices in Boston. Beverly W. Brannan was helpful at
Wagner, Deborah Willis, Alona Cooper Wilson, and espe-
the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of
cially Jeffrey C. Stewart, who offered suggestions for
Congress. Cynthia Mills, assisted by Amelia Gorelitz, ran
readings, helped me frame my conceptual approaches,
the Fellows Program at the Victor Building, and they
and often rescued me from a morass of tangled ideas
made my tenure as a Smithsonian fellow most pleasant.
and speculations. I also want to express my gratitude to
I enjoyed swapping research notes with other fellows
Michelle DuBois for sharing with me in many conversa-
during my four months there, especially with Stephanie
tions her knowledge about Lawrence and Knight. At Boston University, I am grateful to Dean Virginia
Mayer Heydt, Jennifer Greenhill, and James Wechsler. Rodney Greene and Floyd Coleman invited me to test my
Sapiro, Professors Fred S. Kleiner and Katherine O’Connor,
ideas about Lawrence at a lecture I gave at Howard Uni-
and Arleen Arzigian, Cheryl Crombie, Mary Curran, Fran
versity. Steven L. Jones, our D.C. landlord, was most
Heaton, and Marc Mitchell. Graduate students Melissa
accommodating.
Renn, Kenneth Hartvigsen, and Natania Remba were in-
At the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center in
dispensable in tracking down information and helping me
Santa Fe, I want to thank Director Barbara Buhler Lynes,
organize my files. At the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute over
who made my stay both intellectually rewarding and plea-
the years, I am grateful not only to Henry Louis Gates Jr.
surable. I appreciated the friendship of the other fellows
but also to staff members Christina Agawu, Vera Ingrid
and especially Lois Rudnick, who took us off to pueblos
Grant, Lisa Gregory, Dell Hamilton, Donald Yacovone, and
and forests, showed us Mabel Dodge’s home, and recom-
the late Nathan I. Huggins and Richard Newman. I want
mended the best restaurants in the area. On the staff of
to acknowledge the collegiality of Du Bois fellows, espe-
the Research Center I want to acknowledge Heather Hole
cially David Bindman, Gretchen Long, Catherine Mane-
and Eumie Imm-Stroukoff, who facilitated many of my
gold, Hudita Mustafa, Susan Reverby, and Patricia Sulli-
research requests. In Santa Fe many other people made
van. Ashley Farmer, a Harvard graduate student, helped
our three-month stay very pleasant: May Stevens intro-
me with research.
duced us to the local art scene; Katherine Neville was a
During 2005–6 my husband, Kevin Whitfield, and I lived
most gracious landlady, and her friend Richard Morehead
in New York, Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, and I hun-
kindly facilitated our move. Julie Schimmel provided good
kered down at the research centers with Lawrence-related
companionship, and Lucy Lippard and Harmony Ham-
archival materials. At the Schomburg Center for Research
mond offered good advice.
in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, where I
In Seattle, where we traveled several times, I want to
held a Gilder Lehrman Institute fellowship, I want to thank
thank Mary Whitfield for her hospitality. Barbara Earl
Director Howard Dodson, Diana Lachatanere, Tammi Law-
Thomas of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation
son, and Mary Yearwood. Sharon Howard, a senior librarian
allowed me to review the files and books still held by the
at the Schomburg Center, was our generous landlady.
Lawrence/Knight estate before they were dispersed to
In Washington, D.C., I want to thank the curators and
archives and libraries. Her counsel has been invaluable,
staff at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the
and I very much appreciate her ongoing encouragement.
272 acknowledgments
On the motor trip from New York to Washington D.C.,
for facilitating the loans of many transparencies. I want
and on to Santa Fe, many facilitated both my research
to also thank photographer Michael Hamilton for helping
and our creature comforts. I would like to thank the fol-
me secure images for the book.
lowing: Mimi and Steve Rosenthal of Norfolk, Virginia;
Without archives accessible to the public and their
Charlotte and Will Moore of Wilmington, North Carolina;
helpful staff, scholars would be hampered in their probing
Nancy and Robert Renn of Kiawah Island off the South
into the layers of history and biography that make up any
Carolina coast; Efram Burk of USC/Beaufort, who invited
serious study of a cultural figure. I want to thank Sean
me to lecture to his class on Lawrence and showed us the
Noel and Charlie Niles of the Howard Gotlieb Archival
offshore island sites where the Gullah once lived. Walter
Research Center at Boston University; Randall K. Burkett
O. Evans, President of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence
of the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library of
Foundation, was most generous with his advice when we
Emory University; Eve Sinaiko of the College Art Associa-
passed through Savannah. Amy Lighthill steered us to the
tion; Diana Lachatanere, Curator of the Manuscripts, Ar-
best Atlanta fried chicken. Mary Bendolph and Mary Ann
chives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center
Pettway of Boykin and Gee’s Bend, Alabama, showed us
for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library;
quilts and the Farm Security Administration housing built
Joellen ElBashir, Curator of Manuscripts at the Moorland
in the 1930s. Others I visited along the trip included Wil-
Spingarn Research Center of Howard University; Morgan
liam Fagaly of the New Orleans Museum of Art, J. Richard
Swan at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Gruber of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Priscilla
Yale University; Nicolette A. Dobrowolski of the Special
Lawrence and John H. Lawrence of the Historic New Or-
Collections Research Center of the Syracuse University
leans Collection, Tish and Dean Burnham of Austin, and
Library; Christopher Harter and Brenda Billips Square of
Stephanie Taylor of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.
In interviews and e-mails, various artists provided in-
Too numerous to mention individually, the staff that
formation and impressions of their experiences and
handled curatorial questions and reproduction rights at
friendships. They include Benny Andrews, Rudolf Baranik,
the various museums that own Lawrence’s work were
Bob Blackburn, Elizabeth Catlett, Walter Christmas, Floyd
unstintingly helpful. And I thank them all. However, I want
Coleman, Allan Kollar, Whitfield Lovell, Georgette Sea-
especially to single out Elsa Southgall and Trish Waters
brooke Powell, May Stevens, Barbara Earl Thomas, and
at the Phillips Collection; Wendy Hurlock Baker, Photo
John Wilson. Through my friendship and many visits with
Order Coordinator at the Archives of American Art; Van-
Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, I gained consider-
essa D. Thaxton-Ward and Jeanne Zeidler of Hampton
able insight into what it meant to be an African American
University Museum; Anita Duquette of the Whitney Mu-
artist in mid-twentieth-century America.
seum of American Art; Barbara Wood at the National
Dealers and collectors, such as Peg Alston, Margaret
Gallery of Art; Lizanne Garrett at the National Portrait
Asch, Barbara Guggenheim, and Sandra B. Lane, have
Gallery; Jackie Burns of the Getty Museum; and Denise J.
also been enormously helpful. Over the years the late Terry
Bastien of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of
Dintenfass, Lawrence’s dealer from 1963 to the 1980s,
Design.
consistently encouraged me to write on Lawrence. I want
For those who facilitated permissions to reproduce
also to thank her son, Andrew Dintenfass, for his gener
artists’ works, I want to thank Craig Tenney of Harold Ober
osity in enabling me to obtain and reproduce the poster
Associates; Theodore H. Feder of Artists Rights Society;
for Lawrence’s first show at the Terry Dintenfass Gallery.
Tricia Smith and Timothy McCarthy at Art Resource;
Lawrence’s Seattle dealer, Francine Seders, has been
Jonathan B. White of the Margaret Bourke-White Estate;
supportive as well. During the 1990s DC Moore Gallery
Renate Reiss for the Estate of Winold Reiss; Monica P.
began to handle his works, and they currently handle his
Smith of the Morgan and Marvin Smith Estate; Bruce
estate. I am most grateful to Bridget Moore, Edward De
Kellner, Successor Trustee of the Estate of Carl Van Vech-
Luca, and Heidi Lange for their support and advice and
ten; Elinor R. Tatum of the New York Amsterdam News,
acknowledgments 273
the staffs of Black Star Publishing Company, Corbis,
who both read the manuscript with care and assisted with
and Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Inc.; and
the production, along with Claudia Smelser, the designer,
the photographer Mary Randlett. I am especially grate
and Janet Villanueva. The book became what it is through
ful to the National Archives and the Library of Congress,
their superb ability to solve layout issues and their exact-
both governmental organizations that keep the images
ing standards.
accessible to everyone and in the public domain. If I
My family has always been there for me and supported
have overlooked any copyright holders, I apologize in
me in numerous ways: Gail Gorton, John Biddiscombe,
advance. Corrections will be made in the next edition of
Marianne Jackson, Frank Irwin, and our children: Christina
this book.
Hills, Mary Whitfield, Bradford Hills, Emily Whitfield, and
At University of California Press, Stephanie Fay had
Andrew Whitfield. I am especially grateful to Kevin Whit-
faith in the project from the beginning, and it was a plea-
field, my husband and partner for thirty-five years, whose
sure to submit the manuscript to her superb editorial
ability to strategize arguments and whose editorial skills
skills. Eric Schmidt good-humoredly volleyed my many
have been invaluable. He has also been a good sport about
questions and was patient with my errant permission
accompanying me on my various journeys over the twenty-
forms. Elisabeth Magnus was a thoughtful editor, who
five years I have been involved with various Jacob Law-
corrected some glaring errors, as was Sue Heinemann,
rence projects. I dedicate this book to him.
274 acknowledgments
appendix
jacob armstead lawrence and his family
Jacob Armstead Lawrence was born September 7, 1917,
heading a household that still included her three daugh-
in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where both parents were
ters and working as a “domestic.” In the 1930 census for
then working.
Washington, D.C., “Rosa L. Armstead” is living in Wash-
Lawrence’s mother, Rosalee Armstead Lawrence (b. 1895; d. September 21, 1969), the daughter of William
ington, D.C., as a cook for a patent attorney. Lawrence’s father, Jacob Lawrence (b. October 29,
Armstead and Rosa Lee Armstead, hailed from Alexan-
1890; d. July 14, 1952), was from Charleston, South Caro-
dria, Virginia. In his address book of the 1960s, Lawrence
lina. On June 5, 1917, shortly after the United States en-
lists his mother as “Rose” Lawrence, living in Harlem at
tered World War I, Jacob Lawrence filled out a draft reg-
240 West 149th Street. In the notice of her death, typed
istration card in Atlantic City, New Jersey, stating that he
by her family, she is listed as Rosalee.
1
His maternal grandmother, Rosa Lee Armstead (b. ca.
was married and was a cook. He served in the army from September 25, 1918, to December 18, 1918. 3
1864; d. September 14, 1951), was one of the founding
Another “Jacob Lawrence,” probably the artist’s pater-
members of the congregation of the Ebenezer Baptist
nal great-grandfather, is listed in the Ancestry Library
Church of Alexandria, Virginia—a congregation that under
Edition’s South Carolina Death Index as having been born
the leadership of Rev. Fields Cooke broke away from the
about 1828 in Beaufort, South Carolina, and as dying on
Third Baptist Church of Alexandria in 1881. 2 She married
April 15, 1918, at the age of ninety. According to the 1870
William Armstead and had two other daughters, Bertha
census of Beaufort, South Carolina, he was a farmer and
and Annie. In the 1900 census for Alexandria, William is
lived with his wife, Maria, three young children, and a
listed as a hotel porter. In the 1910 census, William is no
seventy-year-old woman, Rachel Lawrence (probably his
longer listed, and Rosa Lee Armstead is recorded as
own mother). His name appears in the 1880, 1900, and
275
1910 census records listing more children but no son
Lawrence was also not close to his mother, although
named “Jacob.” However, a “Jacob Lawrence” is included
she continued to live in Harlem, and he rarely mentioned
in the 1890 city directory of Charleston, South Carolina,
her to his interviewers.10 When she died on September
and is listed as a fisherman.
26, 1969, he did not attend her funeral, but he sent $500
Lawrence and his parents moved to Easton, Pennsyl-
to his relatives for the funeral expenses.11 At the time he
vania, where the three of them are listed in the city’s 1920
was probably already living in Hayward, California, begin-
census as living at 455 Pine Street. His father was em-
ning the fall quarter as visiting artist at California State
ployed as a cook in a hotel and his mother as a “servant”;
College (now California State University/East Bay).
his father is also listed in the 1920 Philadelphia census as
Gwendolyn Knight was born on May 26, 1913, in Bar-
a lodger living at 425 Tenth Street and working as a cook
bados, to Miriam Helena Small (b. March 29, 1894; d.
in a restaurant. Although not listed in the 1920 census,
July 28, 1984) and Malcolm Knight, a white Barbadian,
the artist’s sister, Geraldine, was apparently born in Eas-
who died when she was two years old.12 When Gwendolyn
ton in 1919, and his brother, William, was born in 1923 in
was seven years old, a Mr. James and his wife, Isabel
Philadelphia, where Rosalee Lawrence had moved and
Desmora James, became her foster parents and brought
had separated from his father.4 Rosalee at some point
her, their daughter Millicent, and their niece to live in St.
moved to New York City to find work, leaving the three
Louis. Six years later, in 1926, the James’s extended family
children in Philadelphia in foster homes. They joined her
moved to New York.13 In later life Knight rarely mentioned
in Harlem in 1930.
the James family. During these years she began to visit
Lawrence barely knew his father. To reporter Mort Cooper in 1963 he said: “In 1924 my father, who was a
Barbados and became reacquainted with her birth mother.14
cook on a Pullman train, disappeared, and I never saw
In fact, neither of the Lawrences, who never had chil-
him again.”5 The writer of Current Biography noted that
dren themselves, discussed their relatives in interviews;
“when Jacob was seven years old he [the father] de-
this is symptomatic of the times, for in the last decades
serted the family altogether.”6 However, in 1983 and 1984
of the twentieth century, interviewers querying artists
Lawrence told the art historian Ellen Harkins Wheat that
about their art would rarely ask about family matters. It
he had met with his father during the 1930s in Harlem,
was then assumed that private family matters had no rel-
where his father ran a corner store, and that his father
evance to the creation of art.15 During the 1990s the Law-
had bought him a violin and “every week” had given him
rences became close to Barbara Earl Thomas, a Seattle
“a couple of
dollars.”7
artist who had been one of Lawrence’s students at the
Geraldine married George Coles (b. April 16, 1918) and
University of Washington. She helped the couple by driv-
had three children, but she died in 1944 of tuberculosis.
ing them to daily errands and later accompanied Knight
At the time, Lawrence was in the Coast Guard, but he was
on trips. She is still involved with the Jacob and Gwendolyn
His brother, William Lawrence,
Lawrence Foundation.16 Lawrence died in Seattle on June 9,
with whom he seems to have had little contact after they
2000, and Knight died in the same city on February 18,
had become adults, died of a drug overdose in 1966.9
2005.
able to attend her
276 appendix
funeral.8
notes
abbreviations AAA
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Hughes Papers
Langston Hughes Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
JRFA
Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives, Fisk University Library, Nashville, TN
Lawrence-Knight Papers
Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight Papers, Archives of American Art. (Note that reels 4571–73 have been microfilmed from the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library.)
Leyda Papers
Jay Leyda Papers, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University
Locke Papers
Alain Locke Papers, Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
MARBL
Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University
MD, LOC
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
MoMA
Museum of Modern Art, New York
NARA-DC
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC
NARA-MD
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
SCRBC
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
SCRC
Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library
Van Vechten Papers
Carl Van Vechten Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Wright Papers
Richard Wright Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
277
introduction
11. Aaron Douglas, “The Negro in American Culture,” delivered at
The epigraphs are from Erwin Panofsky, “Iconography and Iconology” (1939), in Meaning in the Visual Arts: Papers in and on Art His tory (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1955), 39; and Stephen Greenblatt, “Culture,” in Critical Terms for Literary Study, ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 227.
the First American Artists’ Congress, February 14–16, 1936, in Baigell and Williams, Artists against War, 84. 12. For discussions of artists on the Left, including African American artists, see Shapiro, Social Realism; Patricia Hills, Social Con cern and Urban Realism: American Painting of the 1930s, exh. cat. (Boston: Boston University Art Gallery, 1983); Andrew Hemingway, Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist
1. Jacob Lawrence, videotaped interview by Kinshasha Holman
Movement, 1926–1956 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
Conwill, October 1991, Studio Museum in Harlem. I am grateful
2002); Bram Dijkstra, American Expressionism: Art and Social
to Naomi Nelson and Ethan Hall, who made the videotape avail-
Change, 1920–1950 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003); Ale-
able for my viewing at the Studio Museum in Harlem on April 28,
jandro Anreus, Diana L. Linden, and Jonathan Weinberg, eds.,
1992.
The Social and the Real: Political Art of the 1930s in the Western
2. In the 1920s, Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), a gifted orator, devel-
Hemisphere (University Park: Pennsylvania State University
oped a “Back to Africa” movement, with followers numbering in
Press, 2006). Dijkstra’s book contains illustrations not found
the thousands. His business ventures failed, he was convicted of
elsewhere (many are in his own collection); unfortunately, he
fraud in 1925, and he served two years in the Atlanta peniten-
does not adequately cite the scholarship of other writers.
tiary before deportation to Jamaica. However, Garvey followers
13. Charles Alston, essay for brochure of the 1938 exhibition Youth
were still active in the 1930s. Regarding communists in Harlem,
Turns to Art, with sixteen paintings by Lawrence, held at the
see Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression
YMCA, 180 West 135th Street, Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC.
(1983; repr., New York: Grove Press, 1984).
14. Lawrence stated in a Harmon Foundation press release that
3. Panofsky, “Iconography and Iconology,” 39.
African Americans were faced with some of the same issues as
4. Two useful general histories of the 1930s are William E. Leuchten-
were the revolutionaries of Haiti and that they could change
burg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940 (New
their lives: “How will it come about? I don’t know. I’m not a poli-
York: Harper and Row, 1963), and T. H. Watkins, The Hungry
tician. . . . I’m an artist, just trying to do my part to bring this
Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America
thing about.” See Harmon Foundation, press release, November
(New York: Henry Holt, 1999).
12, 1940, Downtown Gallery Records, reel ND5, AAA. See also
5. Audrey McMahon, “May the Artist Live?” Parnassus 5 (October
Chapter 3. 15. For this progressive, populist movement in the arts during the
1933): 2. 6. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of African-
1930s and beyond, see Michael Denning, The Cultural Front: The
American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon
Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century (London: Verso, 1997).
Books, 1993), 234. 7. For an assessment of the ways communist influence was effective in terms of policy making but not necessarily in implementation,
16. Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Nation, June 23, 1926, 694.
see Roger Keeran, “The Communist Influence on American La-
17. Examples of such artworks would include Malvin Gray Johnson’s
bor,” in New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Commu
Convict Labor, 1934; James A. Porter’s The Riot, 1938; Norman
nism, ed. Michael E. Brown, Randy Martin, Frank Rosengarten,
Lewis’s Dispossessed, 1938; Romare Bearden’s Soup Kitchen,
and George Snedeker (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993).
1937; Joseph Delaney, Saint Bleecker (His Last Address), 1937.
8. Meyer Schapiro, “The Social Bases of Art,” delivered at the First American Artists’ Congress, February 14–16, 1936, and printed in the published proceedings, First American Artists’ Congress, ed. Stuart Davis (New York: American Artists’ Congress, 1936);
See also Matthew Baigell, The American Scene: American Paint ing of the 1930’s (New York: Praeger, 1974). 18. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Minton, Balch, 1934), 6.
reprinted in Artists against War and Fascism: Papers of the First
19. Ralph Ellison, “Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of
American Artists’ Congress, ed. Matthew Baigell and Julia Wil-
Humanity” (1946), in Shadow and Act (1964; repr., New York:
liams (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986),
Vintage International, 1995), 25. 20. See also Hughes, “Negro Artist,” 692–94.
112. 9. For example, see John Kwait [Meyer Schapiro], “John Reed Club
21. Alain Locke, “Self-Criticism: The Third Dimension in Culture,”
Art Exhibition,” New Masses (February 1933): 23–24, reprinted
Phylon 2, no. 4 (1950): 393. For Locke’s philosophical theories
in Social Realism: Art as a Weapon, ed. David Shapiro (New York:
on the relationship of the local to the universal, see Leonard
Frederick Ungar, 1973), 66–68.
Harris and Charles Molesworth, Alain L. Locke: The Biography of
10. Louis Lozowick, “Towards a Revolutionary Art,” Art Front 2 (July– August 1936): 12.
278 notes to pages
a Philosopher (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), especially 76, 161, 334–35. On page 334 the authors quote Locke
1– 4
from an article in the March 1925 issue of The World Tomorrow:
folk artist converged with the reductionist styles of abstract mod-
“We must uproot cultural partisanship and egotism, personal
ernists, the artist was termed a modern primitive” (121). See the
and professional, learn to produce art nationally or racially, or in
growing body of scholarly studies on the nature and appeal of
vital localism, even, but to consume it humanly and universally.”
African American “folk” art and culture, including Eugene W.
On page 145 they quote Locke from the May 1924 issue of the
Metcalf, “Black Art, Folk Art, and Social Control,” Winterthur
Howard Alumnus, in which Locke discusses Egyptian art from
Portfolio 18 (Winter 1983): 271–89; Kinshasha Holman Conwill, “In
Luxor: “Great cultures are the result invariably of the fusion of
Search of an ‘Authentic’ Vision: Decoding the Appeal of the Self-
several cultures, the impetus given to the one culture by contact
Taught African-American Artist,” American Art 5 (Autumn 1991):
with others—the fermenting of one civilization by another.” Har-
2–9; Robin D. G. Kelley, “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Folk,’ ”
ris and Molesworth use Locke’s term cultural reciprocity to char-
American Historical Review 97 (December 1992): 1400–1408;
acterize Locke’s theory of the ways cultures come together to
Robin Lucy, “ ‘Flying Home’: Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and the
interact, without one being dominant: in other words, cultural
Black Folk during World War II,” Journal of American Folklore 120, no. 477 (2007): 257–83. See also Richard Wright, “Blueprint for
syncretism.
Negro Literature” (1937), in Amistad 2: Writings on Black History
22. James A. Porter, Modern Negro Art (1943; repr., Washington, DC:
and Culture, ed. John A. Williams and Charles F. Harris (New York:
Howard University Press, 1992), 142.
Vintage Books, 1971), also at ChickenBones: A Journal, www
23. J. Hillis Miller’s remarks on literary fiction apply equally to Law-
.nathanielturner.com/blueprintfornegroliterature.htm. See also
rence’s work: “In fictions we order or reorder the givens of expe-
Chapter 6.
rience. We give experience a form and a meaning, a linear order with a shapely beginning, middle, end, and central theme. The
26. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by author, July 1985.
human capacity to tell stories is one way men and women col-
27. Henry Louis Gates Jr., introduction to Figures in Black: Words,
lectively build a significant and orderly world around themselves.
Signs, and the “Racial” Self (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), xv.
With fictions we investigate, perhaps invent, the meaning of human life.” See Miller, “Narrative,” in Lentricchia and McLaughlin,
28. Greenblatt, “Culture,” 227.
Critical Terms, 69.
29. The process of close reading that I suggest here is ultimately not compatible with the practice of deconstruction of Jacques Der-
24. I use the term collage cubist style because it entails the aesthetic of cut-out pieces of colored paper, wallpaper, or newspapers
rida and Paul De Man; for me the signs Lawrence created and
affixed to a support, as in works by early twentieth-century art-
that we read within the picture have their referents in the ver-
ists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Later Picasso and
nacular world of which he is a part—at times either representa-
Braque painted flat shapes just in oil without the pasted papers,
tive of or alienated from.
but the aesthetic look was still “collage.”
30. By using thick context, I pay homage to Clifford Geertz, “Thick
25. Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat.
Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in The
(Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 32, notes that his early work
Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 3–30.
seemed “primitive” to many. She explains: “This quality is ef-
Thick context is what makes possible Geertz’s “thick description.”
fected because the figure/ground relationship is characteristically unresolved, the forms are flat and simplified, and objects appear
31. See W. E. B. Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” in The Souls of
to float in space. Yet close examination reveals his firm grasp of
Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (1903; repr., New York: Bantam
structure and form. . . . The apparent simplicity of the work is
Books, 1989).
countered by Lawrence’s sure sense of design; his early interest in boldly colored geometric pattern is still present.” Karen Wilkin, “The Naïve and the Modern: Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence, New Criterion 13 (March 1995): 33–38, has made astute observations about the telling difference between Pippin and Lawrence.
1. harlem’s artistic community in the 1930 s The epigraph is from J. Saunders Redding, On Being Negro in Amer
There was and is considerable overlap among the definitions
ica (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1951), 121.
and concepts of the terms primitive, folk, naive, and untutored. Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins (“The Critical Context of Jacob Lawrence’s
1. For the basic facts of Lawrence’s life, see Appendix. For the
Early Works, 1938–1952,” in Over the Line: The Art and Life of
chronology of Lawrence’s life, I refer often to the basic bio-
Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, exh.
graphical information in the chronologies provided in the cata-
cat. [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000], 121–35)
logues for exhibitions: Milton W. Brown, Jacob Lawrence, exh.
points out that “the term primitive was used in the 1930s to de-
cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974); Ellen
scribe art by self-taught and folk artists. The term also suggested
Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat.
a simplicity or a lack of sophistication frequently associated with
(Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986); Elizabeth Hutton Turner,
the common man. When the so-called untutored qualities of the
ed., Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series, exh. cat. (Washing
notes to pages
4 – 9
279
Reed Quits 2 Jobs,” New York Amsterdam News, December 6,
ton, DC: Rappahannock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993); Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, “Chronology,” in Over the Line:
1933, 1, 3. In 1937 Utopia Children’s House was serving 250 to
The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and
300 children a day.
Michelle DuBois (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob
7. The Parent-Teacher Bulletin of P.S. 89, a copy of which is in the
Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000). As is typical for
General Research and Reference Division, SCRBC (Sc 371.103P),
chronologies in museum catalogues, sources are not cited, but
notes Lawrence’s fifth-grade attendance at P.S. 89 during the fall
all the authors were in touch with Jacob Lawrence and Gwendo-
1930 semester. I am grateful to Chris McKay for finding this
lyn Knight, and the recent catalogues include information based
document for me. Fax, Seventeen Black Artists, 148, confirms
on the Lawrence-Knight Papers and Downtown Gallery Records
Lawrence’s attendance at P.S. 89, which was described to Fax by
in the AAA. There are still small errors, especially concerning
Romare Bearden “as the school most of the tough street kids of
dates and the names of institutions. I have attempted to double-
the area went to.” Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 25, makes
check these previously published chronologies against the ar-
no mention of P.S. 89 and states that Lawrence attended P.S. 68,
chives, to correct the errors, and to provide citations for any new
the Frederick Douglass Junior High School (P.S. 139, at 140
information. Since Nesbett and DuBois’s “Chronology” is the
West 140th Street) and then the High School of Commerce (on
most recent published chronology of dates and events, I will
West Sixty-fifth Street). However, P.S. 68 was located at 114–
refer to it when pointing out discrepancies.
150 West 128th Street, some distance from his home on 143rd
Information can also be found in Elton C. Fax, Seventeen
Street. Fax, Seventeen Black Artists, 149, confirms his attendance
Black Artists (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1971); Romare Bearden
at Commerce High School. In a taped interview by Elton Fax,
and Harry Henderson, A History of African-American Artists:
September 17, 1970, Elton C. Fax Collection, box 5, Howard Gotlieb
From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon Books, 1993);
Archival Research Center, Boston University, Lawrence mentions
and Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, Jacob Lawrence:
all four schools—P.S. 68, 89, and 139, as well as Commerce High
Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935–1999), a Catalogue Rai
School. It is not uncommon for New York City students, then and
sonné (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence
now, to attend schools outside their own district if they can pro-
Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000) (hereafter cited as Cata
vide a legitimate address to school authorities. 8. Charles Alston (1907–77) was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.
logue Raisonné). 2. For the history of Harlem, see Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem: The Mak
His father, a rector in the Episcopal Church, died when Alston
ing of a Ghetto, Negro New York, 1890–1930 (1963; repr., New
was about seven years old. His mother remarried the uncle of
York: Harper and Row, 1968), and David Levering Lewis, When
Romare Bearden, and the family moved to New York. Upon
Harlem Was in Vogue (New York: Random House, 1979), first
graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School, Alston was admit-
published as articles in the New Yorker.
ted to the Yale School of Fine Arts as well as Columbia College.
3. “Harlem Block of 3,871 City’s Most Crowded,” New York Herald
He chose Columbia because he wanted a broad liberal arts
Tribune, September 16, 1935, 1 and 3, quoted in Cheryl Lynn
education. See Charles Alston, interview by Albert Murray, Oc-
Greenberg, “Or Does It Explode?”: Black Harlem in the Great
tober 19, 1968, New York, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/
Depression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 185.
oralhistories/transcripts/alston68.htm, and Charles Alston, in-
4. James Weldon Johnson, “Harlem: The Culture Capital,” in The
terview by Harlan Phillips, September 28, 1965, AAA, www.aaa.
New Negro: An Interpretation, ed. Alain Locke (New York: Albert
si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/alston65.htm. The
and Charles Boni, 1925), 301.
“Biographical Chronology” in Charles Alston: Artist and Teacher,
5. See Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by James Buell and
by Corrine Jennings, exh. cat. (New York: Kenkeleba Gallery,
David Driskell, February 4, 1982, Amistad Research Center, Mu-
1990), 20, notes that he worked on the Spectator (Columbia’s
seum Services Files, Tulane University.
newspaper) and drew cartoons for the humor magazine the
6. According to the New York Amsterdam News, Reed realized “the need of home care for the children of working mothers, organized a group and, with the aid of the Utopia Neighborhood Club and the Welfare Council of New York, raised more than $25,000
Jester. See also Alvia J. Wardlaw, Charles Alston (San Francisco: Pomegranate Communications, 2007). 9. Alston, interview by Phillips, September 28, 1965, www.aaa.si .edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/alston65.htm.
to launch and maintain the work of the house.” She also received
10. Wardlaw, Charles Alston, 113.
$37,500 from John D. Rockefeller Jr. to run the house for four
11. Alston, interview by Phillips, September 28, 1965, www.aaa.si
years. When the Rockefeller money ran out, Reed appealed to
.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/alston65.htm. Alston
the WPA, which supplied instructors, but by August 1937, with
recalled Lawrence as being about nine or ten years old, rather
cutbacks of government WPA employees, Utopia House had fal len on hard times. See “Utopia House Badly Hit by WPA Firings,” New York Amsterdam News, August 7, 1937, 7; and “Daisy C.
280 notes to pages
9 – 11
than the twelve or thirteen he was. 12. Alston, interview by Murray, October 19, 1968, www.aaa.si.edu/ collections/oralhistories/transcripts/alston68.htm.
13. Quoted in Fax, Seventeen Black Artists, 149. Fax’s procedure for writing his book was to tape-record the artists, then write up the
the philosophy department and Teachers College, where he continued to teach until 1939.
transcript as a first-person narration of continuous sentences
24. Holger Cahill, “American Resources in the Arts” (1939), in Art
without the usual repeats and “umms.” Both the handwritten
for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Adminis
transcript and the audiotape are in the Elton C. Fax Collection,
trators of the WPA Federal Art Project, ed. Francis V. O’Connor
box 4, folder 1, and box 5, respectively, Howard Gotlieb Archival
(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1973), 33–34. Many of the
Research Center, Boston University. 14. Quoted in Mort Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” Chicago Defender, May 18, 1963, 9.
ideas in Cahill’s 1939 speech were first expressed in his introduction to the catalogue New Horizons in American Art, by Holger Cahill, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936).
15. I am indebted to Elizabeth Hutton Turner, who first explored
25. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Minton, Balch, 1934), 3.
Lawrence’s early education, including the influences of Arthur
26. Quoted in Samella Lewis, “Jacob Lawrence,” Black Art 5, no. 3
Wesley Dow and John Dewey; see Elizabeth Hutton Turner, “The
(1982): 5. A similar statement is quoted in Wheat, Jacob Law
Education of Jacob Lawrence,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line, 97–109.
rence, 29. 27. Leslie King-Hammond, “Inside-Outside, Uptown-Downtown: Ja-
16. Arthur Wesley Dow, Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art
cob Lawrence and the Aesthetic Ethos of the Harlem Working-
Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers, rev. and enl. ed.
Class Community,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line, 74.
(1913; repr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
King-Hammond quotes from Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “Char-
Mascheck’s introduction, 19, points out that the 1899 version
acteristics of Negro Expression,” in Negro—An Anthology, ed.
consisted of eighty-three pages and was called Composition: A
Nancy Cunard, ed. and abridged by Hugh Ford (1934; New York:
Series of Exercises Selected from a New System of Art Educa
Frederick Unger, 1970), 53–54.
tion by Arthur W. Dow . . . Part I. In the subsequent 1913 edition
28. At the Sunday School he received an art prize for drawing a
of 120 pages, Dow elaborated on all his concepts. I refer in these
biblical map of the journeys of the Apostle Peter; see Nesbett
notes to Arthur Wesley Dow, Composition: A Series of Exercises
and DuBois, “Chronology,” 27. This information probably comes
in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers, rev. and
from one of the frequent conversations Lawrence held with Nes-
enl. (1913; repr., New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1938), which con-
bett and DuBois, both of whom were in constant touch with him
tains the same 1913 text. When Alston returned to Columbia to
in Seattle during the time when the catalogue raisonné was in
earn an MA from Teachers College, he held the Arthur Wesley
preparation; see Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné.
Dow Fellowship; see Bearden and Henderson, History of AfricanAmerican Artists, 261.
The Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded in 1808 by a group of African Americans who refused segregated seating in
17. Dow, Composition (1913/1938), 50.
the First Baptist Church in downtown New York. The church
18. As Turner, “Education of Jacob Lawrence,” 99, has observed:
moved northward within Manhattan along with the demographic
“Following Dow’s method, instead of teaching figure studies and
shifts of the African American community. From Worth Street
other techniques of the academy, Alston taught objective or
(then Anthony Street) the church moved in the mid-1830s to
nonrepresentational drawing. Instead of passive description of
Waverly Place, located in the West Village in an area then called
the exterior world, Lawrence, following Alston, attended to the
“Little Africa.” The church subsequently moved to West Fortieth
surface of the artwork. The preestablished compositions of rugs
Street. In 1908 Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. was called from Im-
functioned as templates. By copying them Lawrence was plot-
manuel Baptist Church in New Haven to serve as minister of the
ting the rectangle, mapping the space, becoming aware of all
Abyssinian Baptist Church. He organized the move to the pres-
pictures as compositional structures.”
ent location at West 138th Street and raised the funds to con-
19. Jacob Lawrence, typed transcript of interview by A. Jacobwitz
struct the existing church, which included Harlem’s first com-
from the “Listening to Pictures” program of the Brooklyn Mu-
munity center. When he retired in 1937, his son Dr. Adam Clayton
seum, 1968, Lawrence-Knight Papers, AAA, Gift of the Brooklyn
Powell Jr. succeeded him and matched his father’s reputation as
Museum. I have corrected plain in the transcript to plane, which
a dynamic orator. See “Brief History of the Abyssinian Baptist
the word plainly is.
Church,” undated handout obtained in 2005 from the Abyssinian
20. Dow, Composition (1913/1938), 50.
Baptist Church. See also his autobiography, A. Clayton Powell Sr.,
21. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by author, May 20,
Against the Tide (New York: R. R. Smith, 1938). During the De-
1985. 22. Gwendolyn Bennett, “Jacob Lawrence,” Mainstream 1 (Winter 1947): 96.
pression, the church set up classes to train workers in new skills. Lawrence recalled to Carroll Greene (interview, October 26, 1968, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/
23. See Turner, “Education of Jacob Lawrence,” 99. A leader in the
lawren68.htm): “I can remember some of his sermons. One of
progressive education movement, Dewey came from the Univer-
his famous ones was the dry bones sermon. And he was called
sity of Chicago in 1904 to Columbia with appointments in both
on to preach that sermon not only in his own church but as
notes to pages
13 – 15
281
guest minister in other churches. And I heard him do that sev-
churches, and to paint new murals for churches, schools, and
eral times and he was very dramatic with it. He was quite a big
community centers. All of this was accomplished with the
personality when I was a kid.” Lawrence later did a series called
$20,000 that Mrs. Gibson had advanced to create the Emer-
Genesis, inspired by Powell Sr.
gency Work Bureau. McMahon spread the funds by paying the
29. Fax, Seventeen Black Artists, 148.
artists “the same wages as the open shop artisan.” The attitude
30. Ibid., 151. The records do not indicate exactly how long he stud-
of the CAA staff is best expressed by McMahon when she adds, “We emphasize this wage scale for two reasons. To hold art a
ied at Utopia House. 31. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of radio interview by Randy Goodman,
luxury is pernicious to the public and to all but a few very suc-
May 23, 1943, New York, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549,
cessful artists. The establishing of absurdly high prices for
frames 352 ff., AAA. The ellipses are in the original transcript.
works of art is due largely to the foibles of the collector abetted by the opportunism of dealer and artist. In paying the artist
32. Ibid. 33. See “Art Study through the Workshop,” in Negro Artists: An Il
$12.50 a week to paint murals we have, indeed, gone ad ridicu
lustrated Review of Their Achievements (New York: Harmon
lum and there is no contention that this is a proper state of af-
Foundation, 1935), 22–27.
fairs. But if, in the new economic era, the great collector who
34. In March 1930 the New York Amsterdam News estimated that
replaced the state and the church of ancient times as a patron
unemployed African Americans in New York City then totaled
of art is vanishing and if he in turn is to be replaced by the peo-
twenty-two thousand; see “Negro Unemployment Placed at
ple, art must be brought within their ken financially as well as
22,000,” New York Amsterdam News, March 26, 1930, 1.
emotionally and intellectually” (2).
35. See articles in the New York Amsterdam News, November 19,
40. See Audrey McMahon, “A General View of the WPA: Federal Art
1930, 3, December 3, 1930, and December 17, 1930, 11. Adam
Project in New York City and State,” in The New Deal Art Proj
Clayton Powell Jr. took charge of the relief activities at the
ects: An Anthology of Memoirs, ed. Francis V. O’Connor (Wash-
church. For a brief overview of the role of black churches in the
ington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972), 52: “Under the
community, see Greenberg, “Or Does It Explode?” 103–6.
supervision of Harry Knight, creative artists in various media
36. See New York Amsterdam News, August 24, 1932, 6.
were employed, as were craftsmen and allied workers, and a
37. According to the minutes of the board of the CAA, dated March
framework was developed on which the WPA/FAP in New York
2, 1931, a total of $57,000 had been received from the Carnegie
was later patterned.” Richard D. McKinzie, The New Deal for Art
Corporation, which wanted to transfer art teaching equipment
ists (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973), 77, only
sets to the CAA. At a subsequent CAA board meeting in October
briefly discusses the involvement of the CAA in New Deal proj-
1931 it was reported that “the Carnegie Corporation was count-
ects. (McKinzie refers to McMahon as the president of CAA; she
ing on the College Art Association to carry on further activities in connection with the Art Teaching Equipment Sets.” See CAA
was actually the executive secretary.) 41. Constantine, interview by Phillips, October 15, 1965, www.aaa
Archives, CAA headquarters, New York. During 1936 the CAA cir
.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/consta65.htm.
culated exhibitions to over three hundred venues, according to
42. The minutes of the annual CAA meeting held in June 1933 could
the American Art Annual, vol. 33 (Washington, DC: American Fed
report: “Briefly 85 [number is blurred] artists were placed in
eration of Arts, 1936), 62.
positions where they were in contact with young boys and girls
38. Mildred Constantine, interview by Harlan Phillips, October 15, 1965, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/
in settlement work and [in] philanthropic institutions[,] and a number have been given jobs of restoring old paintings in churches while others are painting murals in public buildings.
consta65.htm. 39. Audrey McMahon, “May the Artist Live?” Parnassus 5 (October
This work will be continued by the College Art Association until
1933): 2. According to the October 15, 1965, Constantine inter-
the necessity for it disappears.” The CAA minutes of June 17,
view by Phillips, a wealthy woman, Mrs. Gibson, went to the
1933, CAA Archives, also announced a CAA artists’ cooperative,
mayor’s office, which put her in touch with the CAA. The funds
which had enrolled ——— [number is blurred] artists. A couple
from Mrs. Gibson allowed setting up the Emergency Work Bu-
of months later one hundred artists were employed, their sala-
reau of the Gibson Committee, which, according to Constantine,
ries drawn from the $20,000 that the Gibson Committee had
“took a more formal and a more civic kind of character. Pretty
given the CAA for that purpose; see McMahon, “May the Artist
soon there was an . . . organized method of interviewing the
Live?” 2.
artists and finding out [what] their problems were aside from
McMahon and her colleagues were motivated by more than
money, what their capabilities were” (1). McMahon’s “May the
just finding jobs for artists. Swept up in the progressive spirit
Artist Live?” is the most detailed source on the accomplish-
of the time, they saw art as a force for creating a better society.
ments of the CAA’s mural program in the early 1930s. McMahon
The CAA minutes of June 1933 also reported: “This year, on an
and her team hired artists to teach art classes in neighborhood
experimental basis, we sent exhibitions into various neighbor
houses and schools, to restore paintings and sculpture in
hoods and settlement houses in New York where a large number
282 notes to pages
15 – 17
of unemployed adolescents as well as children and adults were
Race, Nation, and the Critical Construction of the African Amer
successfully reached. The result of this experiment has con-
ican Artist, 1920–40 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
vinced us that this work can be undertaken in the same manner
2007), 75–95.
as we undertake traveling exhibitions and this we are now pre-
45. See Calo, Distinction and Denial, 75–77.
pared to do, in order to promote the cultural development of
46. See New York Amsterdam News, October 19, 1932, 3, for a con-
young people and aid them to take advantage of the museum
temporary article on Allen; for his studio portraits, see Camara
programs which are offered to them but of which they [now]
Dia Holloway, Portraiture and the Harlem Renaissance: The Pho
take only limited advantage. . . . We cannot . . . feel unmoved
tographs of James L. Allen (New Haven, CT: Yale University Art
by the pitiful condition of the living artists of today even though
Gallery, 1999). Many of Allen’s installation and group photo-
this need may not technically be embraced in the activities of
graphs are in the Harmon Foundation Collection, NARA-MD. He
an academic Association.” Minutes of June 17, 1933, CAA Archives. The CAA had other schemes to bring cash to artists.
also taught at the Harlem Community Art Center. 47. For a sharp criticism of the Harmon Foundation, see Romare
One was a “Rent-a-Painting Plan,” with John Davis Hatch Jr. in
Bearden, “The Negro Artist and Modern Art,” Opportunity 12
charge of the CAA’s expanded exhibition program. As Constan-
(December 1934): 371–72. For a history of the Harmon Founda-
tine pointed out in her interview by Phillips, not all CAA board
tion, see Gary A. Reynolds and Beryl J. Wright, Against the
members were enthusiastic about the turn toward activism on
Odds: African-American Artists and the Harmon Foundation
the part of the staff.
(Newark, NJ: Newark Museum, 1989), and Bearden and Hender-
During 1933, however, the Emergency Work Bureau of the Gibson Committee found that it could not handle the increased demand for funds to pay the artists; see CAA minutes of June 17, 1933. At this point the Emergency Relief Administration, a state
son, History of African-American Artists, 250–59. 48. For the change in the address, see “Will Open Art Workshop Here,” New York Amsterdam News, June 28, 1933, 9. 49. According to Calo, Cloyd L. Boykin (1877–death unknown), an
agency, stepped in to pay salaries. By November 1933, McMahon
artist trained in engineering at Hampton Institute who later
and Pollak, who had been volunteering their time while juggling
studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, was the
the normal business of CAA, were given additional funds by the
first African American to start an art school, in the late 1920s
newly created Civil Works Administration, a federal employment
in Greenwich Village. Drawing on Harmon Foundation archives
agency, which agreed to pay the teachers’ salaries; see McKinzie,
as well as Carnegie Corporation archives, Calo has presented an
New Deal for Artists, 77. McMahon, “General View,” 53, recalled
intriguing picture of the machinations behind the scenes of Brady,
that the program she had been running for the CAA “was trans-
who wanted to support the Harlem art workshops without the
ferred to these agencies and the employment of artists increased
presence of Boykin. See Calo, Distinction and Denial, 77–87,
as more funds became available. In New York City, Mayor La
216–20 nn. 27–58. Boykin is also mentioned in Bearden and
Guardia was the official sponsor, and employment quotas for
Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 116, 159, 160,
artists, models, and allied personnel were allocated by his office
495 n. 5.
to the CAA.” The Emergency Relief Administration evolved into
50. The Progressive Education Association circulated the work of
the New York State Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
Harlem artists in nationwide exhibitions. See Sophia Steinbach,
(TERA); when the Civil Works Administration was scuttled, TERA,
“Harlem Goes in for Art,” Opportunity 14 (April 1936): 116.
which was larger in scope and budget and also received funds
51. For Savage, see Bearden and Henderson, History of African-
from the federal government, picked up the tab for salaries of
American Artists, 168–80; Jessie Carney Smith, “Augusta Sav-
artists that the CAA had in its charge.
age,” in Notable Black American Women (Detroit, MI: Dale Re-
43. Frances V. O’Connor Papers, reel 1087, frames 453–54, AAA.
search, 1992), 979–83; Deirdre L. Bibby, Augusta Savage and
O’Connor’s useful records of selected government-employed art-
the Art Schools of Harlem, exh. cat. (New York: Schomburg Cen-
ists are based on the files for FAP artists in NARA-DC. On April 25, 1934, Alston was promoted to art teacher (still on TERA);
ter for Research in Black Culture, 1988). 52. Calo, Distinction and Denial, 91. Calo’s discussion of Savage’s
this would have been at the time he began teaching at 306 West
teaching activities at this time is most extensive. See also
141st Street. He and others were transferred to the FAP on Au-
Theresa A. Leininger-Miller, New Negro Artists in Paris: African
gust 22, 1935.
American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922–1934
44. I recall several conversations with Lawrence when he mentioned
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001).
the CAA in this connection; see also Jacob Lawrence, draft tran-
53. “$1,500 Fund to Aid Struggling Artists,” New York Amsterdam
script of interview by Samella Lewis, January 10, 1981, tape 6, 7,
News, December 20, 1933, 3. In 1930 Frederick P. Keppel of the
Hampton University Archives. Mary Ann Calo, who has probed
Carnegie Corporation had endorsed Savage’s grant application
the archives of the Carnegie Corporation, discusses at length
to the Rosenwald Fund, which awarded her a fellowship to study
the CAA and the Harmon Foundation’s involvement in the Har-
in France. The Carnegie Corporation subsequently gave her an ad
lem Art Workshop; see Mary Ann Calo, Distinction and Denial:
ditional grant to travel through Europe before returning home in
notes to page
17
283
1931. Keppel also brokered a job for her to teach sculpture at the Boykin Art School. See Smith, “Augusta Savage,” 981–82, and Calo, Distinction and Denial, 91–94.
tion; the films have been transferred to VHS tapes and are available for viewing at NARA-MD. 65. Quoted in ibid. The YMCA housed classes on subjects other than
54. “Art Study,” 22.
art; for example, in February 1936 the Hunton School offered
55. Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists,
courses to adults in photography, Russian, Negro history, practical psychology and applied social science, religion, romance
173. 56. See New York Amsterdam News, April 14, 1934, 3. “The exhibition was sponsored by the University of the State of New York, the State Education Department and the Board of Education of New
languages, stage dancing, and fine arts. See New York Amster dam News, February 8, 1936, 3. 66. References to Richard Lindsey and William E. Artis can be found
York City. . . . The work on exhibition is that of pupils of the Free
in Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Art
Adult Art Schools of New York City,” which included Savage’s
ists. 67. Ibid., 392.
pupils. 57. Wheat has noted the proximity of his home and her studio. See
68. Thelma Berlack-Boozer, “Growing Pains: Larger Quarters Needed
Ellen Harkins Wheat, “Jacob Lawrence” (PhD diss., University of
for 135th Street Public Library,” New York Amsterdam News,
Washington, 1987), 19.
April 18, 1936, 13. The Carnegie Foundation selected two sites
58. Juanita Marie Holland, “Augusta Christine Savage: A Chronology of Her Art and Life, 1892–1962,” in Bibby, Augusta Savage, 16.
for their largesse: the 135th Street Library and another library in Atlanta, Georgia.
59. Augusta Savage to Arthur Schomburg, January 16, 1935, Arthur
69. See, for example, A. M. Wendell Malliet, “Harlem Library, Crying
Alfonso Schomburg Papers, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare
for Larger Building, Cramped for Needed Space,” New York Am
Books Division, SCRBC.
sterdam News, March 20, 1937, 4. Calo, Distinction and Denial,
60. “Exhibition of Negro Art at the Adult Education Project in Har
88, after reviewing the correspondence among Alain Locke,
lem Y.W.C.A.,” New York Herald Tribune, February 15, 1935, 40;
Mary Brady of the Harmon Foundation, Frederick Keppel of the
also quoted in Jeff Richardson Donaldson, “Generation ‘306’—
Carnegie Corporation, and Ernestine Rose of the New York Pub-
Harlem, New York” (PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1974),
lic Library, concludes that the “Harmon Foundation . . . agreed to underwrite half of the rental cost at 136th Street and subsi-
106–7. 61. “Harlem Will See Self as Others See It at Novel Show,” New York
dize salaries and materials. Brady hoped that the center would
Amsterdam News, February 9, 1935, 9. Savage was often men-
eventually be self-sustaining and that it might catch the atten-
tioned in the New York Amsterdam News; perhaps it helped that
tion of a larger organization to make real the goal of establishing
her brother-in-law was Ted Poston, one of the lead writers for
a cultural center in Harlem built around the library.” 70. See “Art Study,” 26–27. The New York Amsterdam News, June
the paper. 62. Ibid. The exhibition was praised by the Harmon Foundation as
28, 1933, 9, announced that “Harlem life and Harlem scenery,
having “served once more to draw favorable attention to the
painted in natural colors, will be given preference on the pro-
workshop movement.” See “Art Study,” 23.
gram of the Art Workshop and Studio.” Note that Bearden and
63. By April 1936, in addition to teaching young people, Augusta
Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 392, incorrectly
Savage was also directing the Uptown Art Laboratory, a more
locate this workshop at 141st Street and Lexington Avenue. Lex-
informal workshop for adults, with Vaclav Vytlacil attending Sun
ington Avenue does not extend up to 141st Street.
day afternoon critiques. Opportunity magazine ran a story on the art centers of Harlem and described the Uptown Art Labo-
71. Almost all the artists mentioned here can be found in Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists.
ratory as “open to young Harlemites who have already demon-
72. See Harlem Adult Education Committee, press release, [Sep-
strated a particular aptitude [in the] arts. Like the school after
tember] 27, 1933, Harmon Foundation, box 1, MD, LOC. Calo,
which it is fashioned, the Federal Art Project Design laboratory,
Distinction and Denial, 88, has noted that both Brady of the
it embodies progressive trends and seeks to coordinate a thor-
Harmon Foundation and Rose of the 135th Street branch of the
ough training in the fine arts with applied design. . . . No rigid
New York Public Library worked together to make the exhibition
course of instruction is followed. . . . Lively discussions take
a success; Rose “filed a grant report with the Carnegie Corpo-
place on Sunday afternoons when Vaclav Vyatlacil [sic], instruc-
ration in December 1933 in which she claimed that the art
tor in the fine arts department of the Design Laboratory, comes
program far exceeded their expectations of success; she noted
to help the students.” See Steinbach, “Harlem Goes in for Art,”
their hope to continue it the following year, possibly with the help of the Harmon Foundation.” Also see Calo, Distinction and
114. 64. “Art Study,” 25. CAA involvement probably meant the CAA had
Denial, 221 n. 64.
been getting the funds for salaries. The Harmon Foundation
73. “Art by Negroes of Harlem Put on Exhibition,” New York Herald
made several movies about African American artists and the art
Tribune, September 28, 1933, 40; also quoted in Donaldson,
workshops available to African Americans throughout the na-
“Generation ‘306,’ ” 108–9.
284 notes to pages
18 – 20
74. “Art Study,” 27.
terviewees. Hence, there are small errors in dating and inconsis-
75. It is not known for certain that Lawrence was enrolled in these
tencies with names of organizations. The reader is advised to
particular classes. Two years later, by January 1936, the Carnegie Corporation had withdrawn its support from the 135th Street Library operation; however, it was reported that “with the help of WPA workers and volunteers, certain of the courses
double-check such details. 85. “Negro Harlem Tops 204,000,” New York Amsterdam News, October 20, 1934, 1. 86. Up in the posh Sugar Hill area, poets, novelists, and the older
could still be carried on,” such as American and European his-
artists attended parties, which were written up in the society
tory, social casework, and baby care. See Berlack-Boozer,
columns of the New York Amsterdam News. Bessye Johnson
“Growing Pains,” 13. Classroom spaces in churches, social agen-
Bearden, a journalist, educator, and community activist (and
cies, and public schools were no doubt found for the govern-
Romare Bearden’s mother), had gatherings for civic and political
ment-supported art teachers.
leaders at her home. And Louise Thompson, a close friend of
76. Francis O’Connor Papers, reel 1089, AAA. 77. Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 263. 78. Ibid., 234; Donaldson, “Generation ‘306,’ ” 110–11, based on an interview of Alston in New York on January 27, 1972. 79. See “Growing Pains,” 13. 80. Romare Bearden, taped interview by James V. Hatch, December
Langston Hughes and a Communist Party leader, held evenings of talk for artists and intellectuals at her large Convent Avenue apartment. Forums that focused on black history were also organized by Charles C. Seifert, J. A. Rogers, and Richard B. Moore. See Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the De pression (1983; repr., New York: Grove Press, 1984), 42–43. See also Fax, Seventeen Black Artists, 150–54.
6, 1972, Billops-Hatch Archives, MARBL, recalls that the stu-
87. Jacob Lawrence to Jeff Donaldson, January 8, 1972, quoted in
dents were Lawrence, Bob Blackburn, and Sara Murrell but that
Donaldson, “Generation ‘306,’ ” 143. The regulars at the 306 talk
in the evenings it was a hangout where artists, writers, and mu-
sessions in the late 1930s included not only the personalities
sicians congregated, such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay,
Lawrence mentioned but also the dancer Addison Bates; the
musicians from the Duke Ellington band, the white actor Jack
dancer and drummer Asadata Dafora; the actors Rex Ingram
Carter, and the writer William Saroyan. Also useful in the Billops-
and Canada Lee; the composer Frank Fields; and the musicolo-
Hatch Archives are the oral interviews of Ernest Crichlow by An-
gist Josh Lee, to name a few. The artists included Alston, Ban-
nette Nichols on February 22, 1974, and of Bob Blackburn by
narn, Savage, and their students but also artists from downtown.
Camille Billops and James Hatch on December 1 and 19, 1972.
Interviewed artists mentioned other people who attended 306
Blackburn stated in the two-part December interview, “The
gatherings as including Selma Burke, Ernest Crichlow, Richard
workshop gave me . . . the awareness of what it means to be in-
Lindsey, O. Richard Reid, Frederick Perry, James Yeargans, Rob-
volved in art.”
ert Savon Pious, Bruce Nugent, Sollace J. Glenn, and Norman
81. A handwritten note from Jacob Lawrence to author, January 15,
Lewis. See Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American
1993, states the $2 fee. Blackburn, interview by Billops and
Artists, 234. The downtown white writers and artists who trav-
Hatch, December 1 and 19, 1972, describes Bannarn’s studio as
eled up to 306 included William Saroyan, the artist William Steig,
“the downstairs’ loft.”
and photographer Carl Van Vechten; see also Rocío Aranda-
82. Lawrence spoke about the talks he would have with Ronald Jo-
Alvarado and Sarah Kennel, “Romare Bearden: A Chronology,”
seph, whom he considered a very intellectual artist; Jacob Law-
in The Art of Romare Bearden, by Ruth Fine, exh. cat. (Washing-
rence, transcript of interview by author, July 1983. For Knight,
ton, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003), 215.
see Sheryl Conkelton and Barbara Earl Thomas, Never Late for
88. Hughes returned to Harlem in the fall of 1935 after a three-year
Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight, exh. cat. (Seattle: University of
tour of the world. See New York Amsterdam News, “Langston
Washington Press; Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2003). 83. Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 31, mentions Lawrence’s posing for
Hughes Ends 3-Year Tour of World,” October 5, 1935, 5. 89. Lawrence, interview by Buell and Driskell, February 4, 1982;
Joseph and Knight. Walter Christmas elaborated on these earlier
portions printed as “An Interview with Jacob Lawrence,” in Ja-
friendships in an interview I conducted on May 4, 1995; I also
cob Lawrence, The Toussaint L’Ouverture Series (New York:
interviewed Bob Blackburn on June 7, 1988. Both taped interviews are in my possession and are a promised gift to the AAA. 84. Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 260, and Donaldson, “Generation ‘306.’ ” Donaldson, a painter and dynamic teacher at Howard University when he submitted
Church Board for Homeland Ministries, 1982). 90. See Chapter 5 regarding the antilynching exhibitions. 91. See Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 249. 92. Quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 35, citing a letter to Charles
his dissertation to Northwestern University, conducted inter-
Alan, December 29, 1972, in “Jacob Lawrence’s personal files.”
views during the 1970s with several Harlem artists, excerpts of
I have not been able to find the letter at the AAA, the repository
which he transcribed and which are very useful; the dissertation is flawed, unfortunately, by the usual memory lapses of his in-
of the Lawrence-Knight Papers. 93. Ibid., 36. Romare Bearden also went with Seifert. Bearden and
notes to pages
20 – 24
285
Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 247, noted
African American Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
Bearden’s “fascination as Seifert demonstrated the resemblance
vania Press, 2007), 76, quoting Locke, “Legacy of the Ancestral
of an ax-carrying African war god to the Scandinavian god of
Arts,” 256. Jarrett points to the sentence in “Legacy of the An-
war, Thor.”
cestral Arts” where Locke speaks of blacks “as blood descen-
94. For a discussion of Locke’s influence among African American
dants, bound to [Africa] by a sense of direct cultural kinship, and
artists, see Calo, Distinction and Denial, ch. 1, “Alain Locke and
Jarrett concludes that “Locke’s utterance of both ‘blood’ and
the Invention of ‘Negro Art.’ ”
‘cultural kinship’ in the same sentence straddled the fine line
95. Locke’s “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” in Locke, New Negro.
between biological and cultural constructions of race.” Harris
For reprints of Locke’s essays on art, including “A Note on African
and Molesworth, Alain L. Locke, 197, tackle the “blood descen-
Art,” Opportunity 2 (May 1924): 134–38, see The Critical Temper
dants” phrase, first quoting from Locke’s original version of the
of Alain Locke: A Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture, ed.
essay, “The Art of the Ancestors,” published in the March 1935
Jeffrey C. Stewart (New York: Garland, 1983).
Survey Graphic (“Surely this [African] art, once known and ap-
96. Locke, “Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” 261. In his bibliography
preciated can scarcely have less influence upon the blood de-
for the 1926 printing of New Negro Locke included Marius De
scendants than upon those who inherit by tradition alone”), then
Zayas’s African Negro Art: Its Influence on Modern Art (New York:
acknowledging the criticism and explaining Locke’s position:
Modern Gallery, 1916) and Paul Guillaume and Munro T. Guil-
“Later readers would hear in this formulation an essentialism
laume’s Primitive Negro Sculpture (Merion, PA: Barnes Founda-
that had racialist overtones. But Locke was merely analogously applying his notion of race as a cultural construction rather than
tion, 1925). 97. Locke, “Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” 256. 98. See Van Wyck Brooks, “On Creating a Usable Past,” Dial 64 (April
a scientific fact. Tradition was the word Locke used to establish a continuity of group experience and expression.” For other literary historians’ views on Locke, see Chielozona Eze, The Dilemma
11, 1918): 337–41. 99. Locke, “Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” 254.
of Ethnic Identity: Alain Locke’s Vision of Transcultural Societies
100. Ibid., 256.
(Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005), and Jane Duran and
101. See Meyer Schapiro, “Race, Nationality and Art,” Art Front 2
Earl L. Stewart, “Alain Locke, Essentialism, and the Notion of a
(March 1936): 10–12; and James A. Porter, “The Negro Artist and
Black Aesthetic,” in The Critical Pragmatism of Alain Locke: A
Racial Bias” (review of Locke’s Negro Art: Past and Present), Art
Reader on Value Theory, Aesthetics, Community, Culture, Race,
Front 3 (June–July 1937): 8–9. Schapiro clearly had Locke in mind
and Education, ed. Leonard Harris (Lanham, MD: Rowman and
when he wrote: “There are Negro liberals who teach that the
Littlefield, 1999).
American Negro artist should cultivate the old African styles, that his real racial genius has emerged most powerfully in those
103. Alain Locke, Negro Art: Past and Present (Washington, DC: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936), 5.
styles, and that he must give up his effort to paint and carve like
104. Melville J. Herskovits, “The Negro’s Americanism,” in Locke, New
a white man. This view is acceptable to white reactionaries, who
Negro, 359. The debates about “the Negro’s culture” flared up
desire . . . to keep the Negro from assimilating the highest forms
again when Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan’s Beyond the
of culture of Europe and America. It is all the more dangerous
Melting Pot (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963)
because it appears on first thought to be an admission of the
was published.
greatness of African Negro art, and therefore favorable to the Ne-
105. Bearden, “Negro Artist,” 371.
gro. But observed more closely, it terminates in the segregation
106. For Bennett, see Gerri Bates, “Gwendolyn Bennett (1902–1981),”
of the Negro from modern culture” (“Race, Nationality,” 10). Por-
in Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, ed.
ter, who also taught at Howard University and did not get along
Darlene Clark Hine, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Rosalyn Terborg-
with Locke, opined that Locke’s book was “one of the greatest
Penn (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 1:106–9.
dangers to the Negro artist to arise in recent years. It contains a
107. Gwendolyn Bennett, “Toward an Art Center? Ancient and Modern
narrow racialist point of view, presented in seductive language. . . .
Negro Art Shown in Exhibition Here,” New York Amsterdam
Dr. Locke supports the defeatist philosophy of the ‘Segregation-
News, March 23, 1935, 9. Bennett singled out some of the art-
ist’ ” (“Negro Artist,” 8). Locke denied Porter’s charges in a letter
works for special praise: Henry Bannarn’s sculpted head of Rich-
to the editor, Art Front 3 (October 1937): 19–20. I presented this
ard B. Harrison, Charles Alston’s Girl in Red Dress, Romare
controversy over Locke’s ideas in “Alain Locke, James A. Porter,
Bearden’s Bread-Line, Augusta Savage’s Green Apples, and Aaron
and Meyer Schapiro: 1930s Debates on a ‘Racial Art’ in Art Front,”
Douglas’s crayon drawings of notables from African American
paper presented at the annual meeting of the CAA, February
history. She also mentioned in passing the young Georgette
2003, New York. For Schapiro’s ideas on race, also see Patricia
Seabrooke, William Artis, and Robert S. Pious.
Hills, “1936: Meyer Schapiro, Art Front, and the Popular Front,”
108. Ibid.
Oxford Art Journal 17, no. 1 (1994): 30–41.
109. According to Bennett, Erwin N. Horrock organized the sponsor-
102. Gene Andrew Jarrett, Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in
286 notes to pages
24 – 26
ing “committee of 100 Harlem citizens” and curated the show
“with the cooperation of Mrs. Frances M. Pollack [sic] of the Public Works Division art project.” Pollak was part of Audrey McMahon’s CAA team discussed above. 110. Bennett, “Toward an Art Center?” 9.
included in Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC. It is not clear if Lawrence was an actual member. 115. Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 239, reproduce the holographic copy, as do Diana L. Linden and
111. Ibid.
Larry A. Greene, “Charles Alston’s Harlem Hospital Murals: Cul-
112. Bearden, “Negro Artist,” 371. Bearden’s issue was not the exhibi-
tural Politics in Depression Era Harlem,” Prospects: An Annual of
tion of amateurish and student work (there was a long tradition of combining professional and amateur artists in New York City exhibitions, going back to settlement house exhibitions) but
American Cultural Studies 26 (2002): 399. 116. Romare Bearden, interview by James V. Hatch, December 6, 1972, Billops-Hatch Archives, MARBL.
rather the awarding of prizes and the competency of the jurors
117. New York Amsterdam News, July 24, 1937, 4, reproduced a pho-
for the prizes. In 1936 the Harlem Artists Guild issued a state-
tograph of WPA artists from Harlem taking part in a demonstra-
ment objecting to the Harmon Foundation’s “effort to collect an
tion to protest dismissals. See also the undated photograph of
exhibition of art work done by Negroes to be shown at the Texas
Harlem Artists Guild members Norman Lewis, Gwendolyn Ben-
Centennial Exposition.” The guild again accused the foundation
nett, and Frederick Perry at a WPA picket line reproduced in
of having a “coddling rather than professional attitude toward
Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists,
the Negro as an artist” and presenting Negro art “from the so-
226.
ciological standpoint rather than from the aesthetic.” See state-
118. In a letter to Holger Cahill, July 21, 1937, Audrey McMahon sum-
ment of the Harlem Artists Guild, n.d., forwarded as an attach-
marized protests the guild had presented to her as a result of
ment to a letter by Audrey McMahon to Holger Cahill, May 21,
dismissals from the FAP that the guild felt showed discrimina-
1936, NARA-DC, RG 69, entry 564, box 39. 113. The Artists’ Union, which held meetings downtown, had grown
tion. See NARA-DC, entry 564, box 39. 119. Francis O’Connor Papers, reel 1089, AAA. Alston’s salary went
out of the Artists’ Committee for Action, an ad hoc group that
from $103.40 per month to $130 per month. See p. 290, n. 25.
had protested the destruction of Diego Rivera’s Rockefeller Cen-
1 20. Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 264;
ter mural in 1933. The union grew in strength when the federal
see also “Creative Negroes: Harlem Has Its Artists Working under
government placed artists on its payroll, as happened with the
Difficult Conditions,” Literary Digest 122 (August 1, 1936): 22.
formation of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in Decem-
121. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s message to the 73rd Congress on
ber 1933. Artists’ Union members knew the effectiveness of a
March 21, 1933. I want to thank Joan Sharpe, president of CCC
united position when dealing with federal agencies, and their
Legacy, for providing the source for this citation and Rob Ribera
journal, Art Front, edited by Stuart Davis and later Joe Solmon,
for tracking it down. For the full message, see “21—Message to
carried articles relentless in their attacks against federal poli-
Congress on Unemployment Relief, March 21, 1933,” www.pres-
cies demeaning or damaging to artists. Issues of racism in the art world were occasionally addressed in Art Front, and in those
idency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14596&st=&st1=. 1 22. John A. Salmond, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the
instances the editors took the leftist position that what was nec-
Negro,” Journal of American History 52 (January 1966): 75,
essary was “a fighting alliance of Negro and white artists, work-
quoted in Maren Stange, “Publicity, Husbandry, and Technoc-
ers, professionals, and others who feel the sting of capitalist
racy: Fact and Symbol in Civilian Conservation Corps Photogra-
oppression”; quoted in “Editor’s Note” appended to “Harlem Art-
phy,” in Official Images: New Deal Photography, by Pete Daniel,
ists’ Guild,” Art Front 2 (July–August 1936): 5. During the 1930s
Merry A. Foresta, Maren Stange, and Sally Stein (Washington,
African Americans realized that workers had to take collective
DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), 66.
action in dealing with their employers and that struggles against
1 23. New York Amsterdam News, October 26, 1935, 2.
racism and segregation were more effective when conducted as
124. Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 31, in a July 24, 1984, interview of Law-
multiracial actions. Counteracting the oppression of African
rence, quotes his memories of his mother: “We always had prob-
Americans did not mean black nationalism; it meant securing a
lems and frictions. We couldn’t communicate, and because of
place for African Americans at the common table.
that we weren’t very close.”
114. Membership figures and the guild exhibition planned for the
125. “1,400 CCC Youths Enrolled in Large Breeze Hill Camp,” New
American Artists School are noted in Gwendolyn Bennett, “The
York Amsterdam News, February 8, 1936, 2. The article pointed
Harlem Artists Guild,” Art Front 3 (April–May 1937): 20. Pencil
out that the Breeze Hill Camp had the largest CCC concentra-
drawings by Lawrence were included in the guild exhibition,
tion of Negro youth in the country.
held at the 115th Street New York Public Library from April 14 to
1 26. The New York Amsterdam News knew of problems in the CCC
May 15, 1937. Other artists were Frederick Coleman, Athelina
camps; see the June 8, 1935, article, “Racial Hatred Is Studied
Hubbard, Charles Alston, Henry Bannarn, Ronald Joseph, Louis
in CCC Deaths,” which reported that the bodies of young blacks
Vaughn, Vertis Hayes, John Atkinson, Aaron Douglas, Gwen Ben-
had been found on the Trenton Turnpike in New Jersey.
nett, Norman Lewis, and Gwendolyn Knight. The catalogue is
127. “Harlem Boy Slain at Upstate Camp; Cops Nab Suspect . . . CCC
notes to pages
26 – 27
287
Money Ring Seen in Slaying,” New York Amsterdam News, Feb-
293; for a response, see Alain Locke, “Art or Propaganda?” Harlem 1 (November 1928): 12. See my p. 292, n. 48.
ruary 8, 1936, 1–2. 1 28. “400 CCC Boys Desert Camp,” New York Amsterdam News, February 22, 1936, 1, 16. 1 29. “2 Companies Walk Out in Food Protest,” New York Amsterdam News, February 29, 1936, 1–2. See also an editorial on the CCC
141. See Alyse Abrams, “Harlem Community Art Center,” November 27, 1939, Writers’ Program (New York, N.Y.) Collection, 1936– 1941, Art in New York Section, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, SCRBC.
camp in the February 29 issue. In subsequent issues the News
142. See Ann Craton, assistant to Holger Cahill, to Charlotte E. Carr,
praised the efforts of the CCC. See “CCC Helped 150,000 Negro
director of the Emergency Relief Bureau, September 10, 1935,
Boys,” October 24, 1936, 13; “CCC Youth Given Civil Service
describing McMahon’s position. NARA-DC, RG69, Records of the
Jobs,” March 20, 1937, 2.
Works Progress Administration Office of the National Director,
1 30. Lawrence’s FBI file, dated September 26, 1977, noted that he attended the High School of Commerce, Sixty-fifth and Colum-
Correspondence with State and Regional Offices, NYC 1935 to 1936, entry 564, box 28.
bus (155 West Sixty-fifth Street) “from February 30 [sic], 1935,
143. See Marchal E. Landgren, “A Memoir of the New York City Mu-
and was discharged on February, 1936. Stated appointee dis-
nicipal Art Galleries, 1936–1939,” in O’Connor, New Deal Art
missed because he failed all subjects he was taking. Stated re-
Projects, 269–301. Called the Temporary Galleries at their first
cords indicated appointee completed ninth grade, but dropped
location, four floors in a remodeled brownstone at 62 West Fifty-
out of school during his tenth grade year.”
third Street, they then moved to a second location, an elegant
131. New York Amsterdam News, February 22, 1936, 16, mentions the
townhouse at 3 East Sixty-seventh Street, where they were now
$25 paycheck; Stange, “Publicity, Husbandry,” states that CCC
called the Municipal Art Galleries. Although the exhibition pro-
men “were required to send a substantial percentage of the $30
gram was meant to be democratic, with various artists’ groups
per month wages” to their families. Perhaps the wages fluctu-
applying to schedule exhibitions, it seems that few, if any, Har-
ated, much like FAP wages.
lem artists participated. Of the ninety-five artists shown in 1936,
132. Quoted in Aline B. Louchheim [Saarinen], “An Artist Reports on the Troubled Mind,” New York Times Magazine, October 15,
the first year that Landgren mentions, I do not recognize any as African American. 144. Mrs. E. P. Roberts to Holger Cahill, December 10, 1935, Holger
1950, 36. 1 33. Dates of Lawrence’s service in the CCC were provided by the
Cahill Papers (not filmed), AAA, quoted in A. Joan Saab, For the
“Transcript/Statement of Federal Service,” mailed to author on
Millions: American Art and Culture between the Wars (Philadel-
January 20, 2006, from the Reference Service Branch, National
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 58. I am grateful
Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO. Three drawings of his
to Joan Saab for sending me a photocopy of the letter.
CCC experience, in the collection of Spelman College, Atlanta,
145. Holger Cahill to Mrs. E. P. Roberts, December 13, 1935, NARA-
are reproduced in Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné,
DC, RG69, Records of the Works Progress Administration Office
218.
of the National Director, Correspondence with State and Re-
1 34. See Francis O’Connor Papers, reel 1089, AAA. Bannarn is listed
gional Offices, NYC 1935 to 1936, entry 564, box 28. FAP ad-
as an “Artist” in the WPA from August 9, 1937, to August 17, 1939.
opted the formula of employing 90 percent of its artists from
Because of cutbacks, his pay went from $95.44 per month to
the relief rolls. To qualify for relief was an arduous and humili-
$9l.10 per month to $90 per month.
ating process that included taking a poverty oath. In Boston,
1 35. “Young Artist Gives Harlemites Chance to See Oils, Sculpture,”
the artist Allan Rohan Crite refused to take the oath, even though
New York Amsterdam News, December 5, 1936, 6. During De-
he and his mother were impoverished. McMahon, “General View,”
cember 1936 Bannarn’s sculpture, oil paintings, and etchings
57, has described the process of becoming qualified for relief.
were on view at the 115th Street branch of the New York Public
146. Federal Works Agency, “Methodology,” 53, WPA P.P. 65–1-97-2063
Library. He later made another sculpture, one of the Arctic ex-
W.P.O., operated from 7/1/40 to 8/2/42, NARA-DC: “The Art
plorer Matt Henson, commissioned by the Theta Chapter of Phi
Teaching Division operates Community Art Centers at which in-
Delta Kappa Sorority for Howard University; see New York Am
struction is given and which are also used for project activities,
sterdam News, May 28, 1938, 6.
such as exhibitions. Typical of this is the Harlem Community Art
1 36. Elton Fax to Jeff Donaldson, February 10, 1972, quoted in Donaldson, “Generation ‘306,’ ” 112. 137. Blackburn, interview by Billops and Hatch, December 1 and 19,
Center, which is sponsored by a Citizen’s Sponsoring Committee composed of prominent local personages. This group for a considerable period of time paid the rent for the Center’s space, until free space was obtained from the City of New York. This commit-
1972. 1 38. Quoted in Marvel Cooke, “Carving for Posterity,” New York Am sterdam News, November 12, 1937, 12.
tee contributes equipment and other items of value from time to time and generally within the limits of its abilities furnishes finan-
139. Ibid.
cial assistance to the center. Similar centers are maintained in
140. W. E. B. Du Bois, “Criteria of Negro Art,” Crisis, October 1926,
Brooklyn and midtown Manhattan.”
288 notes to pages
28 – 30
The midtown center, called the Contemporary Art Center, was
154. See Gwendolyn Bennett, “The Harlem Community Art Center,” in O’Connor, Art for the Millions, 213–15.
housed in the Young Men’s Hebrew Association building at Ninety-second Street and Lexington Avenue, and the Brooklyn
155. The exhibition was Paintings and Sculpture by 21 New York City Negro Artists, held from February 4 to March 4, 1938.
Community Art Center used a building donated by the Ethical Culture Society of Brooklyn. See the pamphlet Federal Art Centers of New York, NARA-DC, RG 69, Correspondence with State and Regional Offices, 1935–40; 1935 to 1936, entry 564, Woodward Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. John Franklin White,
patrons and the making of a professional artist
ed., Art in Action: American Art Centers and the New Deal (Me
The epigraphs are from Charles Alston, brochure for Jacob Lawrence
box 28. The Queensboro Community Art Center was located on
2.
tuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987), 170–75, lists in an appen-
exhibition, 1938, Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC; Alain Locke, recom-
dix the WPA community art centers and extension art galleries
mendation of Jacob Lawrence for a Julius Rosenwald Fund grant, 1940,
across the country and their addresses. O’Connor, Art for the
JRFA; Mary Beattie Brady to Charles H. Alston, March 31, 1941, Charles
Millions, 306–7, also lists the WPA/FAP community art centers
Henry Alston Papers, reel N70-23, frame 52, AAA; Jay Leyda to Rich-
across the nation. Both books include essays on individual art
ard Wright, April 18, 1941, Leyda Papers, box 5, folder 21.
centers. 147. “Plan Center for Culture at Y.W.C.A.,” New York Amsterdam News, January 23, 1937, 1. 148. “New WPA Center Opens in Harlem,” New York Amsterdam News,
1. See Greta Berman, “The Walls of Harlem,” Arts Magazine 52 (October 1977): 122–26, and The Lost Years: Mural Painting in New York City under the Works Progress Administration’s Fed
March 6, 1937, 23, lists the art teachers as Frederick Perry,
eral Art Project, 1935–1943 (New York: Garland, 1978); Diana L.
Charles Smith, Elton Fax, Louise Jefferson, Harold Tishler, Sarah
Linden and Larry A. Greene, “Charles Alston’s Harlem Hospital
West, and Leora Shaw.
Murals: Cultural Politics in Depression Era Harlem,” Prospects:
149. New York Amsterdam News, May 20, 1937, 4. Perhaps by May it
An Annual of American Cultural Studies 26 (2002): 391–421.
was referred to as the Harlem Community Arts Center. The ar-
Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson’s History of African-
ticle said it was “jointly operated by the WPA Federal Art Project
American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon
and a sponsoring committee of Harlem citizens.” 150. “Harlem Art Center Ready for Opening,” New York Amsterdam News, December 4, 1937, 15.
Books, 1993), 262–63, briefly discusses the murals. 2. It is not clear whether Lawrence worked on Alston’s murals before or after his employment with the CCC.
151. Simon Williamson, “The Harlem Art Center Opens,” Writers’
3. The protest letter was originally quoted in “Harlem Hospital
Program (New York, N.Y.) Collection, 1936–1941, Art in New
Rejects Murals by Negro WPA Artists,” Daily Worker, February
York Section, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Book Division,
24, 1936, and later quoted in Art Front 2 (April 1936): 3; it is also
SCRBC. According to Charles C. Seifert, The Negro’s or Ethio
quoted in Linden and Greene, “Charles Alston’s Harlem Hospital
pian’s Contribution to Art (New York: Ethiopian Historical Publish-
Murals,” 414. Dermody’s four objections were paraphrased by
ing, 1938), 13, the other speakers were Joel E. Spingarn, the
the protesters. When told of the controversy by Audrey McMa-
donor of the Spingarn Medal; his brother Arthur Spingarn;
hon, FAP director Holger Cahill replied in a letter of February 4,
Mrs. Mary Simkhovitch; and Rev. L. King. Seifert was on the
1936: “It seems to me that the reasoning of the Commissioner
Citizens’ Sponsoring Committee. See also “Mrs. Roosevelt Fea-
of Hospitals and the superintendent of the Hospital is rather
ture Guest at Art Center,” New York Amsterdam News, December
far-fetching when they assume that the murals painted by negro
25, 1937, 2; [picture spread], New York Amsterdam News, Febru-
artists in a hospital that cares for ninety-five per cent negro per
ary 26, 1938, 11; “Art Center for Harlem,” New York Age, Decem-
sonnel gives undue emphasis to policies of segregation. . . . I do
ber 4, 1937; James H. Baker Jr., “Art Comes to the People of
believe they should be carried out as originally planned.” NARA-
Harlem,” Crisis 46 (March 1939): 78–80. The opening was also
DC, RG69, Records of the Works Progress Administration Office
covered by the New York Times, December 19, 21, and 22,
of the National Director, Correspondence with State and Regional
1937. For a recent discussion of the circumstances building up to the December 1937 opening, see Calo, Distinction and Denial, 95–104. 152. Seifert, Negro’s or Ethiopian’s Contribution, 13. Coincidentally, the Municipal Art Galleries, 3 East Sixty-seventh Street, opened on December 15, 1937.
Offices, entry 564, box 29. 4. See Patricia Hills, “Philip Evergood’s American Tragedy: The Poetics of Ugliness, the Politics of Anger,” Arts Magazine 54 (February 1980): 138–42. 5. New York Amsterdam News, December 19, 1936, 24, M. and M. Smith photograph.
153. Vivian Morris, “History of Harlem Art Center,” Writers’ Program
6. See Helen A. Harrison, “John Reed Club Artists and the New Deal:
(New York, N.Y.) Collection, 1936–1941, Art in New York Section,
Radical Responses to Roosevelt’s ‘Peaceful Revolution,’ ” Pros
Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Book Division, SCRBC.
pects 5 (1980): 240–68.
notes to pages
30 – 35
289
7. The Popular Front policy of the Communist Party (CPUSA), in conformity with the new line the USSR developed at the Seventh
11. See Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (1983; repr., New York: Grove Press, 1984), 214.
Congress of the Communist International held in Moscow in
12. Philip Evergood exemplifies an artist who continued painting
1935, urged an end to radical sectarianism and encouraged
revolutionary themes even during the Popular Front period; see
communists to make alliances with a broad spectrum of liberal
Patricia Hills, “Art and Politics in the Popular Front: The Union
groups, including socialists and New Deal Democrats, in the fight
Work and Social Realism of Philip Evergood,” in The Social and
against war and fascism; see Malcolm Sylvers, “Popular Front,”
the Real: Political Art of the 1930s in the Western Hemisphere,
in Encyclopedia of the American Left, ed. Mari Jo Buhle, Paul
ed. Alejandro Anreus, Diana L. Linden, and Jonathan Weinberg
Buhle, and Dan Georgakas (New York: Garland, 1990), 591–95.
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006),
For the American Artists School, see Philip Evergood, “Building a New Art School,” Art Front 3 (April–May 1937): 21; and
181–200, 329–33. 13. Louis Lozowick, “Towards a Revolutionary Art,” Art Front 2 (July–
Virginia Hagelstein Marquardt, “The American Artists School:
August 1936): 12. For Lozowick, see Virginia Hagelstein Mar
Radical Heritage and Social Content Art,” Archives of American
quardt, ed., Survivor from a Dead Age: The Memoirs of Louis Lozo-
Art Journal 26, no. 4 (1986): 17–23. The school closed about
wick (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997) and
1941.
“Louis Lozowick: Development from Machine Aesthetic to Social
8. See p. 287, n. 114, regarding the Harlem Artists Guild’s exhibition
Realism, 1922–1936” (PhD diss., University of Maryland, 1983).
held at the 115th Street Library from April 14 to May 15, 1937,
14. Harry Gottlieb to Jacob Lawrence, October 4, 1937, Jacob Law-
which showed thirteen artists, including Lawrence. 9. A letter from Sol Wilson, August 26, 1937, awarding Lawrence the scholarship is in the Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC. The
rence Papers, SCRC. 15. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by author, July 25, 1983. 16. See Marquardt, “American Artists School.”
American Artists School catalogue of courses for September 21,
17. “American Artists School” [Art Front], 19.
1936, to June 12, 1937, can be found in the Francis O’Connor
18. Another of Lawrence’s works shown was Back Room. The exhibi-
Papers, reel 1090, frames 923–27. Among the twenty-seven
tion also included Ernest Crichlow, William Johnson, Norman
faculty and board of control members were Francis Criss, Hilda
Lewis, Henry Bannarn, Ronald Joseph, and Georgette Sea-
Deutsch, Philip Evergood, Ruth Gikow, Maurice Glickman, Harry
brooke, as well as two works by Gwendolyn Knight. See cata-
Gottlieb, Abraham Harriton, Louis Lozowick, Elizabeth Olds, Wal-
logue, SCRC, reel 4572, AAA.
ter Quirt, Anton Refregier, Philip Reisman, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, and Sol Wilson. The advisory board included well-known
19. “Guild Presents 16 Art Pieces by Lad,” New York Amsterdam News, March 5, 1938, 13.
artists Margaret Bourke-White, Stuart Davis, William Gropper,
20. Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC.
and Max Weber, and among the nonartists the critic Lewis Mum-
21. To his interviewers Lawrence frequently recalled Savage’s action
ford, the dealer J. B. Neuman, the print curator Carl Zigrosser,
as a major event of his career.
and the art historians Walter Pach and Meyer Schapiro. Max
22. “Transcript of Employment, General Services Administration,”
Weber wrote a statement, which said in part: “This era calls for
Francis O’Connor Papers, box 16, Jacob Lawrence file (not
a new aggressive and independent art which should serve as a
filmed as of February 2006), AAA. Note that most of the re-
dominant educational and social force. We must have an art that
turned questionnaires sent out by Francis O’Connor are filmed
will cope and interlock with the rapidly changing philosophy of
and located on reels 1087–89. Because of his new status and his
life, an art that will express the new vision, reality and hope, an
new responsibilities, it is doubtful that Lawrence continued at
art that will extricate itself slowly from squander, abuse and
the American Artists School; he admitted to Michelle DuBois
academic servility.” According to a notice, “American Artists
that he did not much spend much time there (Michelle DuBois
School,” Art Front 3 (October 1937): 19, the faculty teaching
to author, e-mail, February 24, 2009).
classes in the fall of 1937 included Alexander Alland, Emilio Am-
23. “Questions for Artists Employed on the WPA Federal Art Project
ero, Francis Criss, Robert M. Cronbach, Hilda Deutsch, Tully
in New York City and State,” prepared by Francis O’Connor,
Filmus, Ruth Gikow, Harry Glassgold, Chaim Gross, John Groth,
completed by Jacob Lawrence, and received by O’Connor on
Charles Hanke, Carl R. Holty, Julian E. Levi, Hugh Miller, Eugene
March 9, 1968, Francis V. O’Connor Papers, box 16, Jacob Law-
Morley, Anton Refregier, Miron Sokole, Moses Soyer, Nahum Tschacbasov, Lynd Ward, and Sol Wilson. See also Marquardt, “American Artists School,” 17. The school, in an attempt to attract
rence file (not filmed), AAA. 24. Quoted in Mort Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” Chicago Defender, May 18, 1963, 9.
Harlem youths for the 1938–39 year, announced its program of
25. The eighteen-month rule was a bone of contention with artists.
five scholarships; see New York Amsterdam News, August 6,
Many, such as Charles Alston, managed to requalify; Alston was
1938, sec. 1, 2.
off the projects for about eight weeks in the late summer of
10. Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 32.
290 notes to pages
35 – 38
1939, and when he rejoined his salary had been reduced. Alston’s salary reached a peak of $130 per month when he was
promoted to supervisor in January 1936; in July 1937, it dropped
de Porres (1579–1639), was the son of a Spanish soldier and a
to $106.16; in September 1938, it went to $91.90; and after
free person of color from Panama, who grew up in Peru and de-
September 1939 it was $87.60. See Francis V. O’Connor Papers,
voted himself to the sick and homeless. He allegedly performed
reel 1089, frames 453–54, AAA. 26. Lawrence’s participation in these exhibitions is noted in Peter T.
miracles and was canonized in 1962. 37. “An Artist of Merit: Pictorial History of Haiti Set on Canvas,” New
Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, “Chronology,” in Over the Line:
York Amsterdam News, June 3, 1939, 11. According to Nesbett
The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and
and DuBois, “Chronology,” 29, the exhibition came about
Michelle DuBois (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob
through the efforts of Claude McKay, but Brady’s correspon-
Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000), 29. Mary Beattie Brady of the Harmon Foundation was probably involved in cir-
dence indicates she played a major role. 38. Alain Locke, “Advance on the Art Front,” Opportunity 17 (May
culating these exhibitions; a photograph of the New Orleans
1939): 133, reprinted in The Critical Temper of Alain Locke: A
exhibition can be found in the Harmon Foundation file, NARA-
Selection of His Essays on Art and Culture, ed. Jeffrey C. Stew-
MD.
art (New York: Garland, 1983). Locke wrote, “It would be hard to
27. See “To Show Negro Artists’ Work,” New York Amsterdam News,
decide which cause owed the greater debt to Jacob Lawrence’s
April 23, 1938, 20. Other artists in the Brooklyn show were Con-
talents, Haitian national history, Negro historical pride, expres-
rad A. Albrixie and Will Henry Stevens.
sionism as an appropriate idiom for interpreting tropical atmo-
28. Catalogue is in the SCRC, reel 4572, frames 421–22, AAA. The
sphere and peasant action and emotion, or contemporary Negro
works exhibited were (1) Lady with Veil; (2) Bar and Grill; (3) Ice
art. As a matter of fact, all scored simultaneously when this bril-
Peddlers; (4) Bed Time; (5) Shell Shocked, FAP; (6) Shoe Shine
liant series of sketches was exhibited in a special gallery at the
Girl, FAP; (7) Beggar No. 1, FAP; (8) Rain, No. 1, FAP; (9) Rain,
Baltimore Museum of Art’s recent showing of Negro artists.”
No. 2, FAP; (10) Beggar No. 2, FAP; (11) Halloween Sand Bags;
39. See Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 43.
(12) Back Room; (13) Theatre; (14) Dorrence Brook Square; (15)
40. Quoted in ibid., 44, citing an undated letter in the Jacob Lawrence
Dust to Dust; (16) Peddlers; (17) Christmas; (18) Moving Day [a.k.a. The Eviction]; (19) Subway; (20) Street Orator’s Audience; (21) Interior; (22) Library; (23) Shrimps and Potatoes. 29. J. L., “The Negro Sympathetically Rendered by Lawrence,” Art News 37 (February 18, 1939): 15. Regarding the appellation primitive as applied to Lawrence, see above, p. 279, n. 25.
Papers, SCRC. 41. Lawrence to Locke, n.d., Locke Papers, box 164-44, folder 26. Lawrence refers to having just seen an exhibition of Richmond Barthé’s sculpture at the Arden Gallery, an exhibition that took place during March 1939. 42. Ibid. There are actually thirty-two panels today; see Peter T.
30. Lawrence was in yet another exhibition that February: the Harlem
Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Draw
Community Art Center held the Exhibition of Negro Cultural
ings, and Murals (1935–1999), a Catalogue Raisonné (Seattle:
Work, from February 10 to 24, 1939, which included Lawrence
University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Rai-
along with other FAP painters Henry Holmes, Palmer Hayden,
sonné Project, 2000) (hereafter cited as Catalogue Raisonné),
John Glenn, Sara Murrell, Selma Day, Vertis Hayes, and Geor-
37–41.
gette Seabrooke, as well as FAP sculptors Francisco Lord, Bab-
43. Lawrence to Locke, September 1939, Locke Papers, box 164-44,
bette New, Helene Gaulois, Elizabeth Mangor, Salvatore Reina,
folder 26. Lawrence states he is replying to Locke’s letter of
Angelo Racioppi, Cesare Stea, Richmond Barthé, Alonzo Hauser,
September 5. Gwendolyn Knight, who was spending time with
and Henry Bannarn. The mimeographed catalogue is at
him, suggested he apply to the Julius Rosenwald Fund to secure
NARA-DC, RG 69, Records of the Works Progress Administra-
a grant for living expenses for a year; see Jacob Lawrence, tran-
tion, Office of the National Director, entry 565.
script of radio interview by Randy Goodman, May 23, 1943, New
31. For information on Allen, see Camara Dia Holloway, Portraiture
York, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames 352 ff.,
and the Harlem Renaissance: The Photographs of James L. Al
AAA. Alain Locke and Jay Leyda obviously concurred with that
len, exh. cat. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1999).
plan, since both were instrumental in getting together recom-
Another photograph shows Lawrence with the sculptor Rich-
mendations on his behalf; see Diane Tepfer, “Edith Gregor Halp-
mond Barthé.
ert: Impresario of Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series,” in Jacob
32. See “First Generation of Artists,” Survey Graphic 28 (March 1939): 225. 33. A. D. Emmart, “Modern Negro Art Is Shown,” Baltimore Sun, February 5, 1939, sec. 2, 6. 34. Mary Beattie Brady to Alain Locke, May 10, 1939, Harmon Foundation Papers, box 1, MD, LOC.
Lawrence: The Migration Series, ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: Rappahanock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993), 131, 138 n. 8. 44. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by James Buell and David Driskell, February 4, 1982, 29, Amistad Research Center, Museum Services Files, Tulane University. It is unclear when
35. Ibid.
Brady gave him the $100; before October 1939 any sale would
36. According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, 3rd ed. (1963), Martin
have jeopardized Lawrence’s eligibility for a WPA/FAP paycheck.
notes to pages
38 – 43
291
On the basis of her research, Margaret Rose Vendryes, “Art in
51. Lincoln Kirstein, “Confidential Report on Candidate . . . ,” JRFA.
the Archives: The Origins of the Art Representing the Core of the
52. The letters were directed toward the fellowship program of the
Aaron Douglas Collection from the Amistad Research Center”
Julius Rosenwald Fund, an organization founded specifically to
(MA thesis, Tulane University, 1992), 148, surmises that Brady
support the advancement of African Americans. Helen Steel
purchased the Toussaint series for the Harmon Foundation
Grayson, a New York designer, wrote the other recommenda-
“sometime after its exhibition at the Chicago Negro Exposition in 1940.” Brady may not have paid him more than the original $100 “loan.” Lawrence told Buell and Driskell that what was im-
tion. 53. Brady to Locke, April 4, 1940, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 34.
portant to him was that the series “remained together.” The ac-
54. Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 59.
quisition of the works by the foundation tallies with Locke’s be-
55. Jacob Lawrence to Warren Karlenzig, August 7, 1985, Lawrence-
lief, which he had earlier conveyed to Lawrence, that an
Knight Papers (not filmed as of 2006), box 3 of 10 “Misc. K,”
institution would be likely to transfer the works to a museum. The series is now owned by the Amistad Foundation, Tulane Uni-
AAA. 56. For Claude McKay, see Wayne F. Cooper, Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance (New York: Schocken,
versity, New Orleans. 45. Locke Papers, box 154-15, folders 30–36.
1987), and Gary Edward Holcomb, Claude McKay, Code Name
46. Lawrence to Locke, n.d., Locke Papers, box 164-44, folder 26.
Sasha: Queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance
47. Alain Locke, recommendation of Jacob Lawrence for Julius Rosenwald Fund grant, 1940, JRFA.
(Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007). 57. Regarding Lawrence and Knight as a couple, see Barbara Earl
48. Ibid. The issue of “propaganda” engaged writers in the African
Thomas, “Never Late for Heaven,” in Never Late for Heaven: The
American community. W. E. B. Du Bois argued in his famous ar-
Art of Gwen Knight, by Sheryl Conkelton and Barbara Earl
ticle “Criteria of Negro Art,” 293: “The apostle of Beauty thus
Thomas, exh. cat. (Seattle: University of Washington Press; Ta-
becomes the apostle of Truth and Right not by choice but by in-
coma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2003), 13–14.
ner and outer compulsion. Free he is but his freedom is ever
58. George M. Reynolds, Director of Fellowships, Julius Rosenwald
bounded by Truth and Justice; and slavery only dogs him when
Fund, postcard to Jay Leyda, n.d., Leyda Papers, box 5, folder
he is denied the right to tell the Truth or recognize an ideal of
21. 59. Alain Locke to Jay Leyda, March 5, 1940, Leyda Papers, box 5,
Justice. “Thus all Art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the
folder 21.
wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say
60. Jacob Lawrence to Jay Leyda, envelope postmarked July 15, 1942,
that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for
Leyda Papers, box 5, folder 21. Lawrence’s address was then 72
propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy.
Hamilton Terrace. Perhaps at this time Lawrence gave or sold to
I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.
Leyda Two Men in a Bar, 1941, a painting Leyda later gave to the
But I do care when propaganda is confined to one side while the
Brooklyn Museum. See Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Rai
other is stripped and silent.”
sonné, 56.
Locke replied to Du Bois in his essay “Art or Propaganda?”
61. For a discussion of the murals, see Alejandro Anreus, Orozco in
Harlem 1 (November 1928): 12. “My chief objection to propa-
Gringoland: The Years in New York (Albuquerque: University of
ganda, apart from its besetting sin of monotony and disproportion, is that it perpetuates the position of group inferiority even
New Mexico Press, 2001). 62. Lawrence, interview by Goodman, May 23, 1943. In 1943 he re-
in crying out against it. For it believes and speaks under the
called that he had met Orozco in 1941, that Orozco had seen his
shadow of a dominant majority whom it harangues, cajoles,
work in MoMA’s offices, and that the older artist had asked to
threatens or supplicates. It is too extroverted for balance or
see him. However, Orozco was painting Dive Bomber in 1940,
poise or inner dignity and self-respect. Art in the best sense is rooted in self-expression and whether naive or sophisticated is self-contained. In our spiritual growth genius and talent must
not 1941. 63. “Orozco Completes Fresco at Museum,” New York Times, July 4, 1940, sec. 1; quoted also in Anreus, Orozco in Gringoland, 133.
more and more choose the role of group expression, or even at
64. Elizabeth McCausland, “Jacob Lawrence,” Magazine of Art 38
times the role of free individualistic expression,—in a word must
(November 1945): 254. See also Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 61,
choose art and put aside propaganda.”
based on her interview of Jacob Lawrence, July 24, 1984, in
49. Edwin R. Embree to Alain Locke, October 10, 1939, Locke Papers, box 164-27, folder 30. Locke and Embree carried on a correspondence from the 1930s to the 1940s. 50. Charles Rogers, “Confidential Report on Candidate for Fellowship (Mr. Jacob Armstead Lawrence),” JRFA. I thank Diane Tepfer for providing me with copies of the recommendations in the JRFA.
292 notes to pages
43 – 46
which he recalled how impressed he was with Orozco “because his work has a certain power.” 65. Jay Leyda to Richard Wright, April 18, 1941, Leyda Papers, box 5, folder 21. 66. Richard Wright to Jay Leyda, May 21, 1941, Leyda Papers, box 5, folder 21.
67. See Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, typed transcript of interview by Paul J. Karlstrom, November 18, 1998, 66, Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed), AAA, provided to me by Paul J. Karlstrom. 68. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 29. Brady to Locke, Novem-
83. Locke to Halpert, June 16, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-33, folder 37. 84. See Tepfer, “Edith Gregor Halpert and the Downtown Gallery,” 131 and 139 nn. 10 and 11. Tepfer quotes a Halpert telegram to Locke, Locke Papers: “please phone mrs calkins fortune at once
ber 9, 1940, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 34: “Nechau [sic]
can you join me wednesday afternoon at art center .”
at Columbia University School of Architecture, Drawing, Painting
was not dated, but the context suggests that the date for the
The telegram
and Sculpture Department, is putting on an exhibition of the
meeting would be Wednesday, June 25, 1941. Farah Jasmine
Toussaint L’Ouverture series opening about the fifteenth of No-
Griffin, “Who Set You Flowin’?”: The African-American Migration
vember.” Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 196 n. 9, mentions this and
Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 14, notes
refers to a letter from Franck Mechare, School of Architecture,
that the “Migration series was exhibited at the Harlem Com-
Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture, Columbia University, to Law-
munity Art Center in June 1941,” but she does not cite the source
rence, April 24, 1949, Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC.
of the information; my e-mail query to her did not turn up any
69. See Locke to Pollack, n.d., Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 4.
concrete information. In conversation with Tepfer during March
Elizabeth Galbreath, “Typovision,” Chicago Defender, October
2008, we concluded there is not enough evidence to assert that
18, 1941, 16, noted that the Tubman panels, “on exhibition at the
Calkins joined Halpert and Locke. I want to thank Diane Tepfer
South Side Community Center in June, drew much favorable
for providing me with a photocopy of the telegram from the
comment.”
Locke Papers. According to Samella Lewis, “Jacob Lawrence,”
70. Brady to Locke, January 23, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 35. 71. Brady to Locke, March 18, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15, fol der 35. 72. Brady to Charles H. Alston, March 31, 1941, Charles Henry Alston Papers, reel N70-23, frame 52, AAA. 73. Brady to Peter Pollack, June 3, 1941, carbon copy, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 35. Brady sent the copy to Locke. 74. Peter Pollack to Alain Locke, June 3, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 6. 75. Pollack’s first letter to Locke, May 28, 1939, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 5, was written on Chicago Artists Group stationery, which advertised “Original, Signed, Limited Prints.” Pollack was a Jewish American photographer devoted to the cause of helping African American artists succeed. 76. Locke to Pollack, June 6, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 6. 77. Locke to Pollack, July 6, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 6. 78. Pollack to Locke, July 9, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 6. 79. See the Toussaint L’Ouverture prints reproduced in Peter T. Nesbett, Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints (1963–2000) (Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery/University of Washington Press, 2001). 80. Brady to Locke, March 11, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 35. 81. For Edith Halpert, see Diane Tepfer, “Edith Gregor Halpert and the Downtown Gallery, 1926–1940: A Study in American Art Pa-
Black Art: An International Quarterly 5, no. 3 (1982): 16, it was Charles Alston, then working on a commission for Fortune, who brought the panels to the attention of the art editor (see also p. 304, n. 60). 85. Halpert to Locke, July 1, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-33, folder 37. Also on July 1, 1941, Deborah Calkins wrote to Lawrence saying that Fortune had the paintings, and she invited him to For tune’s office so that they could have his “explanation” of the first thirty panels; photocopy of letter supplied to me by Diane Tepfer. 86. Brady to Locke, July 16, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 35. 87. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d., Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frame 377, AAA. 88. Halpert to Lawrence, July 23, 1941, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frame 378, AAA. 89. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d., Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frame 379, AAA. 90. Brady to Locke, September 4, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 35. 91. Alston was then working at Fortune, and he helped them make the selection; see p. 304, n. 60. 92. Halpert to Lawrence, August 13, 1941, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frame 382, AAA. 93. Nesbett and Du Bois, “Chronology,” 30, gives the date as July 24; Lawrence told the radio show host Randy Goodman that they were married on the Fourth of July. Lawrence, interview by Goodman, May 23, 1943.
tronage” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1989); Lindsay Pol-
94. Carl Van Vechten’s photographs, many of which have been
lock, The Girl with the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the
reproduced in recent books, are housed with the Van Vechten
Making of the Modern Art Market (New York: Public Affairs, 2006); and Tepfer, “Edith Gregor Halpert: Impresario.” 82. Halpert to Locke, June 9, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-33, folder 37.
Papers. 95. Van Vechten took nine photographs, which he dated July 31, 1941; in seven of them Lawrence wears an ill-fitting jacket. See Van Vechten Papers, box 35. One of the frontal shots in which he
notes to pages
46 – 50
293
wears the jacket was made into a postcard. See Hughes Papers,
102. Downtown Gallery, press release, December 2, 1941, Downtown Gallery Records, AAA, a photocopy of which was provided to me
box 469, folder 11573.
by the Phillips Collection.
96. Brady to Locke, September 4, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 35, mentions that she “telephoned Mrs. Lawrence at Mrs.
103. SCRC, reel 4572, frame 460, AAA.
Halpert’s office” when she heard from Mrs. Calkins on Tuesday
104. American Negro Art: 19th and 20th Centuries, exh. cat. (New
(September 2, 1941). This provides evidence that Knight did not
York: Downtown Gallery, 1941), Harmon Foundation Papers,
join Lawrence in New Orleans until sometime after September 2,
NARA-MD. The catalogue included a statement from Edith Halp-
unless Brady was referring to Lawrence’s mother, which is highly
ert that the Downtown Gallery “is to inaugurate a special
unlikely. Lawrence, in an interview by Ellen Harkins Wheat, July
art fund
2, 1984, stated that he found the Bienville Avenue place through
by contemporary American Negro artists, such works to be
the Urban League and that Mrs. Jones was the landlady; see
presented to museums and other public institutions. You can
negro
for the purchase of paintings, sculpture, and graphics
Wheat, “Jacob Lawrence” (PhD diss., University of Washington,
help by either making a direct donation, or by purchasing works
1987), 82, 243 n. 23.
of art on exhibition. The Gallery is contributing the entire sales commissions, as well as all its facilities.”
97. See Locke to Pollack, September 5, 1941, Pollack to Chicago artists, October 10, 1941, copy, and Pollack to Halpert, October
105. See Brady to Locke, February 18, 1942, and October 9, 1942, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 36.
28, 1941, all in Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 6. Rich later hired Pollack as a curator of photography, when the latter re-
106. See Halpert to Duncan Phillips, February 5, 1942, Downtown Gallery Records, AAA; and Halpert to Mrs. David M. Levy, Janu-
turned after World War II from serving in the U.S. Army.
ary 17, 1942, Downtown Gallery Records, AAA. Photocopies of
98. Pollack to Locke, August 4, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder
both letters provided to me by the Phillips Collection.
6. At meetings Pollack attended of Chicago artists, he attempted to persuade them that it was in their interests to show at the
107. He continued to correspond with Locke during the war when he
Downtown Gallery rather than at McMillen. The artists, however,
was stationed with a Red Cross unit in Africa; see Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 7.
naturally wanted any kind of exposure they could get as well as sales. Also see Pollock, Girl with the Gallery, 238–39.
108. See “Protest WPA Cuts on Art Project Here,” New York Amster dam News, June 24, 1939, 19. The center always had to struggle
99. Locke to Pollack, July 25, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 6. On the same date Pollack wrote to Locke, July 25, 1941, Pol-
to raise money for the rent. The Daily Worker, August 1, 1938,
lack reported to Locke that Sebree was sabotaging the plans.
noted that the students helped to raise $800, since the FAP “pays only for the salaries of the teachers, not for materials or rent.”
“Sebree told John Carlis and others that Miss Halpert exploits young artists as top prices she demands for any contemporary
109. Bennett to Locke, January 31, 1940, Locke Papers, box 164-13, folder 30.
work is $50.00 of which she takes one-third commission. On the other hand, says Sebree, Miss Carroll gets a much greater price,
110. Bennett to Locke, January 24, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-13, folder 30.
and will pay express charges both ways plus insurance, and also that Miss Carroll has Helena Rubinstein, Frank Crowninshield
111. See her letters of January 24, 1941, and November 30, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-13, folder 30. Another letter of August
and others as her steady customers.”
23, 1943, tells Locke that she was then at the George Washing-
100. Brady to Locke, September 4, 1941, Locke Papers, box 164-15,
ton Carver School; see Locke Papers, box 164-13, folder 30. A.
folder 35. 101. The McMillen exhibition did open in October. Under “Art Notes,”
Philip Randolph, international president of the Brotherhood of
the New York Times announced: “Canvases by a group of Negro
Sleeping Car Porters, did write a letter to Howard O. Hunter,
artists, most of whom have earned their living as janitors, eleva-
commissioner of the WPA, dated April 28, 1941, to defend Ben-
tor operators and domestics, though several have college de-
nett against charges of communism; see Gwendolyn Bennett
grees, will be shown at the McMillen Gallery, 148 East Fifty-fifth
Papers, SCRBH. The New York Amsterdam News reported her
Street, from Oct. 16 to Nov. 7. Among the artists to be repre-
suspension on its front page on April 26, 1941.
sented are [Beauford] and Joseph Delaney, Charles Sebree,
112. Lawrence to Leyda, July 15, 1942, Leyda Papers, informs Leyda that his new address is 72 Hamilton Terrace.
[Romare] Beardon [sic], John Carlis, Edzier [sic] Cortor, William Carter and Frank Neal. Part of the Frank Crowninshield collec- tion of African sculpture will be shown at the same time”; clip ping, n.d., marked “N.Y. Times,” Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder
3.
african american storytelling
6. Art News had a longer article; see James W. Lane, “Afro-
The epigraphs are from Arthur A. Schomburg, “The Negro Digs Up
American Art on Both Continents,” Art News 40 (October 15–
His Past,” in The New Negro: An Interpretation, ed. Alain Locke (New
31, 1941): 25. Locke would not have appreciated Lane’s remark
York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925), 231; and James A. Porter, Mod
that “he [Locke] has helped in the installation of a most instruc-
ern Negro Art (1943; repr., Washington, DC: Howard University Press,
tive show . . . which has been put up by McMillen, Inc.”
1992), 142. Parts of this chapter were first developed for my essays
294 notes to pages
50 – 57
“Jacob Lawrence’s Expressive Cubism,” in Jacob Lawrence: American
Achievements,” New York Amsterdam News, November 11, 1931,
Painter, by Ellen Harkins Wheat, exh. cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Mu-
24. Woodson frequently wrote columns for the New York Am
seum, 1986), and “Jacob Lawrence as Pictorial Griot: The Harriet Tubman Series,” American Art 7 (Winter 1993): 40–59.
sterdam News. 9. William Archibald Dunning, an influential American historian who taught at Columbia University in the late nineteenth century,
1. Quoted in Marvel Cooke, “Carving for Posterity,” New York Am
popularized the thesis that the South had been ruined by greedy
sterdam News, November 12, 1937, 12; see Chapter 1 for the full
northern carpetbaggers exploiting the vulnerability of white
quotation. 2. During the Popular Front period, communists toned down their advocacy for revolution; see pp. 289–90, n. 7. 3. See Lawrence, transcript of interview by James Buell and David
southerners following the Civil War. 10. Schomburg, “Negro Digs Up His Past,” 231. St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (New York: Harcourt, 1945), 394, provide one
Driskell, February 4, 1982, 6, Amistad Research Center, Museum
definition of a “Race Man” as one “who has a reputation as an
Services Files, Tulane University.
uncompromising fighter against attempts to subordinate Ne-
4. Jacob Lawrence, quoted in a Harmon Foundation press release, November 12, 1940, Downtown Gallery Records, reel ND5, AAA. A copy is also in the Harmon Foundation Collection, NARA-MD. 5. Alice Citron, a white teacher who headed Communist Party teacher clubs in Harlem, introduced black history to her pupils,
groes.” I am grateful to Richard Courage for bringing this definition to my attention. 11. Ibid., 236. 12. Lawrence, quoted in Harmon Foundation press release, November 12, 1940, quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 39–40.
wrote plays to dramatize black history for her students to per-
13. Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” in Karl Marx and Frederick
form, and distributed bibliographies to other Harlem public
Engels: Selected Works in Two Volumes (Moscow: Foreign Lan-
school teachers. She helped spearhead the celebration in the schools of Negro History Week, inaugurated by Carter Woodson; see Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (1983; repr., New York: Grove Press, 1984), 214–17.
guages Publishing House, 1955), 2:404. 14. Harmon Foundation press release, November 12, 1940, quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 40. 15. Histories of twentieth-century relations between Haiti and the
6. See Deborah Willis, “The Schomburg Collection: A Rich Resource
United States include Brenda Gayle Plummer, Haiti and the
for Jacob Lawrence,” in Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series,
United States: The Psychological Moment (Athens: University of
ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: Rappa-
Georgia Press, 1992), and Mary A. Renda, Taking Haiti: Military
hannock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993), 35. Willis draws on
Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915–1940
Celeste Tibbets, Ernestine Rose and the Origins of the Schom burg Center, Schomburg Center Occasional Papers series, no. 2 (New York: New York Public Library, 1989), 21, for this quote from Ernestine Rose, the head librarian: “It occurred to us that if
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). 16. See “Hoover Ignores Negroes in Naming Haiti Commission,” New York Amsterdam News, February 12, 1930. 17. Harmon Foundation press release, November 12, 1940, quoted
people will listen to politics and patent medicines they will listen
in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 39–40. Although Lawrence said
to education, too, provided it is well presented to them. So we
“Charles” Beard, the famous historian, who with his wife wrote
employed one of the most eloquent and the most popular of these
America at Mid-Passage, he really meant John Reilly Beard, a
speakers and paid him to address large crowds at strategic
mid-nineteenth-century minister who wrote The Life of Tous
corners on the streets of Harlem. Once a week these people were
saint L’Ouverture, the Negro Patriot of Hayti: Comprising an
urged to come to a meeting at the library. This was one of our
Account of the Struggle for Liberty in the Island, and a Sketch
most successful attempts to reach the ‘common man.’ ” Rose
of Its History to the Present Period (London: Ingram, Cooke,
was originally quoted in Margaret E. Monroe, Library Adult Edu
1853). James Redpath reissued Beard’s Life of Toussaint
cation: The Biography of an Idea (New York: Scarecrow Press,
L’Ouverture and added a translation of Mémoires de la vie de
1963), 311–12.
Toussaint L’Ouverture, edited by M. Saint Remy; see [John Reilly
7. For Lawrence’s reference to “Mr. Allen,” see Harmon Foundation
Beard,] Toussaint L’Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography
press release, November 12, 1940, Downtown Gallery Records,
(Boston: James Redpath, 1863). Lawrence probably drew on
reel ND5, AAA, quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 39. The press
both books for his captions, as both were in the Schomburg
release can also be found in Harmon Foundation Collection,
Collection.
NARA-MD. As to the identity of Mr. Allen, see Naison, Communists
During January 1934 the 135th Street branch loaned its col-
in Harlem, 123; also New York Amsterdam News, December 15,
lection of Negro history and literature to the Forty-second Street
1934. Another possibility is James S. Allen, who published The
main branch of the New York Public Library, which included two
Negro Question in the United States (New York: International
display cases focused on Toussaint L’Ouverture and Haiti. The
Publishers, 1936), which defined regional nationalisms.
materials, however, were frequently on view at the Harlem
8. “Carter G. Woodson Calls for History Study to Reveal Group
branch; see New York Amsterdam News, January 10, 1934, 15.
notes to pages
57 – 59
295
In the spring of 1938 the Haitian materials were featured there
be “brilliantly staged, excellently acted and enthusiastically re-
in a special exhibition. Other books that Lawrence may have
ceived.” The play “depicts the attempt of the French to deprive the
studied were James Redpath, A Guide to Hayti (1861; repr., West
Haitians of their newly found freedom, only to be repulsed by the
port, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970), originally published by
militant General Christophe and the daughter of a former slave.
the Haytian Bureau of Migration; H. P. Davis, Black Democracy:
That the play departs from the bounds of actual history is of little
The Story of Haiti, rev. ed. (New York: Dodge, 1936); and J. N.
moment. The result is as stupendous as any production ground
Leger, Haiti: Her History and Her Detractors (1907; repr., West-
out by Hollywood cameras and upholds the WPA federal theatre
port, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970).
tradition of prodigious accomplishment.” See also “Brilliance
18. See John O’Connor and Lorraine Brown, eds., Free, Adult, Un censored: The Living History of the Federal Theatre Project (Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1978). Eugene O’Neil’s play Emperor Jones, about a fictional African
Reigns at ‘Haiti’ Opening,” New York Amsterdam News, March 12, 1938, 16.
Opening night viewers included Rev. and Mrs. Adam Clayton
Powell Jr. and Walter White of the NAACP. Louis Sharp played
American, Brutus Jones, a murderer and con man who travels to
Toussaint; Rex Ingram played Christophe, to be replaced by Ca
Haiti to declare himself emperor, initiated a series of theatrical
nada Lee when the play moved downtown. Elena Karam, a white
productions. The acclaimed actor Charles Sidney Gilpin played
actress, played Odette, and Alvin Childress played her father,
the lead role when the play opened in 1920 in New York; Paul Robeson played Emperor Jones in the 1924 London revival and its
Jacques. The play ran for 180 performances. 21. Dessalines did not have the education of Toussaint, but he
movie adaptation of 1933. In London in 1936 Robeson played
was fierce in battle and decisive, with the motto “Koupe tèt,
Toussaint L’Ouverture in the play Dessalines, written by C. L. R.
boule kay” (“Cut off heads and burn everything”). After Tous-
James, whose seminal and much-acclaimed book The Black Ja
saint’s capture, he led the revolution and defeated the French
cobins was published in 1938. James’s play included a romantic,
in 1803. He was chosen governor-general by his generals and
but fictionalized, relationship between Toussaint and his French
in 1804 proclaimed himself Jacques I, emperor of Haiti. I am
mistress, played by Fredi Washington. See New York Amsterdam
grateful to Lesly René for sharing his knowledge of Haiti
News, February 22, 1936, 8, and March 21, 1936, 8.
with me.
The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the Works Progress
22. See pp. 295–96, n. 17. James Redpath, an American, was hired
Administration produced three plays set in Haiti; see O’Connor
by Haitian president Fabre Geffrard in 1859 to encourage migra-
and Brown, Free, Adult, Uncensored. The FTP’s Christophe:
tion of African Americans and African Canadians to Haiti (see
Black Empire, by Christine Ames and Clarke Painter, opened in
Renda, Taking Haiti, 29). The version of Beard’s Toussaint L’Ou
Los Angeles in March 1936 and later traveled to Seattle. Black
verture that he published (Toussaint L’Ouverture: A Biography
Empire focused on the politics of Haiti at a time when Henri
and Autobiography, 1863) both adds and eliminates sections of
Christophe’s ambitions for empire were being sabotaged. Also,
Beard’s original account: for example, Redpath cuts the section
in November 1936, Langston Hughes’s play Troubled Island (not
devoted to Toussaint’s scriptural studies and the fourth section
an FTP production) opened at the Karamu Theatre in Cleveland
that recounts the period from the evacuation of Haiti by the
by the Gilpin Players. As noted by the Amsterdam News, No-
French to 1853. Instead, Redpath’s fourth section (he calls the
vember 28, 1936, 10, Hughes’s play on Dessalines focused on
sections “books”) consists of the “Memoir of the Life of General
the class struggle between the uneducated blacks and the
Toussaint L’Ouverture, Written by Himself” plus two accounts by
mulattoes who had insinuated themselves into Dessalines’s
Harriet Martineau and John Bigelow of their visits to the Chateau
inner circle, only to betray him and the revolution.
de Joux, where Toussaint was imprisoned and died, as well as
19. John Houseman was in charge of the ambitious production. See
poems written by Wordsworth and John Greenleaf Whittier and
Errol G. Hill and James V. Hatch, A History of African American
excerpts of a speech by Wendell Phillips. The publication, com-
Theatre (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 316–19.
ing in 1863, reinforced the idea that African Americans made
See also Simon Callow, “Voodoo Macbeth,” in Rhapsodies in
good Union soldiers. One assumes that Redpath’s version was
Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, ed. Richard J. Powell and
conceived of as a propaganda tool for the Haitian government’s
David A. Bailey, exh. cat. (Berkeley: University of California
project to increase immigration. 23. When the artist William E. Scott visited Haiti in the early 1930s,
Press, 1997), 35–42. 20. For the text of the play, see Pierre De Rohan, ed., Federal Theatre
he painted at least one scene, Toussaint Leads the Slaves to Vic
Plays: Prologue to Glory, One-Third of a Nation, Haiti (New York:
tory, that refers to the revolution but preferred to paint land-
Random House, 1938).
scapes and genre scenes of present-day Haitians; see Krista A.
The New York Amsterdam News carried several stories on Haiti
Thompson, “Preoccupied with Haiti: The Dream of Diaspora in
during the weeks leading up to its gala opening on March 2, 1938.
African American Art, 1915–1942,” American Art 21 (Fall 2007):
Attending the first performance, the reviewer declared Haiti to
75–97. By 1938 Lawrence certainly would have known the nine-
296 notes to pages
59 – 60
teenth-century paintings of the generals of the American Revo-
24. In 1943 he admitted to radio host Randy Goodman that Gwen-
lution. He would also have known that murals of people living
dolyn Knight had helped him with the texts of his series, but
through historical change had recently been painted by Thomas
the extent to which this occurred is not known; see Lawrence,
Hart Benton and Diego Rivera. Aaron Douglas had done two
transcript of radio interview with Randy Goodman, May 23,
woodcuts representing Eugene O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones” that
1943, New York, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames
were reproduced in Theatre Arts Monthly (February 1926) to accompany Alain Locke’s article “The Negro and the American
352 ff., AAA. 25. Cf. Beard, Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, 27: “he heard the twang
Stage,” Theatre Arts Monthly 10 (February 1926): 112–20, which
of the driver’s whip, and saw the blood streaming from the negro’s
Lawrence may or may not have seen. More likely he saw Doug-
body.” Also quoted in [Beard,] Toussaint L’Ouverture, 38.
las’s portrait of King Christophe, shown in the March 1935 exhi-
26. He made some mistakes in his captions: for example, he mis-
bition Ancient and Modern Negro Art and reproduced in the New
spelled the name of Abbé Raynal (Panel 9), and he stated, in the
York Amsterdam News, March 23, 1935, 9. He may have also
caption for Panel 23, that General L’Ouverture left with five
known of the collaboration of Earle W. Richardson and Malvin
hundred men, whereas Beard, in Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture,
Gray Johnson to produce a set of murals called Negro Achieve ment, sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and
88, states the more accurate number of five thousand. 27. My discussion about Lawrence’s cubism was first developed in
slated for the reading room of the West 135th Street branch of
“Jacob Lawrence’s Expressive Cubism,” my foreword to Wheat,
the New York Public Library. The PWAP folded before the murals
Jacob Lawrence, 15–19.
were undertaken, but a study for Toussaint L’Ouverture (1934)
28. Jacob Lawrence, “The African Idiom in Modern Art,” 12, Jacob
survives in the collection of SCRBC; see Jacqueline Francis,
Lawrence Papers, SCRC; subsequently microfilmed for the AAA.
“Making History: Malvin Gray Johnson’s and Earle W. Richard-
The manuscript is most likely a lecture he gave when he visited
son’s Studies for Negro Achievement,” in The Social and the
Nigeria in 1962.
Real: Political Art of the 1930s in the Western Hemisphere, ed.
29. Ibid., 9.
Alejandro Anreus, Diana L. Linden, and Jonathan Weinberg (Uni-
30. Among scholars of epic, particularly Greek epic, the word
versity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006),
parataxis is used to describe the characteristic of the additive,
135–53.
nonsubordinating style. See references in Erich Auerbach, Mi
There were, of course, precedents in European art for series paintings of religious figures. Lawrence would have seen in
mesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957).
books the early fourteenth-century scenes of the life of Christ
White abolitionists such as Ephraim Peabody considered
and of the Virgin Mary that Giotto painted on the walls of the
slave narratives to be modern versions of epic. William Andrews,
Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy. Giotto’s panels had, in fact, been
To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobi
the specific inspiration for Ben Shahn’s series on the trials of
ography, 1760–1865 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986),
Sacco and Vanzetti, exhibited at the Downtown Gallery in 1932.
98, quotes from Peabody’s “Narratives of Fugitive Slaves,”
In conversation with Ellen Harkins Wheat, February 4, 1983,
Christian Examiner 47 (July 1849): 64: “We know not where one
Lawrence maintained, however, that he had never seen Shahn’s
who wished to write a modern Odyssey could find a better sub-
work before he began his own; see Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 42,
ject than in the adventures of a fugitive slave.”
who corrects Milton W. Brown’s assertion in One Hundred Mas
31. Lawrence confirmed his method, including lining up the panels
terpieces of American Painting from Public Collections in Wash
from left to right, in a telephone conversation with me on Janu-
ington, D.C. (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press,
ary 29, 1992.
1983), 170. Lawrence was, however, certainly familiar with the genre of fourteenth-century predella panels—small panels painted on the lives of saints located below large painted altarpieces; such small
32. Quoted in Beard, Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, 35–36, and Tous saint L’Ouverture, 41. Beard quotes extensively from Raynal. 33. These are the people mentioned by Beard in Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, 54.
works could be seen in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum
34. Margaret Rose Vendryes, “Art in the Archives: The Origins of the
of Art. And even in New York, paintings or sculptural reliefs of
Art Representing the Core of the Aaron Douglas Collection from
the fourteen “Stations of the Cross”—scenes of Jesus carrying
the Amistad Research Center” (MA thesis, Tulane University,
the cross in the hours before his crucifixion—often lined the aisles
1992), 148, has noted the resemblance of Lawrence’s faces, for
of Roman Catholic churches. Moreover, he would have been fa-
example, in Panel 12, to Dahomey appliqué cloth panels pub-
miliar with the photo essays that appeared in Life magazine and
lished in Melville Herskovits. See Melville J. Herskovits, Da
the photographic books of the late 1930s—in fact, the combina-
homey: An Ancient West African Kingdom, vol. 1 (New York: J. J.
tion of image and long caption was at the heart of the photographic documentary mode (see Chapter 4).
Augustin, 1938), plates 7, 15, 39, and 42. 35. Richard Courage noted on an earlier draft of this chapter that
notes to pages
60 – 70
297
this was a crucial plot element of Arna Bontemps’s novel about Haiti, Drums at Dusk (1939). 36. For a reproduction of the Maurin lithograph, see Richard J. Pow-
47. Vansina maintains that “ ‘Ancient things are today.’ Yes, oral traditions are documents of the present, because they are told in the present. Yet they also embody a message from the past,
ell, Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture (Chicago: Uni-
so they are expressions of the past at the same time. They are
versity of Chicago Press, 2008), 60. The details of uniform de-
the representation of the past in the present. One cannot deny
picted in the Maurin lithograph, not the details of the engraved
either the past or the present in them. To attribute their whole
frontispiece, are replicated by Lawrence.
content to the evanescent present as some sociologists do, is to
37. In 1797 Toussaint commanded all the French colonial forces in
mutilate tradition; it is reductionist. To ignore the impact of the
Haiti. In 1801 Toussaint invaded the eastern half of the island of
present as some historians have done, is equally reductionist.
Hispaniola, captured Santa Domingo, and declared all slaves on
Traditions must always be understood as reflecting both past
the island free, events not covered in Lawrence’s narrative. It was
and present in a single breath.” Vansina, Oral Tradition as His
then that the constitution was written. 38. The complex history Lawrence does not tell is the constitutionally stormy period after 1805. Dessalines would be assassinated in 1806, when Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion led a coup
tory, xii. 48. Jacob Lawrence, interview by Carroll Greene, October 26, 1968, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/ lawren68.htm.
against him. Christophe then ruled northern Haiti as president
49. Parent-Teacher Bulletin: P.S. 89—Manhattan, December 1930,
until 1811, when he crowned himself King Henri I, a position he
3, Sc371.105P, General Research and Reference Division,
maintained until his suicide in 1820. Pétion governed in the south
SCRBC, noted in Willis, “Schomburg Collection.” I am grateful to
as president. Eventually, after Christophe’s suicide, the northern and southern sections were reunited. 39. Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 33, also suggests the aesthetics of comic
Chris McKay for tracking down this reference. 50. Aaron Douglas, quoted in the Crisis 39 (January 1932): 449, continues: “Behind her and stretching back symbolically to Africa are the black men and women who toiled and prayed
books as an influence. 40. Sugar is still an issue; see the documentary film The Price of
through three hundred years of servitude, gaining their freedom
Sugar, directed by Bill Haney (Uncommon Productions, 2007).
with the successful termination of the Civil War. A dismounted
41. See Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick Doug
cannon with smoking muzzle is beneath the feet of Harriet Tub-
lass and Harriet Tubman Series of 1938–40, exh. cat. (Hampton,
man. The group of figures to the right of the center symbolizes
VA: Hampton University Museum; Seattle: University of Wash-
the newly liberated people as laborers and heads of families.
ington Press, 1991), hereafter cited as Frederick Douglass and
The last figure symbolizes the dreamer who looks out towards
Harriet Tubman Series. Wheat’s text on the two series is an ex-
higher and nobler vistas, the modern city, for his race. He rep-
cellent introduction.
resents the preachers, teachers, artists, and musicians of the
42. Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 37, defines griot as a “professional . . .
group. The beam of light that cuts through the center of the picture symbolizes divine inspiration.”
praise singer and teller of accounts.” The term is used in West
51. Douglas’s talk “The Negro in American Culture,” delivered at the
African states. While it is doubtful that the word had a wide cur-
First American Artists’ Congress, February 14–16, 1936, was
rency among nonanthropologists in the United States in the 1930s,
printed in the published proceedings, First American Artists’
it has recently come into street use.
Congress, ed. Stuart Davis (New York: American Artists’ Con-
At the end of the Studio Museum interview a member of the
gress, 1936), 12–16, and reprinted in Artists against War and
audience asked the artist if the oral tradition had any influence
Fascism: Papers of the First American Artists’ Congress, ed.
in the development of his narrative. Lawrence responded by
Matthew Baigell and Julia Williams (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
saying that while he recognizes that the panels in the Harriet
University Press, 1986).
Tubman and Frederick Douglass series have a “visual rhythm,”
52. During the 1940s, the best account of Tubman was Earl Conrad,
he was “not consciously” constructing them with the oral tradi-
Harriet Tubman (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1943).
tion in mind. In my interpretations here, I attempt to tease out
Since Conrad’s book was first published by International Pub-
the preconscious, or intuitive, narrative strategies of the pictorial
lishers in 1942, his politics would be close to Lawrence’s out-
structure.
look. Conrad’s papers (in SCRBC) reveal his difficulty in getting
43. Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness:
his manuscript published.
Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (New
53. Lawrence, telephone interview by author, January 29, 1992.
York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 89.
54. Sarah Bradford, Harriet, the Moses of Her People, expanded ed.
44. Ibid.
(1886; repr., Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1974). Editions avail-
45. Ibid., 51.
able to Lawrence at the Schomburg included those of 1869,
46. Ibid., 134.
1886, and 1901.
298 notes to pages
70 – 76
55. See Raymond Hedin, “Strategies of Form in the American Slave
66. A refrain in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Narrative,” in The Art of Slave Narrative: Original Essays in Crit
(1859) makes a similar equation: “Hot weather brings out snakes
icism and Theory, ed. John Sekora and Darwin T. Turner (Ma-
and slaveholders and I like one class of the venomous crea
comb: Western Illinois University, 1982), 25. Other useful studies
tures as little as I do the other.” Gates, Classic Slave Narratives,
of slave narratives include Andrews, To Tell a Free Story, and Robert B. Stepto, “I Rose and Found My Voice: Narration, Authentication, and Authorial Control in Four Slave Narratives,” ch.
489–90. 67. Lawrence uses a caption found in neither Bradford’s Harriet nor Swift’s Railroad to Freedom.
1 in From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-American Narrative,
68. Genesis 30:22–24, 37–50.
2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991).
69. See Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White, You Have
56. Hildegarde Hoyt Swift, The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1932). The illustrations, by James Daugherty, are done in a naturalistic style, very unlike the style of Lawrence; moreover, Lawrence selects very different moments to represent.
Seen Their Faces (New York: Modern Age Books, 1937), following p. 32. 70. A photocopy of this catalogue is in my archives; source unknown. 71. As noted by Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History
57. Robert W. Taylor, Harriet Tubman: The Heroine in Ebony, introd.
of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New
Booker T. Washington (Boston: George H. Ellis, 1909). The fron-
York: Pantheon Books, 1993), 192, “While awaiting WPA employ-
tispiece is a redrawn copy of Bradford’s frontispiece.
ment, Johnson began developing a new style for the portrayal of
58. Recent books on Tubman include Jean M. Humez, Harriet Tub
his people. Impressed by the work of Pippin and Lawrence, he
man: The Life and the Life Stories (Madison: University of Wis-
began painting in what he called his ‘primitive’ style,’ which dif-
consin Press, 2003), and Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman:
fered from the ‘full brush’ style he had developed under Haw-
The Road to Freedom (New York: Little, Brown, 2004).
thorne and extended with his Soutine studies.”
59. See Michael Worton and Judith Still, eds., Intertextuality: Theories
72. The caption of Panel 10 comes from Bradford (Harriet, 29); the
and Practices (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990).
reward notice accompanying Panel 11 is quoted in Swift (Rail
60. In a letter to Alice Breckler, not dated but received by her on
road to Freedom, 121); the generalized statement for the caption
October 20, 1940, Earl Conrad states he does not want to give
of Panel 12 is found in neither Bradford nor Swift and could be
in to the publishers who want him to emphasize Tubman’s visions. Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Research Material; Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Division; SCRBC. 61. Andrews, To Tell a Free Story, 5–6. However, there are many mov ing passages of personal experiences in the slave narratives. 62. See Henry Louis Gates Jr., introduction to The Classic Slave Narra tives, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (New York: Signet Classic, 1987). 63. Bradford, Harriet, 13, with parts of the caption from p. 108. Lawrence was creative in his appropriations—editing, shorten-
Lawrence’s own. 73. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an African Slave (1845), in Gates, Classic Slave Narratives, 320. 74. Whereas Panel 15 was probably Lawrence’s synthesis of many accounts, Panel 16 is drawn from Swift (Railroad to Freedom, 211–12). 75. Aaron Douglas, quoted in the Crisis 39 (January 1932): 449. 76. The captions for both Panels 17 and 18 come from neither Bradford, Harriet, nor Swift, Railroad to Freedom.
ing, and adding his own words. Page numbers are given to Swift,
77. Both captions are drawn from Bradford (Harriet, 33, 39).
Railroad to Freedom, and Bradford, Harriet, only when the cap-
78. The song began: “I’m on the way to Canada, / That cold and dreary
tion comes close to its source. 64. At the end of Bradford, Harriet, is a memoir “cut from the Boston
land, / De sad effects of slavery, / I can’t no longer stand.” It was sung to the tune of “Oh, Susanna.”
Commonwealth of 1863,” which explains Bradford’s version of
79. The caption, found in neither Swift’s Railroad to Freedom nor
the head injury (109): Tubman was hit by a two-pound weight
Bradford’s Harriet, may have its source in the Douglass or John
when she tried to prevent an enraged overseer from pursuing a fugitive slave. 65. Compare such epiphanic moments with the revelation that came to W. E. B. Du Bois when, as a child in Great Barrington, he was
Brown literature. 80. Ellen Harkins Wheat interprets the bird, which also occurs in Panel 30, as a bird of peace. Wheat, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series, 37.
snubbed by a girl and realized he was different from the other
81. The Augustus St. Gaudens sculpture relief for the Shaw Memorial,
children: “Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness
Boston Common, also comes to mind as a source. Although
that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and
Lawrence would not have seen the original, he might have seen
life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.” See
a reproduction.
his essay “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” in The Souls of Black Folk:
82. The caption comes from Swift (Railroad to Freedom, 346).
Essays and Sketches, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1903; repr.,
83. Lawrence, interview by Greene, October 26, 1968, www.aaa
New York: Bantam Books, 1989), 2.
.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/lawren68.htm.
notes to pages
76 – 93
299
84. John Canaday, “The Quiet Anger of Jacob Lawrence,” New York Times, January 6, 1968, 25. 85. Once slaves had made the commitment to flee with Tubman, she
essay “Between Image and Word, Color and Time: Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series,” African American Review 40 (Fall 2006): 572, offers a nuanced reading of the series as a “perfor-
would not allow them to turn back for fear of jeopardizing the
mative textual practice”: “The Migration Series is not a series of
whole group.
‘history paintings,’ then, but a textual performance brimming with personal stories about the momentous experience of mi-
4.
the great migration in memory, pictures, and text
The epigraphs are from Alain Locke, “The New Negro,” in The New
gration; differently put, it is a text of remembrance.” 9. I am grateful to Jeffrey Stewart for bringing this aspect of rural unemployment to my attention. See Pete Daniel, “Command Performances: Photography from the United States Department
Negro: An Interpretation, ed. Alain Locke (New York: Albert and
of Agriculture,” in Official Images: New Deal Photography, ed.
Charles Boni, 1925), 6; Richard Wright, with photo-direction by Edwin
Pete Daniel, Merry A. Foresta, Maren Stange, and Sally Stein
Rosskam, 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), 36. The
United States (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 146. Parts of this chap-
act, administrated by the Agricultural Adjustment Administra-
ter were first developed for my essay “Jacob Lawrence’s Migration
tion, encouraged the reduction of crops in order to raise market
Series: Weavings of Pictures and Texts,” in Jacob Lawrence: The Mi
demand and hence prices for the owners of acreage. Once the
gration Series, ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner, exh. cat. (Washington,
farmers signed up for the allotment plan, they were policed by
DC: Rappahannock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993).
the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. White and black
Many of the FSA photographs reproduced within Daniel’s essay
sharecroppers (who did not own land) were put out of work. 1. See p. 298, n. 42, for the definition of griot in Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 37.
focus on the allotment plans. 10. For example, Benny Andrews’s father, a sharecropper, went to
2. Articles for Art Front, the magazine for the Artists’ Union,
work digging ditches for the WPA.
throughout its years of publication, 1934–37, had urged artists
11. See Carter G. Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration (Washing-
to cope with the underlying causes of economic and social prob-
ton, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1918),
lems. See, for example, Grace Clements, “New Content—New
and Emmett J. Scott, Negro Migration during the War (New York:
Form,” Art Front 2 (March 1936): 8–9. Hugo Gellert illustrated
Oxford University Press, 1920). These books have, of course been
Marx’s Capital in a series of lithographs.
updated by such studies as Campbell and Johnson, Black Migra
3. Jacob Lawrence, “Plan of Work,” JRFA. I am grateful to Diane
tion; Spencer Crew, Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration,
Tepfer for making available her photocopies of Lawrence’s
1915–1940 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press,
Rosenwald applications to the staff of the Phillips Collection and
1987); James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black South
to the authors included in Turner, Jacob Lawrence. 4. Lawrence, “Plan of Work,” 2.
erners, and the Great Migration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); Florette Henri, Black Migration: Movement North,
5. Other artists of the 1930s made a point to include a variety of
1900–1920: The Road from Myth to Man (New York: Anchor Press,
skin tones in their pictures; see the works of Archibald Motley
1976); Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black
Jr., William H. Johnson, Isaac Soyer, Philip Evergood, and Diego
Migration and How It Changed America (New York: Alfred A.
Rivera, among others.
Knopf, 1991); Alferdteen Harrison, ed., The Black Exodus: The
6. Daniel M. Johnson and Rex R. Campbell, Black Migration in
Great Migration from the American South (Jackson: University
America: A Social Demographic History (Durham, NC: Duke Uni-
Press of Mississippi, 1991); and Howard Dodson and Sylviane A.
versity Press, 1981), 9, give the figure of fifteen million, based on
Diouf, In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Phillip Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade (Madison: University of
(Washington, DC: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Cul-
Wisconsin Press, 1969), 11. However, Johnson and Campbell ac-
ture/National Geographic, 2004). For an excellent study of the
knowledge that estimates vary from 3.5 million to 50 million.
impact of the migration on music, literature, and art, see Farah
7. In the general culture, the most popular migration narrative of the 1930s was John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and the movie (1940), in which the Joads, a white farm family, pick up stakes from Oklahoma and move west to California.
Jasmine Griffin, “Who Set You Flowin’?”: The African-American Migration Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 12. See Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration, and Scott, Negro Migration during the War. For the Rosenwald applica-
8. Jane Van Cleve, “The Human Views of Jacob Lawrence,” Stepping
tion, six of Lawrence’s sections are exact quotations from the
Out Northwest 12 (Winter 1982): 34, quoted in Ellen Harkins
chapter headings of Scott. Moreover, in his listing of subhead-
Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat. (Seattle:
ings, Lawrence followed the development of Scott’s analysis,
Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 60. Jutta Lorensen, in her excellent
except that the artist tended to put a positive spin on his
300 notes to pages
93 – 99
topics. For example, Lawrence lists “the prevalence of mob vio-
Photography in America, 1890–1950 (New York: Cambridge Uni-
lence” as a cause of the migration, but he does not mention
versity Press), xiv, for a useful definition of the documentary
lynching specifically, as Scott does. Lawrence no doubt wished
mode, which includes the photograph, “a written caption, an as-
not to worry his liberal supporters at the Julius Rosenwald Fund
sociated text, and a presenting agency.”
that his series might be inflammatory. Alain Locke, in his recom-
18. See Diane Tepfer, “Edith Gregor Halpert: Impresario of Jacob
mendation to the Rosenwald Fund, had assured them that “there
Lawrence’s Migration Series,” in Turner, Jacob Lawrence, 131.
is little or no hint of social propaganda in his pictures” (Alain
Tepfer’s source for Leyda’s relationship with Lawrence is the
Locke, recommendation for Jacob Lawrence, 1940, JRFA). Other
conversations that the authors of the Migration catalogue es-
examples of Lawrence’s positive outlook came in the section “The
says had during meetings with Lawrence held at the Phillips Col-
Effects of the Migration on the South.” He mentioned that wages
lection, Washington, DC, on June 3, 1992, and January 15, 1993.
for Negroes in some southern cities had increased by 150 per-
On The River, see William Alexander, Film on the Left: American
cent, but Scott stated a more conservative 100 percent. While
Documentary Film from 1931 to 1942 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Lawrence declared that “Labor Unions opened their doors to
University Press, 1981).
Negroes,” Scott had said, “The trade unions have been compelled
19. William Stott, in Documentary Expression and Thirties America
to yield, although complete economic freedom of the Negro in
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 212, credits the doc-
the South is still a matter of prospect.” Lawrence made another
umentary film as a major precedent for the documentary book
point—“Business decreases to such an extent as to cause the
and quotes Alfred Kazin, “who thought Pare Lorentz had devel-
closing of shops”—not discussed by Scott. Lawrence felt free to
oped this ‘new genre’ in The River[1937], the words and images
appropriate facts from other sources but felt no compunction to
of which ‘were not only mutually indispensable, a kind of com-
follow these sources doggedly. Migrants in the Harlem commu-
mentary upon each other, but curiously interchangeable.’ ” Stott
nity might have told him about the “closing of shops.”
then reminds the reader that earlier books, such as the Pitts
13. Lawrence, transcript of radio interview by Randy Goodman, May 23, 1943, New York, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549,
burgh Survey (1909–14) were also sources for the documentary photo/text book.
frames 352 ff., AAA. Captions here are the original 1940–41
Lawrence worked on conservation projects in the CCC for
captions reproduced in Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois,
four and a half months in 1936 and may well have seen the film
Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935–1999),
after it premiered in 1937. He knew people in film circles, for in
a Catalogue Raisonné (Seattle: University of Washington
1940 Jay Leyda, then working in the film library of MoMA, intro-
Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000),
duced Lawrence to Orozco (Lawrence in conversation with the
49–55. Lawrence updated the captions for the 1993 exhibition
Phillips team of exhibition authors, January 15, 1993); see Chap-
at the Phillips C ollection, but they were only included as an appendix. 14. According to Maren Stange, “ ‘The Record Itself’: Farm Security
ter 2. 20. As indicated on p. 297, n. 31, Lawrence intended that they should be read from left to right.
Administration Photography and the Transformation of Rural
21. For color reproductions of all sixty panels, see the Web site of
Life,” in Daniel, Foresta, Stange, and Stein, Official Images, 1,
the Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Virtual Resource Center,
“The FSA began in 1935 as the Resettlement Administration
www.jacobandgwenlawrence.org/, or Turner, Jacob Lawrence.
(RA), an independent coordinating agency that inherited rural
22. Regarding the three specific cities: Lawrence might have re-
relief activities and land-use administration from the Depart-
ferred to Scott’s Negro Migration, which had chapters on St.
ment of the Interior, the Federal Emergency Relief Administra-
Louis and Chicago; Lawrence himself was from New York. Gwen-
tion, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.” Stange
dolyn Knight’s adopted family took her to St. Louis from Barba-
adds that the RA lost its status in 1937 and then was renamed
dos before she went east; the families of both Langston Hughes
the Farm Security Administration under the Department of Ag-
and Richard Wright had moved from the South to Chicago.
riculture (2). She also notes that Roy Stryker, in charge of pro-
23. Montaged images of crowds of people moving left, right, back
ducing and distributing photographs, “saw to it that, by 1938,
and toward the front were common in the films of the 1920s; one
FSA photographs had appeared in Time, Fortune, Today, Look, and Life” (1). The photographs were also included in exhibitions, such as one at MoMA in 1936. 15. See Carl Fleischhauer and Beverly W. Brannan, eds., Document ing America, 1935–1943 (Berkeley: University of California Press; Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1988).
thinks of Sergei Eisenstein’s Potemkin (USSR, 1920). 24. Scott, Negro Migration, 53, made the point that when northern white workers moved to higher-paid jobs in munitions plants they left a gap in the ranks of the common laborers. 25. Lawrence recalled, during his conversation with the curator and authors of the Migration exhibition catalogue in June 1992, that
16. Stange, “ ‘The Record Itself,’ ” 1.
this scene was intended to represent the view from the window.
17. See Maren Stange, Symbols of Ideal Life: Social Documentary
The panel has an uncanny resemblance to Arthur Dove’s Fields
notes to pages
99 – 101
301
of Grain as Seen from a Train (1931, Albright-Knox Art Gallery,
addition to Frazier’s Negro Family, Charles W. Taussig’s Rum,
Buffalo, NY). See Lorensen, “Between Image and Word,” 577–81,
Romance and Rebellion, Arthur Raper and Ira De A. Reid’s
for an analysis of the colors and imagery of Panels 6 and 7.
Sharecroppers All, Elizabeth Lawson’s History of the American
26. Woodson, Century of Negro Migration, 168. Woodson cites the
Negro People, 1619–1918, Louis Wirth’s “Urbanism as a Way of
Crisis, July 1917, as a source. 27. A provocative analogy would be to the Kuba cloth of Africa, which seems to show a fixed repetition of forms, when in fact it confounds expectations of pattern regularity.
Life” (American Journal of Sociology 44[July 1938]), and Horace R. Cayton and George S. Mitchell’s Black Workers and the New Unions. Recent scholars have focused on the Chicago School of So-
28. Milton W. Brown, in the essay for the first major retrospective
ciology, rather than Marxism, as Wright’s influence, as did
exhibition of Lawrence’s work, was the first to point out that
Wright himself after he had rejected the Communist Party. In a
these captions must be thought of as texts “for which the pic-
lengthy introduction to St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton,
ture is a visual equivalent or symbol, rather than a literal illus-
Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (New
tration.” See Milton W. Brown, Jacob Lawrence, exh. cat. (New
York: Harcourt, Brace, 1945), xviii, Wright wrote that he had en-
York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974), 11. Panel 13 can
countered “the work of men who were studying the Negro com-
also be seen as a triplet with Panels 14 and 15; the point is that
munity, amassing facts about urban Negro life, and I found that
viewers can get involved in the rhythm of the whole.
sincere art and honest science were not far apart, that each
29. For Eisenstein’s concept of “ideational size,” see Sergei Eisen-
could enrich the other. The huge mountains of fact piled up by
stein, Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, ed. and trans. Jay Leyda
the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago gave
(1949; repr., New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977).
me my first concrete vision of the forces that molded the urban
30. Lawrence did not know it at the time, but his sister Geraldine was to die of tuberculosis in 1944.
Negro’s body and soul.” He then cited the influence on him of Robert E. Park, Robert Redfield, and Louis Wirth. For discus-
31. Locke, “New Negro,” 7.
sions of the Chicago School’s influence on Wright’s thought, see
32. I had the good fortune to look at these panels with Jeffrey Stew-
John M. Reilly, “Richard Wright Preaches the Nation: 12 Million
art as they hung at the Phillips in June 1992; I am grateful to him
Black Voices,” Black American Literature Forum 16 (Autumn
for pointing out the policeman’s baton.
1982): 116–19; Maren Stange, “ ‘Not What We Seem’: Image and
33. Relevant to Lawrence’s series is Mary Douglas, Thinking in Cir
Text in 12 Million Black Voices,” in Iconographies of Power: The
cles: An Essay on Ring Composition (New Haven, CT: Yale Uni-
Politics and Poetics of Visual Representation, ed. Ulla Hasel-
versity Press, 2007).
stein, Berndt Ostendorf, and Peter Schneck (Heidelberg: Univer-
34. J. Hillis Miller, “Narrative,” in Critical Terms for Literary Study, ed.
sitätsverlag, 2003), 177; and Robert Bone and Richard Courage,
Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: University of
“ ‘Sincere Art and Honest Science’: Bronzeville and the Docu-
Chicago Press, 1990), 70, has observed: “If we need stories to
mentary Spirit,” ch. 7 of The Muse in Bronzeville: African Amer
make sense of our experience, we need the same stories over and
ican Creative Expression in Chicago, 1928–1950 (New Bruns-
over to reinforce that sense making. Such repetition perhaps reassures by the reencounter with the form that the narrative gives to life. . . . The repetitions within the pattern are pleasurable in themselves, and they give pleasure when they are repeated.”
wick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, forthcoming). 38. Wright, 12 Million Black Voices, 149, and Hazel Rowley, Richard Wright: The Life and Times (New York: Henry Holt, 2001), 236–37. 39. See Rowley, Richard Wright, 189–90, 249–51; see also Stange,
35. Locke, New Negro, 6.
“ ‘Not What We Seem,’ ” 174, 175. As to the advice about photo-
36. Rosskam had successfully done earlier books using FSA photo-
graphs, see Wright Papers, box 62, folder 730.
graphs, such as Washington, Nerve Center (New York: Alliance
40. The figure of 1,500 photographs comes from Horace R. Cayton,
Book Corp., 1939) and San Francisco, West Coast Metropolis
“Wright’s New Book More Than a Study of Social Status,” Pitts
(New York: Alliance Book Corp., 1939).
burgh Courier, November 15, 1941, reprinted in Richard Wright:
37. In a late draft, Wright listed in his foreword thirteen sources that
The Critical Reception, ed. John M. Reilly (New York: Burt Frank-
he “relied on most heavily.” But in the “setting typescript,” and
lin, 1978), 104–5. For other accounts of this project, see Nicho-
consequently the book (see p. 6), seven sources had been elim-
las Natanson, The Black Image in the New Deal: The Politics of
inated: E. Franklin Frazier’s The Negro Family in Chicago (al-
FSA Photography (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press,
though the published book included Frazier’s The Negro Family
1992), 244–55; Stange, “ ‘Not What We Seem,’ ” 173–86; and
in the United States); Joseph Stalin’s Marxism and the National
Bone and Courage, “ ‘Sincere Art and Honest Science.’ ”
and Colonial Question; Hortense Powdermaker’s After Freedom;
41. Other than the two letters in the Leyda Papers (from Leyda to
John Dollard’s Caste and Class in a Southern Town; Karl Mann
Wright, and Wright’s reply), no further letters have surfaced in
heim’s Ideology and Utopia; Scott Nearing’s Black America; and
the Wright Papers at Yale.
Peter F. Drucker’s The End of Economic Man. See Wright Papers,
42. I want to thank Kim Sichel and Richard Courage for suggesting
box 62, folders 730 and 732. The published version listed, in
a few pithy phrases that I have incorporated into this section.
302 notes to pages
101 – 121
Note that the reprint does not include the subtitle “A Folk His-
of those forces that tended to reshape our folk consciousness,
tory of the Negro in the United States.”
and a few of us stepped forth and accepted within the confines
43. Wright, 12 Million Black Voices, xix.
of our personalities the death of our old folk lives, an acceptance
44. This section also contains a photo spread of six photographs,
of a death that enabled us to cross class and racial lines, a death
the captions of which were culled by Rosskam from Wright’s text to describe late 1930s types: “The black maid,” “The black in-
that made us free.” 51. Lawrence admired Wright’s Native Son and found the portrayal
dustrial worker,” The black stevedore,” “The black dancer,” “The
of Bigger Thomas very powerful; see Jacob Lawrence and Gwen-
black waiter,” and “The black sharecropper.”
dolyn Knight, typed transcript of interview by Paul J. Karlstrom,
45. The contemporary artist Whitfield Lovell deals with imagery of ancestral portraits. 46. The actual authorship of the captions was a sensitive issue to
November 18, 1998, 66, Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed), AAA, provided to me by Paul J. Karlstrom. 52. Lorensen, “Between Image and Word,” 582–84, interprets the
Rosskam, who criticized Leonard Lyons for his review of the
frontal poses in Panel 60 as an assertion of the migrants’ “ar-
book in the New York Post. Rosskam insisted that Wright wrote
ticulated subject position,” one that fosters a we/you relationship
“much more than captions” as his contribution to the book. See
between the artist and the viewer. On June 3, 1992, when Henry
Rosskam to Lyons, September 26, 1941, copy, Wright Papers,
Louis Gates Jr. interviewed Jacob Lawrence at the Phillips Col-
box 105, folder 1585. Probably the very short page captions were
lection, Gates remarked, “There is no American culture without
drawn from Wright, but maybe edited by Rosskam.
black American culture,” and Lawrence replied, “You can’t say . . .
47. Reilly, “Richard Wright Preaches,” 117. See also John M. Reilly,
they did it: We did it. We did it together.” See Jacob Lawrence,
“Reconstruction of Genre as Entry into Conscious History,” Black
transcript of interview by Henry Louis Gates Jr., June 3, 1992, 7,
American Literature Forum 13 (Spring 1979): 3–6, and Jack B.
Phillips Collection, portions of which are published in Elsa South-
Moore, “The Voice in 12 Million Black Voices,” Mississippi Quar
gall, ed., Jacob Lawrence and the Migration Series (Washington,
terly 42 (Fall 1989): 415–24. Moore, while acknowledging Reilly’s insights, focuses on the parallels with 1930s documentary film, not only Pare Lorentz’s The Plow That Broke the Plains and The
DC: Phillips Collection, 2007). 53. In an afterword, “About the Photographs,” 149, Rosskam reckoned some sixty-five thousand pictures were in the FSA files.
River, but also the March of Time movie shorts shown in movie
54. Rothstein did several FSA photographs of evicted sharecroppers
houses along with feature films. Natanson, Black Image, 250, is
along U.S. Highway 60, reproduced in Natanson, Black Image,
critical of Wright’s single-minded focus on fundamentalist religion, which “contrasted notably with the original Easter Sunday
120–28; not all of them are black. 55. See Natanson, Black Image, 247. The image of Lint Shaw, lynched
survey by Lee and Rosskam” in Chicago’s churches. The quota-
on April 28, 1936, near Royston, Georgia, was reproduced in the
tion from Wright in the text uses ellipses to both open and end the
Crisis 43 (June 1936).
paragraph. Only the internal ellipsis is mine. 48. Unlike Lawrence’s narrative, Wright’s text acknowledges that the
56. The first major traveling exhibition of lynching photography was Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. A book of
migration consisted of “thousands of the poor whites also pack-
the same name with essays by James Allen, Hilton Als, Congress
ing up to move to the city” (12 Million Black Voices, 93). The
man John Lewis, and Leon F. Litwack was published in Santa Fe,
white sharecroppers, although not the victims per se of Jim
NM, by Twin Palms Publishers in 2000.
Crow, nonetheless were evicted from their homes when farm
57. Another photographic version of the lynched Shaw is in the 1988
owners contracted with the government to decrease their pro-
reissue of 12 Million Black Voices: same victim, with the photog-
ductive acreage. Both races are the subjects of Arthur Roth-
rapher moving to capture a more frontal shot, but in this instance
stein’s photographs of New Madrid County, Missouri. Neither
another group of white men is shown. The unknown photographer
Lawrence nor Wright discusses the evictions that occurred be-
obviously intended the photographs as mementos for more than
cause of the Agricultural Adjustment Act; see my p. 300, n. 11.
one group of white men.
49. Lawrence did not paint pictures of emotional congregants raising
58. Griffin, “Who Set You Flowin’?,” begins her first chapter with a
their arms and praising the Lord. Gwendolyn Knight was an
meditation on this painting and other works by Lawrence; see
Episcopalian from Barbados and did not go for the kind of emo-
13 ff. The art historian Alona Wilson recalls Lawrence discussing
tionalism seen in photographs of southern Baptists. 50. Wright’s views are not surprising, given his involvement with the
the work at the St. Louis Art Museum in 1994, when the Migra tion series was on view: “He spoke in front of Panel No. 15 about
Communist Party. He pointed out that “many unemployed white
the subject of the panel, lynching. To paraphrase his words, he
workers joined with us on a national scale to urge relief mea-
spoke about why he painted the back of a seated person with
sures and adequate housing” (12 Million Black Voices, 144) and
head downward and an empty noose hanging from a barren tree.
that black workers had become friends with their white com-
He said that he chose not to paint the violence of the act of
rades. To Wright such integration had a positive effect: “In this
lynching but instead wanted to show the loss. The seated person
way we encountered for the first time in our lives the full effect
was alone. He wanted to depict the loss and loneliness that
notes to pages
121 – 129
303
followed the lynching. For this loss could be a friend, a brother,
is down South, he does not find much hospitality and recreation
a cousin, a sister, or a father leaving the seated person alone.”
in the civilian communities outside. This, rather than experi-
E-mail to author, April 6, 2007.
ences of their actual army life, is what Negro soldiers complain
59. One would expect critical acclaim for Richard Wright upon pub-
about. Every army’s petty enemy, the boredom of repeated eve-
lication of 12 Million Black Voices that November 1941. Ralph
nings spent inside the barracks, strikes the Negro soldier as just
Thompson, writing in the New York Times, said: “A more elo-
another liability of segregation.”
quent and belligerent statement of its kind could hardly have
69. Lawrence did not want the series split up; however, he was per-
been devised. Mr. Wright’s text is neither ‘impartial’ nor does it
suaded to do so when he was told that the two museums were
attempt to show ‘all sides’; it is a stinging indictment of Ameri-
vying for them. See Lawrence, interview by Gates, June 3, 1992,
can attitudes toward the Negro over a period of 300 years.” The
24. MoMA took the even numbers because the actual purchaser
New York Sunday Worker called it “perhaps the first realistic,
for MoMA, Mrs. Adele Rosenwald Levy (daughter of Julius
class-conscious narrative of the Negro people in the United
Rosenwald), liked Panel 46; the Phillips Collection took the odd
States ever to be gotten together.” Samuel Sillen, writing for New Masses, declared that Wright “has depicted the basic pat-
numbers. 70. The rental fee was $50 for a three-week exhibition; it traveled to
terns of that complex experience[of the Negro people in America]
Vassar College (New York); the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
in its movement from the debased forms of feudalism toward the
(Michigan); the Currier Gallery of Art (New Hampshire); the Ad-
industrial and urban society of the twentieth century.” Such re-
dison Gallery of American Art (Massachusetts); Wheaton Col-
views were just more notches in his rifle of social commentary—
lege (Massachusetts); the California Palace of the Legion of
whether fiction or nonfiction. All three are reprinted in Reilly,
Honor; the Portland Art Museum (Oregon); the E. B. Crocker Art
Richard Wright.
Gallery (California); Mr. William Hill of Los Angeles; the Principia,
60. Charles Alston informed Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson
St. Louis (Missouri); Indiana University; West Virginia State Col-
that behind the scenes at Fortune Alston had helped Deborah
lege; Lyman Allen Museum (Connecticut); and Harvard Univer-
Calkins, assistant to the art director, select the Lawrence paint-
sity (Massachusetts). See MoMA Archives, Queens.
ings; see Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon Books, 1993), 264. See my Chapter 2 for the negotiations over payment finessed by Edith Halpert. 61. Locke to Peter Pollack, “Tues” (sometime in October 1941), Locke Papers, box 164-78, folder 4. See also Chapter 2.
71. Emay Twining to Roy Stryker, September 17, 1942, MoMA Archives, Queens. 72. The titles Twining cited in her request were almost the verbatim titles listed in the back pages of 12 Million Black Voices to identify the photographs. 73. Monroe Wheeler, director of exhibitions at MoMA, wrote a memo
62. The twenty-six pictures chosen to be reproduced in “ ‘. . . And the
to Elodie Courter, August 1, 1944, saying he was in favor of keep-
Migrants Kept Coming’: A Negro Artist Paints the Story of the
ing the panels for a MoMA showing and wanted to include five of
Great American Minority,” Fortune, November 1941, 102–9, were
the Coast Guard paintings. Eventually eight Coast Guard paint-
Nos. 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 24, 28, 40, 42, 45, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, and 60. This includes the scenes of the lynching noose (Panel 16), the race riot (Panel 52), the firebombed building (Panel 51), and the southern policeman arrest-
ings were shown. See MoMA Archives. 74. Lawrence was on active duty in the Coast Guard but was given leave to attend the opening; see Chapter 5, Fig. 102. 75. Clipping included in Exhibition Scrapbook, No. 61, MoMA Ar-
ing the migrants (Panel 42). The editors of Fortune abbreviated
chives, Queens. It was typical for critics at the time to use words
many of Lawrence’s captions but did not essentially censor his
such as primitive when discussing the art of African Americans.
words, except for Panel 42, where the caption states that the
See p. 279, n. 25.
migrants “were held in the railroad station” rather than using
76. Art Digest 19 (November 1, 1944): 7.
Lawrence’s words, “They . . . arrested the Negroes wholesale.”
77. Art News, October 15, 1944, 15. Louchheim wrote under the name
63. Henry R. Luce, “The American Century,” Life, February 17, 1941,
Aline Saarinen after she married Eero Saarinen. 78. Catlett’s article was titled “Artist with a Message,” People’s Voice,
63. 64. “ ‘ . . . And the Migrants Kept Coming,’ ” 102.
clipping dated October 21, 1944, Exhibitions Scrapbook, No. 61, MoMA Archives, Queens.
65. Ibid., 108. 66. See “The Negro’s War,” Fortune, June 1942, 77–80, 157–58, 160,
79. Ibid. 80. Jacob Lawrence to Jane Lang of the Sprenger-Lang Foundation,
162, 164. 67. Ibid., 77–78.
Washington, DC, May 12, 2000, Lawrence-Knight Papers, Estate
68. Ibid., 80. The caption reads in part: “In his military camp the
of Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence, Seattle, 2006, promised gift
Negro soldier gets training and food of the same quality, and in the same quantities, as his white fellow soldier. But if the camp
304 notes to pages
129 – 133
to AAA. 81. Lawrence, “Plan of Work,” 2.
5.
confrontations with the jim crow south in the 1940 s
The epigraphs are from Langston Hughes, “Here to Yonder,” Chi
News, January 8, 1930, for a review of Walter White, Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929). 9. For recent studies on lynching, see W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Under
cago Defender, February 13, 1943, 14; and Dora Apel, Imagery of
Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South (Chapel Hill: Univer-
Lynching: Black Men, White Women, and the Mob (New Brunswick,
sity of North Carolina Press, 1997); Orlando Patterson, Rituals
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), 81. Parts of this chapter were
of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries
first developed for “ ‘In the Heart of the Black Belt’: Jacob Lawrence’s
(New York: Basic Books, 1998), ch. 2; James Allen, Hilton Als,
Commission from Fortune to Paint the South,” International Review
Congressman John Lewis, and Leon F. Litwack, Without Sanctu
of African American Art 19, no. 1 (2003): 28–36.
ary: Lynching Photography in America (Santa Fe, NM: Twin
The Lynching of Black America (New York: Random House,
Palms, 2000); Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: 1. Quoted in Bennett Schiff, “The Artist as Man in the Street,” New York Post Sunday Magazine, March 26, 1961, 2.
2002); Apel, Imagery of Lynching; Jonathan Markovitz, Legacies
2. According to Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, “Or Does It Explode?”: Black
of Lynching: Racial Violence and Memory (Minneapolis: Univer-
Harlem in the Great Depression (New York: Oxford University
sity of Minnesota Press, 2004); Jacqueline Goldsby, A Spec
Press, 1991), 250 n. 11, “Of 224,670 blacks in Manhattan in
tacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature (Chi-
1930, 47,642 were born in New York State, 124,087 others were
cago: University of Chicago Press, 2006); and Dora Apel and
native-born non-New Yorkers, and 39,833 were foreign-born
Shawn Michelle Smith, Lynching Photographs (Berkeley: Univer-
blacks.” She cites the U.S. Bureau of the Census publication Ne
sity of California Press, 2007).
groes in the United States, 1920–1932 (Washington, DC: U.S.
10. Annual Reports of the NAACP, 1930–1935, quoted in Raymond
Department of Commerce, 1935), 32. See also Gilbert Osofsky,
Wolters, Negroes and the Great Depression: The Problem of
Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Negro New York, 1890–1930
Economic Recovery (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1970), 116. The
(1963; repr., New York: Harper and Row, 1966). The foreign born
NAACP reports drew on statistics from Tuskegee Institute.
were mainly from the Caribbean. The point is that there was
11. See, for example, October 25, 1933—editorial cartoon referring
never one homogeneous “black community”; there were many. 3. George S. Schuyler, “What the Negro Thinks of the South,” Negro Digest 3 (May 1943): 53.
to George Armwood lynched by a Maryland mob; March 9, 1935—photo of Abraham Smith and Thomas Shipp lynched in Indiana; September 21, 1935—editorial cartoon referring to
4. Langston Hughes, “He’d Leave Him Dying,” Chicago Defender,
Edward Higginbotham lynched in Mississippi; July 18, 1936—-
December 19, 1942, 14. A selection of Hughes’s columns can be
editorial cartoon contrasting the South and the North; October
found in Christopher C. De Santis, Langston Hughes and the
22, 1938—W. C. Williams lynched in Louisiana (five thousand
Chicago Defender (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995). In
came to view the body). John Wilson, a Boston African American
many of these columns, Langston Hughes discussed his atti-
artist born in 1922, told me in a 1995 interview that he had
tudes about the South and his experiences of riding in segre-
grown up in a family that subscribed to black newspapers. The
gated trains. 5. Jane Van Cleve, “The Human Views of Jacob Lawrence,” Stepping
weekly references to lynchings in the newspapers made a strong impression on Wilson and affected his subsequent artwork; see
Out Northwest 12 (Winter 1982): 34, quoted in Ellen Harkins
Patricia Hills, “A Portrait of the Artist as an African-American:
Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat. (Seattle:
A Conversation with John Wilson,” in Dialogue: John Wilson/
Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 60.
Joseph Norman, introd. Edmund Barry Gaither and Shelley R.
6. For a history of black newspapers in the 1930s, particularly the New York Amsterdam News, by one of its reporters, see Roi O ttley, “New World A-Coming”: Inside Black America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943), 268–88. 7. Whenever I visited Lawrence in Seattle during the 1990s to
Langdale, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists/Museum of Fine Arts, 1995), 31. 12. For a synopsis of events, see Douglas O. Linder, “The Trials of ‘The Scottsboro Boys,’ ” 2008, www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/ projects/fTrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm.
conduct interviews, he would begin by pointing to the New York
13. On labor organizers in the South, see Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer
Times and asking me what I thought of the then current news
and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression
events. He avidly read newspapers. In 1992 Lawrence recalled
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990).
Kelly Miller, a Howard University professor and a regular colum-
14. The editors of the New York Amsterdam News, vexed by President
nist for the Amsterdam News, who “was quoted quite a bit at
Roosevelt’s failure to comment on lynchings, published a large
that time”; see Lawrence, transcript of interview by Henry Louis
two-column blank space on the front page of the January 12,
Gates Jr., June 3, 1992, 2, Phillips Collection.
1935, issue, with the headline “Here’s Mr. Roosevelt’s Message
8. See J. A. Rogers, “Rambling Ruminations,” New York Amsterdam
on Lynching,” to dramatize Roosevelt’s failure to comment.
notes to pages
135 – 137
305
15. On the lynching exhibitions, see Marlene Park, “Lynching and
23. Langston Hughes devoted most of his Chicago Defender column
Antilynching: Art and Politics in the 1930s,” Prospects 18 (1993):
of May 10, 1947, to the nonadmittance of blacks to whites-only
311–65; Helen Langa, “Two Antilynching Art Exhibitions: Politi-
hospitals. The story that Smith was refused admittance to a
cized Viewpoints, Racial Perspectives, Gendered Constraints,”
whites-only hospital and subsequently died en route to a hos-
American Art 13, no. 1 (1999): 10–39; Margaret Rose Vendryes,
pital for blacks, reported in the November 1937 issue of Down
“Hanging on Their Walls: An Art Commentary on Lynching, the
Beat magazine, has since been discredited; she apparently died
Forgotten 1935 Art Exhibition,” in Race Consciousness: African-
after she arrived in the local black hospital, although the delay
American Studies for the New Century, ed. Judith Jackson Fos-
was a factor. However, hospitals were also segregated in the
sett and Jeffrey A. Tucker (New York: New York University Press,
North. The New York Amsterdam News reported in its March
1997); Andrew Hemingway, Artists on the Left: American Artists
20, 1937, issue, p. 1, that the sick wife of W. C. Handy was not
and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956 (New Haven, CT: Yale
admitted to Knickerbocker Hospital in Manhattan and died in
University Press, 2002), 64–67; Apel, Imagery of Lynching,
the ambulance, which had waited an hour. 24. “Escaped Twice from Prison Farms in South,” New York Amster
83–131. 16. See[NAACP,] An Art Commentary on Lynching (New York: Ar-
dam News, December 25, 1937, 24. The New York Amsterdam
thur U. Newton Galleries, 1935), an eight-page catalogue listing
News, January 1, 1938, 20, reported that he had been given a
the artists, reproducing six artworks, and printing short essays
reprieve. However, on January 22, 1938, p. 2, the New York Am
by Sherwood Anderson and Erskine Caldwell. The list of over
sterdam News reported that another man, nineteen-year-old
two hundred patrons is a who’s who of progressive liberals. I want to thank Matthew Baigell for sending me a photocopy of
Fleming Mix, was returned to the chain gang. 25. “Fears Dixie Mob, Says Southern Mob Waiting,” New York Am sterdam News, January 8, 1938, 6. The article shows a smiling
the catalogue. 17. J. T., “Lynching Art Show Lauded,” New York Amsterdam News,
Jones wearing a white shirt and tie. Figures in news photos in
February 23, 1935, 5. The reviewer listed the names of the black
the black press often wore business attire to convey their re-
artists and singled out for praise Bannarn’s etching Claiming
spectability.
Their Dead and Campbell’s drawing I Passed along the Way
26. “New Yorkers, Stranded in Dixie, Walk 778 Miles Fleeing Peon-
(later reproduced as the cover for the April 1935 issue of the
age,” New York Amsterdam News, May 17, 1933, 1. In another
Crisis). Of the latter, the reviewer said: “It depicts a figure of
instance, Jadie W. Lewis, a longtime abused field hand, drove
Christ shouldering a huge cross, while walking beside him is a
with his white boss in a truck filled with potatoes from Alabama.
Negro who is being pulled along by a rope around his neck.” The
(Greedy for the land owned by Lewis’s parents, the white boss
reviewer then added: “Incidentally, one artist’s work was re-
had previously burned down their house, killing the parents.)
jected because it was considered a bit too daring. It showed a
When kicked by the boss, Lewis fought back, and New York City
figure of a degenerated lyncher proudly exhibiting the genital
police intervened. When brought to the station, a sympathetic
organs which he had cut off the prostrate figure of a Negro.”
police lieutenant released Lewis with carfare to Harlem and ad-
Apel, Imagery of Lynching, 134–35 and fig. 59, has identified this
monished him “to stay away from Alabama”; see New York Am
shockingly explicit drawing as Alston’s work. Alston’s work was also rejected by the ACA Gallery. 18. See T. R. Poston, “Judge Lynch Presides. Mary Turner and 18 Men Died in 5 Days of Georgia Terror,” New York Amsterdam News,
sterdam News, October 2, 1937, 1, 19. 27. Ruth Fine, ed., The Art of Romare Bearden, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003), 214. 28. See Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of AfricanAmerican Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon
February 23, 1935, 9. 19. A third installment of Poston’s series appeared on March 9, but the New York Amsterdam News did not cover the ACA Gallery’s
Books, 1993), 264. 29. I am grateful to Barbara Earl Thomas for allowing me to review
exhibition. Throughout the late 1930s the Amsterdam News,
the Lawrences’ book collection in Seattle in 2006 before the
like the black press in general, never relented on reporting in-
books were packed and shipped to various libraries. 30. Peter Wellington Clark, Delta Shadows: A Pageant of Negro
stances of lynchings. 20. Hemingway, Artists on the Left, 65, states that he cannot identify any of the ACA Gallery exhibitors as African American; nor can I.
Progress in New Orleans ([New Orleans]: Graphic Arts Studios, 1942), 15.
See the catalogue, ACA Gallery, Struggle for Negro Rights (New
31. Ibid.
York: ACA Gallery, 1935).
32. Clark believed that the New Orleans black universities—Xavier
21. Stephen Alexander, “Art,” New Masses 14 (March 19, 1935): 29,
and Dillard—would produce young men and women who would
quoted in Hemingway, Artists on the Left, 65. The New York Am
move the race forward; and he reminded his readers that jazz
sterdam News tended to be antagonistic toward activities spon-
greats Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Henry “Red” Allen, Barney
sored by front groups of the Communist Party.
Bigard, and “Zuddie” Singleton, all hometown boys, had created
22. See ACA Gallery, Struggle for Negro Rights.
306 notes to pages
137 – 141
some of the greatest music of America (Delta Shadows, 101).
33. See Sheryl Conkelton and Barbara Earl Thomas, Never Late for
the twenty-two John Brown panels and has also “been doing
Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight, exh. cat. (Seattle: University of
research and paintings concerning the urban life of the southern
Washington Press; Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2003).
Negro.” He plans to do additional paintings “about the life of
34. Edith Halpert to Jacob Lawrence, November 24, 1941, and De-
Negroes in the rural community.” He then appeals for a renewal
cember 15, 1951, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames
of his Rosenwald Fellowship so that he can undertake to do a set
396 and 399, AAA.
of paintings on Harlem: “After having lived in the South I find
35. Lawrence mentions the four paintings in an undated letter re-
some things in Harlem clearer. The added experience in the South
sponding to Halpert’s November 8, 1941, letter, Downtown Gal-
has made me better qualified to do a deeper study of Harlem.” I
lery Records, reel 5549, frames 394–95, AAA. Peter T. Nesbett
want to thank Diane Tepfer for giving me photocopies of docu-
and Michelle DuBois, Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and
ments from JRFA. For the John Brown series, see Ellen Sharp,
Murals (1935–1999), a Catalogue Raisonné (Seattle: University
ed., The Legend of John Brown (Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of
of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000) (hereafter cited as Catalogue Raisonné), 56, incorrectly call Rampart Street a Harlem scene.
Arts, 1978). 44. Louisiana was also getting unpleasant. In January 1942 a riot erupted in the town of Alexandria, between Baton Rouge and
36. Clark, Delta Shadows, 99.
Shreveport, with thousands of black servicemen from the three
37. Lawrence does not name Bus and The Wall in his letters to
military bases and three airfields nearby, along with civilians,
Halpert; Nesbett and DuBois’s Catalogue Raisonné, 56 and
caught in a melee of “brawling, cursing, shattering glass, ex-
57, does not include the Downtown Gallery as part of the paint-
ploding tear gas, and the report of firearms.” See Fairclough,
ings’ provenance. It is likely that he kept these two paintings for
Race and Democracy, 74–75. He refers to Harvard Sitkoff, “Ra-
a time. 38. Charles S. Johnson and associates, To Stem This Tide: A Survey
cial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War,” Journal of American History 58 (December 1971): 668–69.
of Racial Tension Areas in the United States (Boston: Pilgrim
45. Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, telephone conversation with author,
Press, 1943), discusses the consequences when African Ameri-
February 19, 2001. Knight also added: “We also left New Orleans
cans did not follow this custom (32–37); it also discusses train
before we had planned to leave. Because of the war there was
problems (37–38). This painting would precede Robert Frank’s
no Mardi Gras.”
famous scene of a segregated bus, published in The Americans: Photographs (New York: Grove Press, 1959). 39. There were even different areas where the light-skinned Creoles,
46. See, for example, Carter Godwin Woodson, The Rural Negro (Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1930).
descended from free persons of color, lived apart from the darker
47. Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, transcript of
African Americans; see Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy:
tape-recorded interviews by Avis Berman, June 30 and August
The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972 (Athens: Univer-
4, 1982, 44, AAA, quoted in Elizabeth Hutton Turner, “The Edu-
sity of Georgia Press, 1995), ch. 1, “Creole Louisiana.”
cation of Jacob Lawrence,” in Over the Line: The Art and Life of
40. In her letter of December 15, 1941, Halpert informs Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois (Se-
that Sheeler purchased it for $35; Downtown Gallery Records,
attle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue
reel 5549, frame 399, AAA.
Raisonné Project, 2000), 99.
41. A letter of January 19, 1942, from Halpert informed Lawrence of
48. Lawrence to Mr. Haywood of the Rosenwald Fund[received April
Duncan Phillips’s request; Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549,
25, 1942], thanking him for the renewal, JRFA. Lawrence left Vir-
frame 404, AAA.
ginia on May 24; see Jacob Lawrence to Arna Bontemps, n.d.,
42. Not much is known of the Lawrences’ stay in New Orleans. It
Arna Bontemps Archives, box 17, SCRC. Lawrence was writing
seems likely that they got together with Charles White and Eliza-
from 1851 Seventh Avenue, New York, where the couple had
beth Catlett, since the latter was then teaching at Dillard Univer-
moved. Bontemps’s previous letter to Lawrence of May 21, 1942,
sity. When the Les Cenelles Society of Arts and Letters held an
was addressed to General Delivery, Richmond, VA. I am grateful
exhibition at the YWCA on Canal Street in New Orleans in June
to Richard Courage for sending me photocopies of Lawrence’s
1942, Lawrence’s spread of Migration pictures in Fortune was
letter. It is not clear whether Lawrence and Knight moved to
included. Studying the catalogue, I would surmise that Catlett
Richmond; they did use their relatives’ post office box in Lenexa.
organized the artworks in the exhibition, for she included
Lenexa is still a small blip on Route 60 from Richmond to Hamp-
Charles White and Dillard University students among the “guest
ton, Virginia, now an area in New Kent County.
exhibitors.” 43. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d. [December 1941], Downtown Gallery
49. Locke to Mary Beattie Brady, September 7, 1942, Locke Papers, box 164-15, folder 36.
Records, reel 5549, frames 400–401, AAA. In a typed docu-
50. “How We Live in South and North: Paintings by Jacob Lawrence,”
ment, “Progress Made under Present Grant,” n.d., to the Julius
Survey Graphic 31 (November 1942): 478–79. This special issue,
Rosenwald Fund, JRFA, Lawrence reports that he has completed
edited by Locke, was called “Color: Unfinished Business of De-
notes to pages
141 – 145
307
mocracy” and focused on “The Negro and the War,” “The Negro in American Life,” and “The Challenge of Color” in both the New
54. See U.S. Army, “African Americans in the U.S. Army,” January 31, 2007, www.army.mil/africanamericans/. 55. Johnson and associates, To Stem This Tide, 1. The survey was
and the Old Worlds. 51. Jacob Lawrence, taped interview by Elton C. Fax, September 7,
underwritten by the Julius Rosenwald Fund.
1970, Elton C. Fax Collection, box 5, Howard Gotlieb Archival Re-
56. Ibid., 92.
search Center, Boston University. Lawrence told Fax that the head
57. A. Philip Randolph, “The March on Washington Movement Pre
of the draft board, Judge Tellisford (the enunciation of this name
sents Program for the Negro,” in What the Negro Wants, ed.
is not clear on the tape), was a godfather of Gwendolyn Knight
Rayford W. Logan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
and had arranged for the deferments. Lawrence wrote to Halpert
1944), 135.
in an undated letter, probably from early August 1942: “I received
58. See Roy L. Brooks, Gilbert Paul Carrasco, and Gordon A. Martin,
your letter of July 30, and was very glad to hear that you were
Civil Rights Litigation: Cases and Perspectives (Durham, NC:
impressed with the ‘John Brown’ series[;] you may have them for
Carolina Academic Press, 1995), 398–99.
an exhibition. I have been painting a great deal and will have some
59. Alston worked for the Office of War Information (OWI) in the early
paintings for you when you arrive back in the city” (Downtown
1940s, where he drew illustrations on the theme of “Negro
Gallery Records, reel 5549, frame 376, AAA). Lawrence had given
Achievement” that were sent on a weekly basis to African Amer-
his John Brown panels to the Harmon Foundation, which had
ican newspapers; see Bearden and Henderson, History of Afri
turned them over to Halpert. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,”
can-American Artists, 265; and Corinne Jennings, “Charles Al-
32, state that during the summer of 1942 Knight and Lawrence
ston: Biographical Chronology,” in Charles Alston: Artist and
were teachers at Camp Wo-Chi-Ca (Workers’ Children’s Camp) in
Teacher (New York: Kenkeleba Gallery, 1990), 22–23. The OWI
Port Murray, New Jersey. But the evidence from Lawrence’s cor-
was created in June 1942 and functioned until September 1945.
respondence suggests instead that they were at the camp in the
In 1942 the army drafted the thirty-six-year-old Alston, who held
summer of 1943. In another undated letter to Edith Halpert (“July
a desk job making cartoons and posters that promoted the war
1943” is written on the letter, presumably by Halpert), Downtown
effort. NARA-MD holds many of Alston’s OWI drawings.
Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames 422–23, AAA, Lawrence re-
60. Rocío Aranda-Alvarado and Sarah Kennel, “Romare Bearden: A
ports on the backdrops he and Knight have been painting for the
Chronology,” in Fine, Art of Romare Bearden, 218. As a soldier
theater department at Camp Wo-Chi-Ca but reassures her that
Bearden spent time in North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, Ari-
he has painted at least one picture. They probably got their jobs
zona, and Massachusetts before his honorable discharge in
through Gwendolyn Bennett, whose husband, Richard Crosscup,
May 1945.
a teacher, was involved with the organization; see Paul C. Mishler,
61. Lawrence, transcript of radio interview by Randy Goodman, May
Raising Reds: The Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and
23, 1943, New York, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549,
Communist Political Culture in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 97, 153 n. 45. 52. James A. Porter, Modern Negro Art (1943; repr., Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1992), 142.
frames 352 ff., AAA. 62. FBI file, dated September 23, 1977, reporting on review of records at National Personnel Records Center, Military Branch, St. Louis, MO. The file provides these dates but adds “discrepancy noted
53. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., “Is This a ‘White Man’s War’?” Common
in date of enlistment.” The report also states: “There was no rec
Sense 11 (April 1942): 112; J. Saunders Redding, “A Negro Looks
ord of court-martial or unauthorized absence, however, it was
at This War,” American Mercury, November 1942, 585, 589;
indicated he was issued non-judicial punishment aboard the ship
George S. Schuyler, “A Long War Will Aid the Negro,” Crisis 50
Sea Cloud during August, 1944, of ‘Warning’, for having soiled
(November 1943): 328, 329. Harvard Sitkoff, “African American
linen on his bunk (no further). Performance was rated as rang-
Militancy in the World War II South,” in Remaking Dixie: The
ing from ‘good’ to ‘excellent.’ ” In a letter to Marie J. Demery,
Impact of World War II on the American South, ed. Neil R. McMil
May 10, 1973, Lawrence insisted that he had been drafted: “I did
len (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997), 70–92,
not enlist.” Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed as of 1999), box
argues that organizations such as the NAACP stepped back
1 of 8, Correspondence 1968–August 1975, AAA.
from militant and aggressive antiracism during the war years.
63. Nesbett and DuBois’s “Chronology,” 32, notes that the boot camp
At that time, “Few Americans, black or white, dissented from
was at Curtis Bay, Maryland. I have been unable to obtain infor-
the war spirit, intensified by media publicity and government-
mation regarding the length of time Lawrence spent in boot camp;
orchestrated campaigns to rally ’round the flag. Support for the
apparently coastguardsmen’s experiences varied.
war effort placed a premium on loyalty and unity. . . . The angry
64. At this time Lawrence was also garnering notice as a celebrated
demonstrations by African Americans against racial discrimina-
artist. The Shield, January 15, 1944, published by the U.S. Coast
tion in the defense industry and in the armed services, the flurry
Guard Training Station in St. Augustine, ran an article, “Jacob
of petitions and protests, so common in 1940 and 1941, dimin-
Lawrence, Nationally Known Negro Artist, Here,” that praised
ished after the United States entered the war.”
him and his art; see SCRC, reel 4572, frames 901–2, AAA.
308 notes to pages
146 – 150
65. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d., Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames 373–75, AAA. The letter was probably written in midJanuary, since he speaks of being in St. Augustine for one month
no record of photographs taken of the exhibition or its contents; I am grateful to Ilene Forte for checking this for me. 75. “Jacob Lawrence,” in Current Biography Yearbook, ed. Charles
and says Knight was still with him. Also, Halpert responded to
Monitz (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1965), 253.
his letter on January 20, and she was usually prompt in answer-
76. Johnson and associates, To Stem This Tide, 89.
ing correspondence. Rosenthal was a photographer and a non-
77. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d. (February 1944), with return address
career officer, predisposed toward someone like Lawrence; see
“U.S.C.G. Receiving Station, Hotel Brunswick, 520 Boylston
Lawrence, interview by Fax, September 17, 1970.
Street/Boston, Mass.,” Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549,
66. See Johnson and associates, To Stem This Tide, 81–105, for an
frames 430–31, AAA. Halpert’s letter responding to the news of
assessment of Negro soldiers in the armed services. According
his transfer is dated March 1, 1944, Downtown Gallery Records,
to David R. Colburn, Racial Change and Community Crisis: St.
reel 5549, frame 432, AAA.
Augustine, Florida, 1877–1980 (New York: Columbia University
78. Regarding the USS Sea Cloud, see Commander Carlton Skinner,
Press, 1985), St. Augustine was not particularly worse than
USCGR (Ret.), “USS Sea Cloud, IX 99, Racial Integration for Na-
other segregated southern cities; during the 1930s “race rela-
val Efficiency,” July 21, 2008, www.uscg.mil/history/articles/
tions did not noticeably worsen in St. Augustine” as they did in
Carlton_Skinner.asp; and Mike Tidwell, “The Best Democracy
the Florida Panhandle, where racial violence and lynchings increased significantly (21). The white leadership, however, upheld Jim Crow laws and unspoken customs: “Although race relations
I’ve Ever Known,” American Legacy 6 (Summer 2000): 31–40. 79. Lawrence to Halpert, postmarked May 21, 1944, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frame 434, AAA.
remained calm during this period [1930s], blacks were careful
80. Lawrence to Halpert, [early September 1944], Downtown Gallery
not to challenge the segregation barriers. Those who contem-
Records, reel 5549, frame 436, AAA. He also noted that he had
plated such action could expect an immediate response from
heard (probably from Knight) that Fortune was interested in
local police as well as discouragement from leaders in the black
showing some of the works; and he reported that the navy had
community” (21–22). 67. Gwendolyn Knight, telephone conversation with author, February 19, 2001.
sent a filmmaker to take “200 feet of film of me painting,” to be made into a movie entitled New Faces in Art. At this point his rank was “St.M.1/C” (Steward’s Mate First Class). Many of the
68. Aline B. Louchheim [Saarinen], “An Artist Reports on the Trou-
Coast Guard paintings, which could not legally be sold, are un-
bled Mind,” New York Times Magazine, October 15, 1950; also
located; some reproductions are included in Nesbett and
quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 69.
DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné. The film was produced as Profile
69. Quoted in Mort Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” Chicago Defender, May 18, 1963, 9. 70. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d. (letterhead “U.S. Coast Guard Training Station/St. Augustine, Florida”), Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames 426–29, AAA.
of Artist Jacob Lawrence and is in TV Satellite File No. 300, 1989, at NARA-MD. I am grateful to Kenneth Hartvigsen for tracking this down for me. 81. Halpert continued to be busy on Lawrence’s behalf. She also arranged for his works to be exhibited at the Newark Museum’s
71. Aaron Douglas, “The Negro in American Culture,” delivered at
exhibition American Negro Art: Contemporary Painting and
the First American Artists’ Congress, February 14–16, 1936, in
Sculpture; MoMA’s Twelve Contemporary Painters, a traveling
Artists against War and Fascism: Papers of the First American
show commencing in late 1944; the Albany Institute of History
Artists’ Congress, ed. Matthew Baigell and Julia Williams (1936;
and Art’s exhibition The Negro Artist Comes of Age, held in
repr., New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986), 84.
January 1945, the catalogue of which contained a foreword by
72. See Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 219.
Alain Locke; and Four Modern American Painters: Peter Blume,
73. In letters to Halpert, he expressed his commitment to the war
Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Jacob Lawrence, held in March
effort, yet he yearned to continue painting. Halpert’s letters are
1945 at the Institute for Modern Art, Boston (renamed the Insti-
filled with encouragement and offers to send him art supplies.
tute of Contemporary Art). He was also included in annuals or
74. As of March 1, 1944, when Lawrence had already been trans-
biennials at the Art Institute of Chicago, Atlanta University, the
ferred, Halpert had not yet received the drawings; see Halpert to
University of Nebraska, the City Art Museum, Saint Louis, the
Lawrence, March 1, 1944, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549,
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the California
frame 432, AAA. It is tempting to speculate that three large
Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, the Brooklyn Mu-
drawings that Halpert sent to the Los Angeles County Museum
seum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. See Nesbett
of Art for the First Biennial Exhibition of Drawings by American Artists, held February 18 to April 22, 1945, may have been part of this group of drawings. They are listed in the catalogue as
and DuBois, “Chronology,” 33, 35. 82. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d. (probably October or early November 1945), Downtown Gallery Papers, reel 5549, frame 444, AAA.
Born to Fear, ink, 161⁄2 x 22 inches; Trapped, ink, 22 x 18; and
83. As of May 2006, the Jacob Lawrence estate had his duffel bag,
From Life unto Death, ink, 17 1⁄2 x 22 1⁄2 inches. The museum has
on which he dutifully inscribed these ports of call. I want to
notes to pages
150 – 152
309
thank Barbara Earl Thomas for showing me the bag. Drawings
94. Gwendolyn Knight recalled that there had been two black stu-
from his Coast Guard travels are reproduced in Nesbett and
dents at Black Mountain who also did not leave the campus;
DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné. Milton W. Brown, Jacob Lawrence,
telephone interview by author, February 19, 2001.
exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974),
95. See Laura Wexler, Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching
states that Lawrence did forty-eight Coast Guard paintings; only
in America (New York: Scribner’s, 2003). For an overview of the
twenty-three are listed in the catalogue raisonné, of which fif-
situation for blacks in the South, see Leon F. Litwack, Trouble in
teen are unlocated.
Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow (New York: Knopf,
84. See Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 220–21. It is surprising that not more drawings survive.
1998). 96. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and
85. The people who recommended him were his dealer Edith Halpert;
Modern Democracy (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1944), lxix.
the artist Charles Sheeler; Robert Tyler Davis, director of the
97. See Alain Locke, “Reason and Race: A Review of the Literature
Portland Art Museum; Francis H. Taylor, director of the Metro-
of the Negro for 1946,” Phylon 8, no. 1 (1947): 17–27, “A Critical
politan Museum of Art; and Alfred Barr Jr. of MoMA. He received
Retrospect of the Literature of the Negro for 1947,” Phylon 9, no.
notification of his fellowship in October 1945, with a grant of
1 (1948): 3–12, and “Dawn Patrol: The Literature of the Negro for
$2,000. Halpert, one of his recommenders, emphasized in her
1948, Part II,” Phylon 10, no. 2 (1949): 167–72.
letter that he had already achieved fame through the Fortune reproductions of his work, the MoMA show, and the success of
98. Alain Locke, “Wisdom de Profundis: The Literature of the Negro, 1949: Part II—The Social Literature,” Phylon 11, no. 2 (1950): 172.
his Harlem series. “Lawrence makes no artistic compromise, but
99. Ibid., 173.
naturally combines the aesthetic and sociological elements.” I
100. See Steven F. Lawson, “Introduction: Setting the Agenda of the
want to thank Mary Kiffer of the Guggenheim Foundation for
Civil Rights Movement,” in To Secure These Rights: The Report
sending me the file on Lawrence.
of President Harry S. Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights, ed.
86. Jacob Lawrence, “ ‘ WAR’—A Series of Fourteen Paintings in Tempera,” typewritten statement, Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5577, frame 456, AAA.
Steven F. Lawson (Boston: Bedford, 2004). 101. Will Burtin, to “Whom It May Concern,” June 6, 1947, SCRC, reel 4571, AAA. Fortune 38 (August 1948): 22. See Nesbett and
87. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d. (probably October or early November
DuBois, “Chronology,” 147, for places Lawrence traveled. He must
1945), Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames 444–45,
have conveyed some of his impressions to Evans and Deborah
AAA.
Calkins, then an assistant art director, but little is known of the
88. The artist Charles White was not so lucky. He was assigned to a
specifics of his trip. He told DuBois that Evans drove him; how-
camp in Kansas, where he contracted tuberculosis, and was in
ever, I have been unable to confirm Evans’s movements in the
poor health for the rest of his life.
summer of 1947. Gwendolyn Knight maintained that Lawrence
89. The Chicago Defender reported, in its February 8, 1947, issue,
went by bus; telephone interview by author, February 19, 2001.
that colleges across the country were hiring African Americans
102. Lawrence’s handwritten statements on each, with an introduc-
to teach. Besides Lawrence, other African Americans hired by
tion, are included in the Downtown Gallery Records, AAA; they
Black Mountain included Mark Ashland Fax, Roland Hayes, Carol
are also published in Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné,
Brice, and Percy A. Baker. 90. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 34. 91. Sheryl Conkelton, “Gwendolyn Knight: A Life in Art,” in Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight, by Sheryl Conkelton and Barbara Earl Thomas, exh. cat. (Seattle: University of Washington Press; Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2003), 28,
104–7. 103. Walker Evans, “In the Heart of the Black Belt,” Fortune, August 1, 1948, 88. 104. Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 104. Lawrence numbered the works. 105. Walker Evans wrote to Ralph Delahaye Paine, Fortune’s managing
which cites Lea Silverman, “Portrait of an Era,” Mountain Xpress
editor, at this time, about July 1948, stating his thoughts on
7 (May 9–15, 2001): n.p.
what made a good picture spread: “pictures . . . that made you
92. Quoted in Mary Emma Harris, The Arts at Black Mountain Col
look.” He also added about writing: “You need from writers a
lege (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987), 140, which cites Black
professional ability to produce readable copy. If you don’t al-
Mountain College Papers, III, 4, North Carolina State Archives,
ways get it—under this and that pressure, you re-write and re-
Raleigh.
arrange.” No doubt Evans preferred the rewritten copy to the
93. Lawrence told Michael Harris that Albers did not influence his
quotations that Lawrence had provided. See Walker Evans Ar-
art but did influence his teaching: “His lectures enabled me to
chives, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; also published,
formulate and communicate to students what I had been do-
with slight variations (perhaps a later draft) in Jerry L. Thomp-
ing.” See Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by Michael
son, Walker Evans at Work (1982; repr., New York: Icon Editions,
Harris, November 22, 1988, 10, Lawrence-Knight Papers (not
1994), 180–81. 106. Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 106.
filmed), AAA.
310 notes to pages
152 – 159
107. I want to thank Mary Bendolph for giving me a tour in March
121. Henry Wallace, “Violence and Hope in the South,” New Republic,
2006 of her Gee’s Bend FSA home and its subsequent additions.
December 8, 1947, 15. In 1945 Alfred Hitchcock released Spell
Gee’s Bend has become famous as a quilt-making center
bound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Salvador Dali
through the efforts of the collectors William and Paul Arnett and
designed the tilting surrealist sets for one dream sequence in
their publishing company, Tinwood Books, Atlanta.
which Peck attempts to run in a zigzag fashion from his own inner demons.
108. Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 107, where the painting is reproduced. I have been unable to find the original Quarles
1 22. Floyd Coleman informed me in a conversation in March 2008 that where he grew up, men would simply “disappear,” and no
quotation.
one would ask why or where they had gone. There was a code of
109. Ibid., 104. W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America,
silence.
1860–1880 (1935; repr., New York: Atheneum, 1992), 728. The two sentences Du Bois writes before these words and not
1 23. Richard Watts Jr., “Books in Review: A Liberal View of the South,” New Republic, January 19, 1948, 26.
quoted by Lawrence are as follows: “One reads the truer deeper facts of Reconstruction with a great despair. It is at once so
124. Perhaps a coincidence and perhaps not, but in 1950 J. Saunders
simple and human, and yet so futile.” The sentence following
Redding published They Came in Chains: Americans from Africa
the quotation reads: “Yet the rich world is wide enough for all,
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott), the title of which suggests one of
wants all, needs all.”
Lawrence’s Masses and Mainstream drawings. For reproductions of the drawings mentioned here, see Nesbett and DuBois, Cata
110. See editors’ note in Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison
logue Raisonné, 228–29.
Notebooks, ed. and trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971): 175 n. 75: “Romain Rolland’s maxim ‘Pessimism of the intelligence, optimism of the will’ was made by Gramsci into something of a program-
6.
matic slogan as early as 1919 in the pages of Ordine Nuovo.”
The epigraphs are from Irwin Granich [Michael Gold], “Towards Pro-
111. Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 105 and 106. Subsequent captions quoted here are from idem. 112. Another comparison with Robert Frank is in order; compare his
home in harlem
letarian Art,” Liberator, February 1921, quoted in Michael Denning, The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twenti eth Century (London: Verso, 1997), 230; Roi Ottley, “New World A-
famous photograph of a black woman holding a white baby, pub-
Coming”: Inside Black America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943), 2;
lished in The Americans, with Lawrence’s painting.
and Claude McKay, inscription in Jacob Lawrence’s copy of McKay’s
113. I was not able to obtain access to the Fortune archives.
A Long Way from Home (New York: F. Furman, 1937), Lawrence-Knight
114. Ralph Ellison, “Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of
Papers, Estate of Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence, Seattle, 2006,
Humanity” (1946), in Shadow and Act (1964; repr., New York:
promised gift to AAA.
Vintage International, 1995), 25. 115. Lawrence to Halpert, n.d., Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames 427–28, AAA. 116. In the first chapter of his book, Redding introduces himself as a
1. Langston Hughes to Blanche Knopf, September 18, 1947, Hughes Papers, box 93, folder 1166, quoted in Martha Jane Nadell, Enter the New Negroes: Images of Race in American Culture (Cam-
person who was brought up in a middle-class “mulatto” culture
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 141. Nadell’s book
and whose mother deplored the “black tide of migration” be-
is an excellent study of the text-image relationships in some of
cause she thought it would affect the property values of the
the major midcentury books by African American writers that
Redding home in Wilmington, Delaware. Like his brother before
included illustrations, and she focuses on the Hughes-Lawrence
him, Redding went to college—first to Lincoln University and then
collaboration in One-Way Ticket.
Brown. He became a literary critic, author, and academic, teach-
2. Jacob Lawrence to Langston Hughes, September 28, 1947,
ing at Hampton, George Washington, and finally Cornell. Although
Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894; parts also quoted in Na-
Lawrence was raised working class, by 1947 he, like other artists married to middle-class women, was firmly in the middle class, but he always identified with his working-class roots. 117. J. Saunders Redding, No Day of Triumph (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1942), 180. 118. J. Saunders Redding, On Being Negro in America (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1951), 122. 119. “Hey, Doc! I Got Jim Crow Shock!” Chicago Defender, February 26, 1944, 12. Hughes wrote on this issue many times for the Chi cago Defender. 1 20. Elizabeth Hutton Turner, e-mail to author, February 20, 2009.
dell, Enter the New Negroes, 191 n. 5. 3. Weinstock to Lawrence, December 15, 1947, Lawrence-Knight Papers, AAA. At the time Weinstock wrote the letter, the book was tentatively titled To Me It’s Here. 4. Lawrence to Hughes,[December 23, 1947], Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894; Hughes to Lawrence, January 22, 1948, L awrence-Knight Papers, AAA. 5. See Lawrence to Hughes, January 26, 1948, and Hughes to Lawrence, February 2, 1948, Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894. 6. Lawrence to Hughes, May 5, 1948, Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894.
notes to pages
159 – 170
311
7. Lawrence presented eight drawings for Hughes’s poetry book, of
15. “Streets of Harlem Form Artist’s Subjects, as He Sketches
which six were published: Silhouette and One-Way Ticket (both
Scenes,” New York Amsterdam News, December 19, 1936, 19.
discussed in Chapter 5), The Ballad of Margie Polite (discussed
Unfortunately, little is known of Robynson or his work.
in this chapter), along with Too Blue, Graduation, and Home in a
16. Reproduced in Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History
Box. Too Blue is not included in Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle
of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New
DuBois, Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals
York: Pantheon Books, 1993), 182.
(1935–1999), a Catalogue Raisonné (Seattle: University of Wash-
17. David C. Driskell, Two Centuries of Black American Art, exh. cat.
ington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project,
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976), 61–62.
2000) (hereafter cited as Catalogue Raisonné). 8. Langston Hughes, note on an envelope, “Note from rence
(artist) who left today the first drawing for
d r e a m d e f e r r e d / L angston
Hughes / s u n day,
jac o b l aw
m o n tag e o f a
o cto b e r 10, 194 8 ,”
Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894; and Hughes to Arna Bontemps, December 8, 1948, quoted in Arna Bontemps–Langston
18. See Richard J. Powell, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art, 1991). 19. James A. Porter, Modern Negro Art (1943; repr., Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1992), 135.
Hughes Letters, 1925–1967, ed. Charles H. Nichols (New York:
20. Ibid., 141.
Dodd, Mead, 1980), 242. Earlier, on October 4, Hughes wrote to
21. Ibid., 142.
Bontemps: “I guess I failed to tell you Jake Lawrence is doing
22. Gwendolyn Bennett, “Jacob Lawrence, American Artist,” Main
drawings for it [Montage of a Dream Deferred]. And I’m having parts of it set to music” (ibid., 236). Bontemps was also a fan of Lawrence’s art; he planned to include Jacob Lawrence in a book on American notables, and he corresponded with the artist in
stream 1 (Winter 1947): 98. 23. According to Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 21 and 26, neither work was exhibited before the 1980s. 24. Leslie King-Hammond, “Inside-Outside, Uptown-Downtown: Ja-
the summer of 1942. I want to thank Richard Courage for provid-
cob Lawrence and the Aesthetic Ethos of the Harlem Working-
ing me with a copy of this letter from the Arna Bontemps Pa-
Class Community,” in Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob
pers, SCRC.
Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois (Seattle:
9. There are photographs of six drawings in the Hughes Papers (JWJ MSS26). Langston Hughes gave a copy of Montage of a Dream
University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000), 74.
Deferred (New York: Henry Holt, 1951) to Lawrence with the in-
25. One of the most famous of the street corner orators was Ira Kemp
scription on the title page, “Especially for/Jake~this book~New York, February 22, 1951.” I am grateful to Barbara Earl Thomas
Justice and narrowly lost. He was an organizer of the Harlem
(1902–37), who ran for the state assembly against Robert W.
for showing me this book in Seattle during May 2006, just before
Labor Union. Kemp’s funeral was featured in the New York Am
the Lawrences’ book collection was dispersed to libraries.
sterdam News, December 11, 1937, 1.
10. They admired each other’s work. Lawrence went to see Hughes’s stage productions, such as Simply Heavenly of 1957 and the
26. Lawrence to Suggs, November 12, 1973, Lawrence-Knight Papers, reel 3042, frame 258, AAA. The ellipses are Lawrence’s.
gospel musical Jericho Jim Crow, dedicated to the freedom
27. JRFA; photocopy provided to me by Diane Tepfer.
movement, which opened in January 1966, and he appreciated
28. William C. Haygood to Jacob Lawrence, April 18, 1942, renewing
getting offprints from the poet. Hughes, in turn, went to see
the fellowship with a $1,200 grant, JRFA; photocopy provided to
Lawrence’s exhibitions and owned at least two of his drawings. Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894. 11. Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Nation, June 23, 1926, 692–94.
me by Diane Tepfer. 29. “244,000 Native Sons,” Look, May 1940, 8. The essay included thirteen photographs by Photo League photographers. 30. Ottley, “New World A-Coming,” v.
12. Alain Locke, Negro Art: Past and Present (Washington, DC: As-
31. Ibid., 1.
sociates in Negro Folk Education, 1936), 120. Cahill’s remarks
32. Ibid., 2.
were originally published as the introduction to New Horizons in
33. Ibid.
American Art (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936), 29–30,
34. At the time the “Harlem” pictures were exhibited in 1943, they
an exhibition catalogue of Federal Art Project paintings and
were numbered and had captions; see catalogue, SCRC, reel
sculpture.
4571, AAA. At the end of his life, he insisted that they were not
13. Alain Locke, The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art (1940; repr., New York: Hacker Art Books, 1968), 9. 14. Augusta Savage to Arthur Schomburg, January 16, 1935, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg Papers, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, SCRBC.
312 notes to pages
a series but paintings on a “theme.” See Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 70. 35. Richard J. Powell, Jacob Lawrence (New York: Rizzoli Art Series, 1992),[3]. 36. This picture was called Dancing at the Savoy when reproduced in James A. Porter’s Modern Negro Art.
170 – 179
37. There seems to be no photograph of the Organize painting. Its disappearance may also reflect the disinclination of museums and private patrons to purchase paintings about labor o rganizing. 38. Culled from Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné. Neuberger would later buy the War series of fourteen paintings, which he subsequently gave to the Whitney Museum of American Art. 39. Howard Devree, “From a Reviewer’s Notebook,” New York Times, May 16, 1943, X12. 40. M.R., “Effective Protest by Lawrence of Harlem,” Art Digest, May 15, 1943, 7.
Powell, Homecoming, fig. 159. The Lawrences were living in New Jersey at the time; see p. 308, n. 51. 51. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by James Buell and David Driskell, February 4, 1982, 23, Amistad Research Center, Museum Services Files, Tulane University. 52. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by Carroll Greene, October 26, 1968, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/ transcripts/lawren68.htm. Lawrence later elaborated that when he went into the Coast Guard, “I didn’t leave Harlem. I make the psychological distinction. I didn’t leave; I was still there”; see Lawrence, interview by Buell and Driskell, February 4, 1982, 22.
41. The Downtown Gallery kept clippings of reviews. Lawrence’s exhi
Hughes continued to think of the artist as living in New York; in
bition received reviews from New Masses (June 8, 1943), the New
his September 21, 1946, column for the Chicago Defender, 14,
Yorker (May 29, 1943), Opportunity (July 1943), Springfield (MA)
Hughes highlighted the artists residing in New York and included
Sunday Union and Republic (May 16, 1943), Newsweek (June 7,
Lawrence along with Aaron Douglas and Ollie Harrington.
1943), Art News (June–July 1943), New York World-Telegram
53. Kymberly Pinder has pointed out to me the parallel situation of
(May 22, 1943), and New York Sun (May 14, 1943). 42. See Arthur P. Davis, “The Harlem of Langston Hughes’ Poetry,”
Archibald J. Motley in relation to Bronzeville. In 1965, after returning to New York from a teaching stint at Brandeis University,
Phylon 13, no. 4 (1953): 276–83. Davis taught at Howard Univer-
Knight and Lawrence moved close to Harlem, to 211 West 106th
sity and edited, with J. Saunders Redding, Negro Caravan and
Street.
Cavalcade: Negro American Writers from 1760 to the Present (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971). 43. See Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, “Or Does It Explode?”: Black Harlem in the Great Depression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 211–12. See also Dominic J. Capeci Jr., The Harlem Riot of 1943 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1977).
54. Jacob Lawrence, statement to David Schapiro, 1972, in Social Realism: Art as a Weapon, ed. David Shapiro (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1973), 217. The ellipses are probably Lawrence’s; they were characteristic of his writing style. 55. Lawrence to Susan E. Strickler, Toledo Museum of Art, January 21, 1979, Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed), AAA.
44. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., “Riots and Ruins,” manuscript, n.d.
56. Lowery Stokes Sims, “Jacob Lawrence: Summer Street Scene in
(preface dated 1945), 37, typescript collection, box 33, SCRBC,
Harlem (1948),” in Seeing America: Painting and Sculpture from
quoted in Greenberg, “Or Does It Explode?” 211–12. 45. Langston Hughes, “Here to Yonder,” Chicago Defender, August 14, 1943, 14. The following week he continued with his com-
the Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery, ed. Marjorie B. Searl (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006), 271. 57. Jacob Lawrence, “Plan of Work,” a part of his application for a
ments to “White Shopkeepers” and also referred to the Detroit
fellowship, 1945, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
riots.
Archives.
46. Portland [Oregon] Art Museum Bulletin 5, no. 3 (November 1943): 3. I am grateful to Susie Cohen for sending me a photocopy of
58. See Chapter 5 regarding Hughes on Jim Crow in the military. 59. Hughes later published anthologies of the Simple stories, but
the mimeographed four-page bulletin. The five paintings pur-
they were thoroughly revised, perhaps to make them more ac-
chased by the museum were: They Live in Old and Dirty Tenement
cessible to a white audience. I recommend reading the originals
Houses, You Can Buy Bootleg Whiskey for Twenty-Five Cents a
in the Chicago Defender, now online, through its archives search
Quart, And Harlem Society Looks On, Harlem Hospital’s Free
site at http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagodefender/advanced-
Clinic Is Crowded with Patients Every Morning and Evening, and The Undertakers Do a Good Business.
search.html. 60. Chicago Defender, October 5, 1946, 14.
47. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by Michael Harris, No-
61. Raymond Williams, Resources of Hope (London: Routledge,
vember 22, 1988, 8, Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed),
1989), 242, argues: “A new theory of socialism must now cen-
AAA.
trally involve place. Remember the argument was that the pro-
48. Langston Hughes, “My America,” in What the Negro Wants, ed.
letariat had no country, the factor which differentiated it from
Rayford W. Logan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
the property owning classes. But place has been shown to be a
Press, 1944), 301.
crucial element in the bonding process—more so perhaps for
49. Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, vol. 2, 1941–
the working class than the capital-owning classes. . . . When
1967, I Dream a World, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University
capital has moved on, the importance of place is more clearly
Press, 2002), 162.
revealed.” Quoted in David Harvey, Justice, Nature and the Ge
50. William H. Johnson’s Moon over Harlem, ca. 1943–44 (Smith sonian American Art Museum), directly references the riot; see
ography of Difference (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), 29. 62. During the 1930s many of the playwrights and directors of Fed-
notes to pages
183 – 189
313
eral Theatre Project plays, in their attempt to reach a popular
73. Ibid., 81.
audience, focused on urban working-class life. Invariably the
74. See Michelle DuBois, “Playing with the Game Motif: An Interpre-
drama developed in front of tenement facades. A favorite play
tive Study of Jacob Lawrence’s Game Paintings” (MA thesis,
that ran through most of 1938, One-Third of a Nation, the title
University of Washington, 2000). For Kibitzers, see Ronny Co-
taken from President Roosevelt’s speech about poverty in the
hen, “Jacob Lawrence: Kibitzers, 1948,” in Addison Gallery of
United States, had a stage set constructed to look like a tene-
American Art: 65 Years (Andover, MA: Addison Gallery of Amer-
ment with broken columns and crumbling plaster; the tenement even had a “voice,” delivered as a monologue when the play
ican Art/Phillips Academy, 1996), 418. 75. The year 1947 stands out as a benchmark for major league
opens. The Federal Theatre Project’s Sing for Your Supper,
baseball, as that was the year when Jackie Robinson began play-
which opened in March 1939, had a tenement front with laundry
ing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, thus integrating the sport. See
hanging across the span of balconies. See John O’Connor and
Robert Peterson, Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legend
Lorraine Brown, eds., Free, Adult, Uncensored: The Living His
ary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams (New York:
tory of the Federal Theatre Project (Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1978), 173. The movies, also in the 1930s and 1940s, dealt with themes of love, revenge, and murder that took place in the urban streets.
Oxford University Press, 1992). 76. Elizabeth Steele, “The Materials and Techniques of Jacob Lawrence,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line, 256. 77. Robert Farris Thompson, “From the First to the Final Thunder:
63. King Vidor made a movie of it in 1931.
African-American Quilts, Monuments of Cultural Assertion,” in
64. New York Times, January 19, 1947, xi. See also Howard Barnes,
Who’d a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmak
“The Theaters,” New York Herald Tribune, January 11, 1947.
ing, ed. Eli Leon (San Francisco: San Francisco Craft and Folk
65. Life, February 24, 1947, 78. 66. The beautiful young heroine, Rose Maurrant (lyric soprano), is propositioned by a married co-worker, hassled by a thug, and
Art Museum, 1988). 78. Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred (New York: Henry Holt, 1951), [xi].
wooed by her neighbor, Sam Kaplan (tenor), working his way
79. I believe that he coded the site of the picture as not being Harlem
through law school. Together the heroine and the hero sing about
by painting the onlookers as white people; however, Kymberly
going away together. Through the windows we hear an old radical
Pinder, commenting on an early draft, suggests that the vendors
deploring the conditions of capitalism and the birth moans of a
may be catering to white tourists up in Harlem. Harlem was and
pregnant neighbor, followed by the wail of a newborn. The next
remains a tourist site.
morning, movers arrive to move into the street the furniture owned by a tenant in arrears; an unfaithful wife (Rose’s mother) and her lover are shot by a jealous husband. I am grateful to Andrew Whitfield for providing me with a DVD of the opera. 67. Alain Locke, “Reason and Race: A Review of the Literature of the Negro for 1946,” Phylon 8, no. 1 (1947): 21.
80. Lawrence to Mark R. Kriss of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, 1979, Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed), AAA. 81. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Random House, 1952), 347. The protagonist then realizes that the hawker is his comrade Clifton, who recently quit the radical organization to which they both belonged and disappeared; now he is on the streets
68. See Ann Petry, The Street (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946). The
degrading himself as a huckster. Within moments a policeman
novel provides rich descriptions of both the characters’ person-
arrives to disperse the crowd and arrest the hawker. Clifton im-
alities and the places in which they live. The story develops rap-
pulsively punches the policeman, who retaliates by shooting
idly after a con man and band leader, Boots Smith, engages
him. Once the news of this act spreads uptown, a riot erupts in
Lutie to sing nights at a club but then acts as a procurer for his
Harlem—a riot described by Ellison in terms that his readers
white, criminal boss. Meanwhile, a perpetually angry and conniving building superintendent, Jones, attempts to win sexual
would recognize as the 1943 Harlem riot. 82. This painting is not included in Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue
favors from her. When rebuffed, he seeks revenge by enlisting
Raisonné. However, a similar painting, Birth, is reproduced,
her credulous son in a fraudulent scheme that leads to the son’s
with the comment: “One of two paintings commissioned by
arrest. The novel ends with the murder of Smith and the desper-
Seventeen magazine in 1948, this work was never published.
ate Lutie making frantic plans to escape the street.
The artist completed[Birth] first, then executed The Fur Coat,
69. Ibid., 64.
which contains the same subject matter but reverses the fore-
70. Ibid., 65.
ground and background elements” (111). The lack of joy in The
71. See Alfred Butterfield, “The Dark Heartbeat of Harlem,” New York
Fur Coat suggests death rather than birth. Michelle DuBois
Times, February 10, 1946, 117. The title given was Street Scene.
agrees with me that the figure in the fur coat suggests Gwen-
72. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961), 29. Jacobs’s observations were based on various neighborhoods in New York, including East Harlem, which closely resembled Harlem itself.
314 notes to pages
189 – 197
dolyn Knight, who because of medical problems could not have children. 83. This would be evident when he went to Nigeria in 1964 and painted the markets there, dominated as they were by women.
concept of the “public sphere,” there has been a growing num-
84. See Chapter 7 for a discussion of the ten paintings Lawrence did
ber of cultural studies on public space and place; see Michel de
while residing at Hillside Hospital. 85. Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh.
Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of
cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 102, provides an excel-
California Press, 1988), especially the chapter “Walking the
lent analysis of this painting. Slums was actually a commission
City”; Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (1974; repr., Ox-
from Fortune; Jacob Lawrence, telephone interview by author,
ford: Blackwell, 1991); George Harvey, Justice, Nature and the
September 3, 1985. Instead of Slums, Fortune 43 (February 1951)
Geography of Difference (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996); and others. In 1959 uptown Harlem concerns were not those of midtown
published The Dilemma of an Aging Population. 86. Katharine Kuh, American Artists Paint the City, exh. cat. for 28th
or downtown Manhattan, where a group of white artists were
Biennale, Venice (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1956), 8–9.
also commenting on “the street” but in a very different way. To
Typical of the racial and gender composition of exhibitions dur-
thirty-year-old Claes Oldenburg, a white artist trained at Yale
ing the 1950s, the show of thirty-five artists included only three
and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who joined a
women and two African Americans—Norman Lewis as well as
group of avant-garde artists, poets, and dancers in Greenwich
Lawrence.
Village in the mid-1950s, the city’s streets had become sites of
87. Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 102, has noted the small “starlike pat-
civic collapse and alienation, which he expressed in his perfor-
terns” or “sparkles” that characterize his 1950s paintings.
mance/installation piece The Street. See Joshua Shannon,
88. Hughes’s text accompanies 140 photographs by DeCarava, who
“Claes Oldenburg’s The Street and Urban Renewal in Greenwich
toured Harlem with his camera, taking shots of children playing
Village, 1960,” Art Bulletin 86 (March 2004): 136–61. Olden-
on the streets and running through the spray of fire hydrants
burg’s piece shows chaos and the arbitrariness of human
and adults walking along the broad sidewalks, sitting on stoops,
agency, unlike the sense of order and purpose in Lawrence’s images.
leaning out their windows, and listening to street-corner orators. He also photographed intimate interior scenes—stunning close-
94. Lawrence was not involved with the Spiral group, a discussion of
ups of men, women, and their children. Hughes’s text is fictional,
which can be found in Bearden and Henderson, History of Afri
not documentary. A continuous narrative provided by the mono-
can-American Artists, 400–403.
logue of a fictional Mary Bradley stitches together the photographs. The elderly Mary rejects thoughts of death (“Lord, I’m gazes on the young grandchildren in her charge and ruminates
7. the double consciousness of masks and masking
about her various children, some divorced and some not, and
The epigraphs are from Ralph Ellison, “Change the Joke and Slip
so tangled up in living, I ain’t got time to die”) as she fondly
her adult grandsons—Rodney, a young man who parties and
the Yoke,” in Shadow and Act (1964; repr., New York: Vintage Interna-
dances, and respectable Chick, who wears a suit to his down-
tional, 1995), 55; and A. David Napier, Masks, Transformation, and
town job. One to four sentences of the running monologue ac-
Paradox (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), xxv.
company each photograph. Hughes gave a copy of the book, which he inscribed, to Lawrence for Christmas, 1955. LawrenceKnight Papers, Estate of Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence, Seattle, 2006, promised gift to AAA.
1. The exhibition titled Performance was on view from January 27 to February 14. The tempera paintings were listed in the brochure as (1) Billboard, (2) Tragedy and Comedy (Fig. 161), (3) Makeup
89. Lawrence to Hughes, n.d., Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894.
(Fig. 162), (4) Night after Night (Fig. 163), (5) A Christmas Pag
For the trials and tribulations of the play, see Rampersad, Life of
eant, (6) Concert, (7) Marionettes (Fig. 164), (8) Vaudeville (Fig.
Langston Hughes, 2:232–75. 90. Lawrence to Miss Colbert, [in response to a high school project, May 1962], Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC.
152), (9) Ventriloquist (Fig. 166), (10) Fantasy, (11) Curtain (Fig. 165), and (12) After the Show. After the Show is painted in dark blues, gray, and black with just a touch of white to outline the
91. Doreen Massey, “A Global Sense of Place,” Marxism Today, June
edges of the chairs on which the skulls “sit” and a bit of red to
1991, 28, quoted in Kevin Robins, “Prisoners of the City: Whatever
represent roses in vases on an otherwise empty table. The image
Could a Postmodern City Be?” in Space and Place: Theories of
suggests the traditional cast dinner backstage (one notes the
Identity and Location, ed. Erica Carter, James Donald, and Judith
blue brick wall and the curtain) after the final performance of a
Squires (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993), 325.
run of a specific show. But the darkness and the skulls portend
92. Elliot Liebow has described such “streetcorner men” in Tally’s
a greater finality. Lawrence scholar Peter Nesbett, in the entry
Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men (Boston: Little,
he wrote for Christie’s catalogue, states incorrectly that After the
Brown, 1967), but with more pessimistic conclusions.
Show was not part of the series, but he does offer some interest-
93. Since Jürgen Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the
ing alternative readings.
Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society
2. “Stories with Impact,” Time, February 2, 1953; Carlyle Burrows,
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989), in which he developed his
“Lawrence Temperas,” New York Herald Tribune, February 1,
notes to pages
197 – 205
315
1953; “Jacob Lawrence Exhibits Show Business Paintings,” Jet,
12. Miller and Nowak, Fifties, 65. William Gropper explored this cli-
February 1953; S[idney] G[eist], “Jacob Lawrence,” Art Digest,
mate of fear in his suite of fifty lithographs, printed between 1953
February 1, 1943, 17.
and 1956, titled Caprichos; see Louis Lozowick, William Gropper
3. Stuart Preston, “Diverse Moderns,” New York Times, Sunday,
(East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1983), 55,
February 1, 1953. Fairfield Porter also wrote a brief review, “Re-
and Norma S. Steinberg, “William Gropper: Art and Censorship
views and Previews: Jacob Lawrence,” Art News 51 (February
from the 1930s through the Cold War Era” (PhD diss., Boston
1953): 73, that compared Lawrence to Orozco: “Like Orozco, each painting is for him an idea which is almost the same as be-
University, 1994), 143–58. 13. I do not mean to imply a straight cause-and-effect relationship; the phenomenon of the rise of abstraction is complicated by
ing dramatic.” 4. I have discussed some of these issues in Patricia Hills and Ro-
many factors. See Patricia Hills, review of How New York Stole
berta Tarbell, The Figurative Tradition and the Whitney Museum
the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom, and
of American Art, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of Amer-
the Cold War, by Serge Guilbaut, Archives of American Art Jour nal 24, no. 1 (1984): 26–29.
ican Art, 1980). 5. To this exhibition Lawrence contributed Harlem (1946), an image
14. Mark Rothko, “The Romantics Were Prompted,” possibilities 1
that contrasts a tall, elegant apartment building with surround-
(Winter 1947–48): 84, reprinted in Theories of Modern Art: A
ing tenements; see Margaret Lynne Ausfeld and Virginia Meck-
Source Book by Artists and Critics, ed. Herschel B. Chipp
lenburg, Advancing American Art, exh. cat. (Montgomery, AL: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1984).
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 548. 15. Robert Motherwell, quoted in “What Abstract Art Means to Me,”
6. FBI report on Ben Shahn, October 3, 1951, reproduced in Patricia
Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, Spring 1951, reprinted in
Hills, Modern Art in the USA: Issues and Controversies of the
Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, 562. The symposium took place
20th Century (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001),
on February 5, 1951. 16. Not surprisingly, the language of existentialism seemed appropri-
196–97. 7. See Jane DeHart Mathews, “Art and Politics in Cold War America,” American Historical Review 81 (October 1976): 762–87. 8. A follow-up four-page report dated August 3, 1953, elaborated on his “subversive” activities. To mention a few: the report noted that
ate to describe those anxieties prompted by the war, the bomb, automation, suburban conformity, the rising military-industrial complex, and the cold war. Sartre and Beckett captured this mood in their plays No Exit and Waiting for Godot.
he had received an award from the New Masses magazine at a
17. Other iconographical clusters would be single figures lost in a
banquet in January 1946; Lawrence’s exhibitions had been favor-
dystopian wasteland of empty buildings and rubble, as in Ben
ably reviewed in the Communist Party’s Daily Worker; and his
Shahn’s The Red Staircase (1945) and George Grosz’s Peace II
name was on the masthead of several organizations, such as the
(1946); figures lost in mazes and labyrinths, as in George Took-
Committee for the Negro in the Arts. The FBI report comments:
er’s The Subway (1950); and crucified Christ- or Lazarus-like
“It has been reliably reported that the Committee for the Negro in
figures, as in Stephen Greene’s The Burial (1947) and Siegfried
the Arts is a Negro Communist Party front organization fostered
Reinhardt’s Crucifixion (1953). I discuss this imagery in ch. 4,
by the Communist Party to infiltrate Negroes in the arts and en-
“Painting 1941–1980,” in Hills and Tarbell, Figurative Tradition.
tertainment field and to propagandize alleged acts of racial dis-
See also Greta Berman and Jeffrey Wechsler, Realism and Re
crimination in employment of Negroes in that field.” Lawrence’s
alities: The Other Side of American Painting, 1940–1960 (New
name was also included on the letterhead of Artists Equity Association, which, the report notes, Dondero called the “latest link in a chain of Red-instigated artists’ organizations designed to control art and artists.” In all likelihood Lawrence did not know of the existence of these FBI files. He continued to be active in Artists Equity, even being elected to the presidency in 1957. 9. Barbara Haskell, Ralston Crawford, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1985), 70. 10. Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977), 60. 11. Louis Mumford, “Atom Bomb: Social Effects,” Air Affairs 1 (March
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Art Gallery, 1982). 18. See Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. Héléne Iswolsky (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1984). 19. Among the films were Children of Paradise (1945), Nightmare Alley (1947), Strangers on a Train (1951), and La Strada (1954). 20. “Philip Guston: Carnegie Winner’s Art Is Abstract and Symbolic,” Life, May 27, 1946, 92. 21. “19 Young Americans,” Life, March 20, 1950, 89. 22. William Gropper, Jules Mervin, and Jacob Lawrence all made images of informers during the 1950s. They may have recalled that the John Ford movie The Informer (1935) won four Acad-
1947): 380. In Paul Boyer’s By the Bomb’s Early Light: American
emy Awards. For Lawrence, see Chapter 8 for a discussion of
Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age (New York:
Panel 11 of his Struggle . . . From the History of the American
Pantheon Books, 1985), ch. 23, “Psychological Fallout: Con-
People series, entitled “120.9.14.286.3.33-ton 290.9.27 be at
sciousness and the Bomb,” 275–89, focuses on Mumford and
143.9.28.110.8.17.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8 . . . An informer’s
his writings at this time.
coded message” (1955).
316 notes to pages
206 – 208
23. All three were members of Artists Equity, and in 1947 Kuniyoshi
tended the MoMA exhibition, he made drawings of masks based
was elected president. Both Lawrence and Kuniyoshi, along with
on what he had seen (Ruth Fine, “A Sense of Place—Norman
forty-four other artists, signed a statement published in the first
Lewis in Harlem: ‘An Inquiry into the Laws of Nature,’ ” lecture
issue of Reality: A Journal of Artists’ Opinions, asserting their
given at the National Gallery of Art, January 15, 2006). Law-
belief that abstract art was a blind alley and that “art should be
rence, as noted in Chapter 1, saw the show with a group led by
directed to the people.” Shahn was an early member of the Real
Charles Seifert.
ity group but did not sign the statement. Its text is in Hills, Mod ern Art, 181–83. 24. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by author, July 1983. 25. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by author, May 20, 1985. 26. Henry Louis Gates Jr., introduction to The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). 27. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903; repr., New York: Bantam Books, 1989), 3. 28. Nathan Irvin Huggins, Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), 195. 29. Jacob Lawrence, “My Opinion about Painting,” A.L.A. [Artists League of America] News, no. 2 (1946): [2]. 30. Gates, introduction to Signifying Monkey, xix.
37. See New York Amsterdam News, February 22, 1933, 1, regarding the prize; the funds were donated by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. For a discussion of Fétiche et Fleurs, see Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 162. 38. Self-Portrait is reproduced in Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists, 181. 39. White artists during the 1920s and 1930s seemed less inclined to draw on mask iconography. According to Charles Eldredge, Georgia O’Keeffe: American and Modern (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 185, O’Keeffe’s Mask with Golden Apple was one of “the rare visual references by any of the Stieglitz artists to the arts of Sub-Saharan Africa, this despite Stieglitz’s own early recognition of the force of that tradition.” 40. Later he would speak with admiration of the expressive masks
31. During the 1980s and 1990s, writers and scholars began speak-
of Władysław Benda; see W. T. Benda, Masks (New York: Wat-
ing of many consciousnesses—ethnicity, race, gender, sexual
son-Guptill, 1944). See Jacob Lawrence, interview by Carroll
orientation, class, family dynamics—rather than simply a double
Greene, October 26, 1968, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/
consciousness. Around midcentury, however, the “color line”
oralhistories/transcripts/lawren68.htm. The online version
was, as W. E. B. Du Bois stated in 1903, “the problem of the
omits the name of Benda, which is noted on p. 84 of the original
Twentieth Century”; see Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 29.
transcript, Lawrence-Knight Papers, AAA.
32. As Karl Marx has observed, “Men make their own history, but
41. We have no reason to believe that Lawrence made any of these
they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it un-
specific masks, but we do know, from a companion photograph,
der circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circum-
that he was present on the day of the camera shoot (see Fig.
stances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the
10). The Harmon Foundation hired Allen to take these pictures,
past”; see the second paragraph of The Eighteenth Brumaire of
many of which are now in the Harmon Foundation Collection,
Louis Napoleon (1852), in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Se lected Works in Two Volumes (1869; repr., Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1955), 2:247. 33. For a discussion of the reception of African art, see Helen Marie
NARA-MD. 42. “Art by Negroes of Harlem Put on Exhibition,” New York Herald Tribune, September 28, 1933, 40. 43. Quoted in Harlem Adult Education Committee press release,
Shannon, “From ‘African Savages’ to ‘Ancestral Legacy’: Race
September 27, 1933, Harmon Foundation, box 1, MD, LOC.
and Cultural Nationalism in the American Modernist Reception
44. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the
of African Art” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1999), especially the appendix, “Exhibitions of, and Including, African Art in New
“Racial” Self (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), xxx. 45. Quoted in Thelma Berlack-Boozer, “Masks of African Types Are
York from 1914 to 1935.” In 1932 African bronze statuettes from
Fascinating to Sculptress,” New York Amsterdam News, July 18,
the collection of Gregor Ahron were on view at the 135th Street
1936, 18.
branch; see New York Amsterdam News, December 28, 1932, 14.
46. Later in his career, Lawrence painted scenes of Halloween antics
This exhibition is not listed in Helen Shannon’s otherwise thor-
by masked tricksters or children crudely costumed as bullfight-
ough appendix. 34. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of African-
ers with a dog as a “bull.” 47. Ralph Ellison, “Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of
American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon
Humanity,” in Shadow and Act, 27 n. 1. Ellison states that he
Books, 1993), 261.
wrote the essay in 1946, but it is not clear that the note was also
35. See Alain Locke, “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” in The New
written in 1946. Ellison made his remarks in the context of ob-
Negro: An Interpretation, ed. Alain Locke (New York: Albert and
serving white authors writing fiction about blacks, but his re-
Charles Boni, 1925).
marks would pertain to black authors as well.
36. See James Johnson Sweeney, ed., African Negro Art (New York:
48. Lawrence was released on November 12, 1949, but returned on
Museum of Modern Art, 1935). After the artist Norman Lewis at-
January 16 and stayed until August 4, 1950; see Peter T. Nesbett
notes to pages
209 – 212
317
and Michelle DuBois, “Chronology,” in Over the Line: The Art and
56. The New Masses dinner was billed as “Honoring Negro and White
Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois
Americans for Their Contribution Towards an America for All
(Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Cata-
People.” The statement read: “Freedom is indivisible and in
logue Raisonné Project, 2000), 36.
America can proceed only as racial minorities are fully emanci-
49. See FBI files, Lawrence’s application dated September 12, 1977.
pated. The democratic quality of our society can be determined
President Jimmy Carter wanted to appoint Lawrence to the
only by the degree of Jim Crow that still exists.” The honorees
National Council of the Arts. As a presidential appointee he had
included Mary McLeod Bethune for education, W.E.B. Du Bois
to undergo a background check by the FBI. The Senate confirmed
for history, Sterling Brown for poetry, Duke Ellington for music,
the appointment on April 3, 1978; see Congressional Record,
Jacob Lawrence for art, Alain Locke for literary criticism, Joe
Senate, 95th Cong., 2nd sess., April 3, 1978, S4679. 50. Elton C. Fax, Seventeen Black Artists (New York: Dodd, Mead,
Louis for sports, Paul Robeson for citizenship, and Frank Sinatra “for his courageous fight on behalf of all minorities.” Howard Da Silva was master of ceremonies; sponsors included Milton Avery,
1971), 161. 51. Bearden and Henderson, History of African-American Artists,
William Rose Benet, Leonard B. Boudin, Theodore Dreiser, Chaim
305. A similar comment by Romare Bearden and Harry Hender-
Gross, Philip Evergood, José Ferrer, Hugo Gellert, William Grop-
son, in Six Black Artists on American Art (Garden City, NY:
per, Robert Gwathmey, Langston Hughes, Rockwell Kent, Louis
Doubleday, 1972), 113, is quoted in Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob
Lozowick, Albert Maltz, John Sloan, Moses Soyer, Carl Van Doren,
Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Mu
Mark Van Doren, and Max Weber. Program of the event, Jacob
seum, 1986), 101; Lawrence confirmed to Wheat in 1983 that
Lawrence Papers, SCRC, Reel 4572, frame 410, AAA. Many of
Bearden and Henderson were accurate in their assessment of
these people were later blacklisted. See also p. 316, n. 8.
his situation. There are other speculations about the immediate
57. See Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names (New York: Viking, 1980).
cause of the mental breakdown. Recently Samella Lewis has
58. “Red Visitors Cause Rumpus,” Life, April 4, 1949, 39–43.
speculated in an interview of Alitash Kebede, “A Visit with Col-
59. See Martin Bauml Duberman, Paul Robeson (New York: Alfred
lector Extraordinaire Samella Lewis,” International Review of
A. Knopf, 1988), 341–42, regarding Robeson’s remarks and the
African American Art 21, no. 1 (2006): 30, “You know for a long
Associated Press’s distortions.
time African Americans did not collect Jacob Lawrence. They
60. Ibid., 360–62, regarding Robinson’s testimony. Duberman, Paul
thought his work was ugly. . . . That’s one of the things I think
Robeson, 361, quotes the New Age, July 23, 1949, that “Har-
that sent him to the hospital, because African Americans didn’t
lemites . . . split sharply on the issue of whether the popular
seem to want his work. They couldn’t even sell them for four or
ballplayer should have gone before the committee. . . . Opinion
five hundred dollars to African Americans and now they’re out of
was both congratulatory and condemnatory.” In 1949 Lawrence
reach, almost.” Lewis adds that the same was true for Richmond
painted The Long Stretch (Fig. 203), inspired by Robinson.
Barthé and others of that generation. The FBI, in its investigation
61. See Rampersad, Life of Langston Hughes, 2:171.
of Lawrence, interviewed the artist Julian Levi, who was also
62. J. Saunders Redding, On Being Negro in America (New York:
represented by the Downtown Gallery; the FBI report, dated
Bobbs-Merrill, 1951), 25. Redding viewed the writing of his book
September 28, 1977, states that “it was [Levi’s] recollection
as a catharsis: “I want to get on to other things. I do not know
[Lawrence] had some type of nervous breakdown due to pres-
whether I can make this clear, but the obligations imposed by
sures that Negroes had to face in service at that time.”
race on the average educated or talented Negro . . . are vast
52. The historian Robbie Lieberman calls 1949 the “year of shocks”;
and become at last onerous. I am tired of giving up my creative
see Robbie Lieberman, “Communism, Peace Activism, and Civil
initiative to these demands. I think I am not alone” (26). In his
Liberties: From the Waldorf Conference to the Peekskill Riot,”
book he also wanted to explain how and why he eventually re-
Journal of American Culture 18 (Fall 1995): 59.
jected communists’ attempts to recruit him, although he ac-
53. Langston Hughes, “A Portent and a Warning to the Negro People
knowledged the party’s commitment to fighting racism.
from Hughes,” Chicago Defender, February 5, 1949, 6; portions
In many of his Chicago Defender columns, Langston Hughes
also quoted in Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes,
maintained that African Americans suffering from “Jim Crow
vol. 2, 1941–1967, I Dream a World, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford
shock, segregation-neuroses, and discrimination-fatigue” were
University Press, 2002), 171. 54. Lillian Scott, “Along Celebrity Row,” Chicago Defender, January
candidates for psychoanalysis; see Langston Hughes, “Doc, Wait! I Can’t Sublimate!” Chicago Defender, March 4, 1944. For a medical view of the intersection of racism and mental health,
15, 1949, 8. 55. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 32, states he was recruited
see Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, and Amy Alexander, Lay My Burden
by the Communist Party but did not join. Bob Blackburn, more
Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis among
politically active than Lawrence, confirmed that Lawrence was not a Communist Party member (Bob Blackburn, interview by
“This whole business with Jake has been so terrifying and upset-
author, June 7, 1988).
318 notes to pages
African-Americans (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000). 63. On August 12, 1949, Gwendolyn Knight wrote to Edith Halpert:
212 – 214
ting that it is only now that I have begun to function normally.”
intense, but if he hadn’t maintained some sort of a structural
Halpert responded with a long letter dated August 16. She reas-
integrity, he would not have been able to make those paintings.
sured Knight that she had spoken to a psychiatrist friend about
That’s what made his paintings so great” (“In Conversation: Jack
Lawrence’s illness, which she predicted would be “of considerable
Whitten with Robert Storr,” Brooklyn Rail: Critical Perspectives
duration” and during which “he must be under care all the time in
on Art, Politics and Culture 9 [September 2007], www.brooklynrail
some institution or other.” She quoted a letter from the psychiatrist
.org/2007/09/art/whitten). Lawrence’s former student Allan
(who was working in a Veterans Administration hospital in Topeka,
Kollar explained that to Lawrence plastic “encompassed compo-
Kansas): “ ‘In my compulsive way, I have decided not to wait for
sition and the beauty of interlocking forms”; Allan Kollar, e-mail
Dr. Karl Menninger’s return to discuss the problem of Jacob Law-
to author, November 4, 2008.
rence; mainly because I have felt that too much time should not
71. For a discussion of Square Dance, see Patricia Hills, “Jacob
be wasted. I did, however, confer with the Chief of our Psychiatric
Lawrence: Square Dance,” in American Dreams: American Art to
Service, and a couple of other doctors whose opinion I respect.
1950 in the Williams College Museum of Art, ed. Nancy M. Mat-
We all came to the same conclusion: (1) If the diagnosis is unmis-
thews (Williamstown, MA: Williams College Museum of Art,
takably schizophrenia, Jake must be hospitalized; (2) Hospitaliza-
2001). Drama—Hallowe’en Party (1950, Art Market, 2008) in-
tion will have to be continued for a long time; (3) He should be transferred at the earliest moment to a Veterans Hospital, not only
cludes a masked ghost figure. 72. Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems of Paul Lawrence
because a private hospital is costly, or because Jake is a veteran,
Dunbar (New York: Dodd Mead, 1913), 71.
but because it is the concensus [sic] of opinion that modern
73. Lawrence, interview by author, July 1983.
methods will be applied in the therapy.’ ” Halpert explained that
74. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952; New York: Grove
the psychiatrist and his colleagues had recommended the VA
Press, 1967), 109, my emphasis.
hospital in the Bronx and would make certain that Lawrence got
75. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 3.
special care. Halpert asked Knight to telephone her upon receiving
76. Lawrence, interview by author, May 20, 1985.
the letter. On August 21 Knight replied by thanking Halpert and
77. See New York Amsterdam News, January 19, 1935; in a readership
enclosing a request that Lawrence be admitted to the VA hospital
poll of Harlem’s most popular celebrities, Ethel Waters edged
in the Bronx. (See Downtown Gallery Records, reel 5549, frames
out Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
466–69, AAA.) Presumably Halpert was to make the arrangements
78. Quoted in Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 103.
for the transfer. However, Lawrence remained at Hillside Hospital;
79. George Washington Dixon in 1827 and Thomas D. Rice in 1828
there are no available records on what happened next or who paid
performed “Jim Crow.” See Joseph Boskin, Sambo: The Rise and
for the private hospital expenses. The nature of the therapy is sug
Demise of an American Jester (New York: Oxford University
gested by Lawrence’s own paintings: individual psychotherapy,
Press, 1986). Even earlier, in 1769, a New York theater per-
medication, creative therapy (art lessons), recreational therapy
formed the comic opera The Padlock, with one white actor in
(patients’ playing cards and games, dancing, staging plays), occu
blackface performing a slave; see John D. Silvera, “Still in Black-
pational therapy (sewing and weaving), and gardening. 64. Aline B. Louchheim [Saarinen], “An Artist Reports on the Troubled Mind,” New York Times Magazine, October 15, 1950, 15.
face,” Crisis 46 (March 1939): 76. Silvera’s article was one of the first to protest the stereotypes perpetuated in minstrelsy. 80. Beginning with Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy
65. “Jacob Lawrence,” Ebony, April 1951, 73.
and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University
66. Ibid.
Press, 1993), there has been a surge of excellent studies on min-
67. New York Post, March 26, 1961, quoted in Wheat, Jacob Law
strelsy, including Susan Gubar, Racechanges: White Skin, Black
rence, 102.
Face in American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press,
68. Lawrence, interview by author, May 20, 1985.
1997), and William J. Mahar, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early
69. Redding, On Being Negro, 26.
Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture
70. In 1963 Lawrence told Mort Cooper, “I work every day. And
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999).
anything that interrupts this rhythm completely throws me off”
81. Ellison, “Change the Joke,” 47–48.
(Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” Chicago Defender, May
82. Ibid., 49.
18, 1963, 9). In an interview with Robert Storr, the artist Jack
83. Ibid.
Whitten recounted the advice Lawrence had given him; Whitten
84. Huggins, Harlem Renaissance, 260.
said: “It’d be difficult to tell you what sort of mental state I was
85. Quoted in Jessie Fauset, “The Gift of Laughter,” in Locke, New
going through by late ’68. For the first time in my life I had to see
Negro, 164.
a shrink simply because I thought I was going off the deep end.
86. I am grateful to Kymberly Pinder for flagging parts of this discus-
I would occasionally go and talk to Jacob Lawrence. And he would
sion and encouraging me to rethink it. See Lott, Love and Theft,
tell me, ‘Well, you got to keep your mind on the plastic.’ It’s like the Van Gogh syndrome. Van Gogh was obviously emotionally
36, for Frederick Douglass’s encounter with a minstrel troupe. 87. Langston Hughes, “Minstrel Man,” in Locke, New Negro, 144.
notes to pages
214 – 218
319
puppet troupes in the world.” The article goes on to discuss “all-
88. These performers were frequently cited in both the ads and the
colored vaudeville units” operating in cities across the country
reviews of the New York Amsterdam News.
with performances staged “in hospitals and asylums, C. C. C.
89. See Henry Louis Gates Jr., “The Chitlin Circuit,” New Yorker,
camps, settlement houses and school auditoriums.”
February 3, 1997, 44–55. 90. See Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness:
105. Preston, “Diverse Moderns.”
Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (New
106. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 3.
York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 298.
107. See C. B. Davis, “Reading the Ventriloquist’s Lips,” Tulane Drama
91. Quoted in ibid., 298.
Review 42 (Winter 1998): 133–56. Peter T. Nesbett, in an essay
92. See Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, 49 n. 7.
for the catalogue Important American Paintings, Drawings and
93. Boskin, Sambo, 66.
Sculpture (New York: Christie’s, May 21, 2008), 20–22, argues that the puppet is “a surrogate for Lawrence himself.”
94. Derek Walcott, ‘What the Twilight Says: An Overture,” in Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays (London: Jonathan Cape,
108. S[tuart] P[reston], “About Art and Artists: Group Shows at Two Galleries Reopen Local Season with Varied Works,” New York
1972), 3–40, quoted in Gates, Figures in Black, 173.
Times, September 13, 1954, 18.
95. Richard J. Powell, “Harmonizer of Chaos: Jacob Lawrence at Midcentury,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line, 154. To Pow-
109. Gates, comments made following my talk “Masks and Masking,” February 28, 2007.
ell the two figures recall the famous African American comedians Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham and Tim Moore, who frequently
110. See FBI file on Jacob Lawrence, memo dated June 26, 1953.
played at the Apollo Theater. Moore later played in the 1950s
111. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 38, state that he declined the invitation. The letter of rejection and the letter “declining”
television series Amos ’n’ Andy.
the offer are not in the archives. Perhaps he simply never heard
96. Henry Louis Gates Jr., comments during the Q&A following my
further from USIA of the rejection.
talk, “Masks and Masking in the Art of Jacob Lawrence,” delivered at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, February 28, 2007. and “Marmontel” in The Oxford Companion to French Literature,
the paintings of the protest years, 1955 –70
ed. Sir Paul Harvey and J. E. Heseltine (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
Epigraphs are from Richard Wright, “Blueprint for Negro Litera-
97. Gates, Figures in Black, 51–54, refers to the essays “Arlequin”
8.
1959), 27, 456; the reference to Harlequin’s African origins is
ture” (1937), in Amistad 2: Writings on Black History and Culture, ed.
suggested in Marmontel, Éléments de literature (1787).
John A. Williams and Charles F. Harris (New York: Vintage Books,
98. The figure also recalls the zoot-suiters of the 1940s, who were themselves transgressors. 99. Quoted in “Stories with Impact,” Time, February 2, 1943, 50,
1971), also at ChickenBones: A Journal, www.nathanielturner.com/ blueprintfornegroliterature.htm; and Jacob Lawrence, interview by Carroll Greene, October 26, 1968, AAA. Parts of this chapter were
quoted in Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins, “The Critical Context of Jacob
first developed for “Jacob Lawrence’s Paintings during the Protest
Lawrence’s Early Works, 1938–1952,” in Nesbett and DuBois,
Years of the 1960s,” in Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Law
Over the Line, 131.
rence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois (Seattle: University
100. Another touch is the rooster depicted on the head of Harlequin’s staff. Lawrence may have seen a variant of the routine originally
of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000), 175–91.
developed by the black minstrel Bob Mack, who costumed himself as a rooster and then commenced a mock fight with a real
1. Milton W. Brown, Jacob Lawrence, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney
bantam rooster on stage. In the early twentieth century Bert Wil-
Museum of American Art, 1974), 15. Peter T. Nesbett and Mi-
liams adapted the rooster act for his Ziegfield Follies routine. See
chelle DuBois’s “Chronology,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the
Errol G. Hill and James V. Hatch, A History of African American Theatre (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 124. 101. See Michelle DuBois, “Playing with the Game Motif: An Interpretive Study of Jacob Lawrence’s Game Paintings” (MA thesis, University of Washington, 2000). 102. In 1959 Ingmar Bergman directed The Seventh Seal, in which Death is similarly dressed and hooded. 103. See Elizabeth Steele, “The Materials and Techniques of Jacob Lawrence,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line, 256.
Line, 36, states that Lawrence conceived of the series in 1949. 2. Quoted in Selden Rodman, Conversations with Artists (New York: Capricorn Books, 1961), 105. Rodman does not cite the date of his interview of Lawrence. 3. Lawrence, interview by Greene, October 26, 1968, www.aaa .si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/lawren68.htm. There were precedents to Lawrence’s pictorial survey. When Diego Rivera unveiled his New Workers School murals in September 1933, T. R. Poston of the New York Amsterdam News
104. See “800 Have Jobs on WPA Units,” New York Amsterdam News,
praised Rivera’s inclusion of African Americans throughout his-
June 6, 1936, 8: “There are marionette groups now working in
tory, including incidents of slaves in rebellion, Crispus Attucks’s
Buffalo, New York, and in San Francisco, the Buffalo group su-
death, and portraits of Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass;
pervised by Esther B. Whiholm. These are the only all-Negro
see New York Amsterdam News, September 6, 1933, 9.
320 notes to pages
219 – 232
4. Jacob Lawrence to John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Founda-
15. Lawrence expressed his admiration for Clark’s work in a 1986
tion, January 28, 1954, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foun
letter: “As always, we enjoyed your comments on various social
dation Archives, New York. I am grateful to Mary Kiffer for pro-
issues of the day. Your contribution is appreciated by us all.”
viding me with the photocopies of Lawrence’s applications. 5. Jacob Lawrence to Langston Hughes, February 23, 1954, Hughes
Lawrence to Clark, June 30, 1986, Kenneth Clark Papers, box 4, folder 4, MD, LOC.
Papers, box 101, folder 1894. According to Peter T. Nesbett and
16. See Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (New
Michelle DuBois, Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and
York: Harper and Row, 1980), 441–59. Zinn’s account of the civil
Murals (1935–1999), a Catalogue Raisonné (Seattle: University
rights movement is succinct and based on firsthand experience.
of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Proj-
For descriptions and analyses of ordinary African Americans
ect, 2000) (hereafter cited as Catalogue Raisonné), 130, Law-
defying segregation on the buses in the South, see Robin D. G.
rence had originally engaged the film historian Jay Leyda to
Kelley, Race Rebels (New York: Free Press, 1996).
provide the text captions. 6. Henry Allen Moe to Jacob Lawrence, April 2, 1954, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Archives.
17. For brief histories of the Birmingham events of 1963, see Steven Kasher, The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954–68 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), 88–113; Anthony
7. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 38, 42; Chapelbrook Founda-
Lewis and the New York Times, Portrait of a Decade: The Sec
tion to Jacob Lawrence, January 11, 1955, awarding him $250 a
ond American Revolution (New York: Random House, 1964),
month for a year, SCRC, reel 4571, AAA.
175–89; and Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil
8. Lawrence did not like the financial arrangements with Alan; see
Rights Years, 1954–1965 (New York: Penguin Books, 1988),
Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh.
181–95. The most graphic source is the PBS series Eyes on the
cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 108.
Prize, which contains footage of newsreels.
9. When shown at the Alan Gallery in 1956, they were billed as the first thirty of a sixty-painting series. Lawrence insisted that the
18. Zinn, People’s History, 447. 19. See Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, transcript of inter-
paintings not be sold separately, but William Meyers bought the
view by Paul J. Karlstrom, November 18, 1998, 66, Lawrence-
whole lot and proceeded to sell the panels individually over time.
Knight Papers (not filmed), AAA, provided to me by Karlstrom.
(See Nesbett and DuBois, Catalogue Raisonné, 130.)
20. See Lewis and New York Times, Portrait of a Decade, 214–24.
In 1957 when Alan downsized his gallery to six artists, Law-
21. Lawrence may have had in mind the court proceedings regarding
rence was one of those eliminated. Without the steady sales
an interracial couple, Mildred Jeter Loving and Richard Perry
jump-started by regular solo exhibitions, Lawrence’s income
Loving. They had been married in 1958 in the District of Colum-
from his art was drastically reduced. He had been teaching, but
bia but lived in Virginia. Arrested by Virginia police on charges
only part time. First he taught at the Five Towns Music and Art
of violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act, which forbade inter-
Foundation in Cedarhurst, Long Island (1955–62, 1966–68). He
racial marriage, they were convicted, but their one-year sen-
would teach part time and later full time at Pratt Institute
tence was suspended provided they left Virginia. In 1963 the
(1955–70), the New School for Social Research (1966–69), and
American Civil Liberties Union took up their case and appeals
the Art Students League (1967–69). (See Nesbett and DuBois,
followed. In 1967 the Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s an-
“Chronology,” for his teaching.) He also did one-day stints as a
timiscegenation law, thus ending all such race-based restrictions
visiting artist, as when he gave a painting demonstration at
on marriage. I am grateful to my editor Sue Heinemann for call-
Middlebury College in March 1956. The simultaneous part-time
ing this legal case to my attention.
teaching jobs left little time to paint, but it helped that the Law-
22. V. R., “In the Galleries,” Arts 37 (May 1963): 112.
rences had moved to 130 St. Edwards Street in the Fort Green
23. See Donald Attwater, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints (Baltimore:
section of Brooklyn, a ten-minute walk to Pratt. The best source
Penguin Books, 1965), 304. Sebastian’s history is not fully known.
for the various jobs he held can be found in his correspondence
He had been an officer in the imperial guard in Rome before he
archived in Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC, which have been
became a follower of Christ. When his arrow wounds were mi-
microfilmed by the AAA, reels 4571–73.
raculously healed, Diocletian ordered him to be beaten to death.
10. Howard Devree, “Forceful Painting,” New York Times, January 6, 1957, D15. 11. “Birth of a Nation,” Time, January 14, 1957, 82.
24. See Lewis and New York Times, Portrait of a Decade, 46–69. 25. See Robert Coles, Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear (1964, Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), 80: Ruby Bridges “com
12. J. R. M., “Jacob Lawrence,” Arts 31 (January 1957): 53.
prehended her exposure to harassment and wondered about its
13. Lawrence actually participated in a contest to do a UNESCO
causes. She is a Negro; she knows that and could hardly help
mural and won the competition (along with Stuart Davis), but
knowing it during those months. There are restrictions and penal-
funds did not materialize for the project; see Nesbett and
ties associated with her racial condition; she knows that and
DuBois, “Chronology,” 42.
has been taught them. No, she cannot go here or sit there. No,
14. Kenneth B. Clark, Prejudice and Your Child[1955], 2nd ed., enl. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), 23.
her race’s people do not ordinarily appear on television pro grams or in the movies, Yes, she would probably never finish
notes to pages
232 – 242
321
school, because money is short, expenses high, her family large
arrived it was really a hostile environment until I threatened
and opportunities very few. . . . Her mother daily confirmed and
them with filing a suit with the ACLU.” When DuBois pressed the
enforced what her children knew, what they had to know as they
Lawrences to describe the hostility, Knight replied, “We could
grew older and left their backyards to face the world of school,
not get any services, we could not find a place to live, it was ter-
buses and shopping centers.” See www.rubybridges.com for in-
rible. And the Africans were hostile to us and I think they were
formation on her recent activities for the Ruby Bridges Foundation
going along with the CIA because they were afraid of them, I
in New Orleans.
guess.” The Lawrences threatened to sue the U.S. government
26. Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, taped interview by au-
and eventually got the U.S. officials to relax their restrictions against them. Through businessmen friends, they were able to
thor, April 19, 1995. 27. Unsigned review, “Jacob’s Dream,” Newsweek, April 15, 1963,
find housing. I am grateful to Nesbett and DuBois for making the transcript available to me.
100. 28. Lawrence and Knight, interview by author, April 19, 1995. 29. Quoted in Mort Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” Chicago Defender, May 18, 1963, 9.
43. See the discussion of his FBI file in Chapter 7. Michelle DuBois told me that when she and Peter Nesbett were preparing their “Chronology,” the Lawrences did not want them to write for the
30. Brief comment following the caption for American Revolution, in
FBI file. I, too, respected these wishes; however, after Knight
Motive 24 (October 1963). The issue was devoted to the arts and
died I did obtain it. The FBI was suspicious of many African
consisted of poetry, fiction, articles on art and topics of general
Americans considered radical by the U.S. government, such as
interest, and book and movie reviews.
Malcolm X, who traveled to Africa at the time. The artist Eliza-
31. Anthony Lewis subtitled his book on the civil rights movement
beth Catlett, living in Mexico, also found herself harassed by
“The Second American Revolution,” but it was not quite a revo-
U.S. officials in the mid-1950s. When she became a Mexican
lution. Instead it was a “race-relations revolution . . . a unique
citizen, the U.S. government would not issue her a visa to enter
effort to join a society rather than overthrow it.” See Lewis and
the country. The ban was not lifted until 1971. Catlett, taped in-
New York Times, Portrait of a Decade, 14. 32. Warhol used the Charles Moore photographs reproduced in Life,
terview by author, June 5, 1995. 44. Ulli Beier to the Lawrences, September 14, 1964, LawrenceKnight Papers, reel D-286, AAA.
May 17, 1963, 30–31. 33. The science of gathering statistics on crowds was not very pre-
45. “Artist Extraordinary,” clipping from Link: The Nigerian-American
cise. Kasher, Civil Rights Movement, 118, states: “Estimates of
Quarterly Newsletter 11 (July 1964), Lawrence-Knight Papers,
the crowd size range from 200,000 to 500,000. It was unquestionably the largest political demonstration in the United States
reel D-286, frame 175, AAA. 46. See USIS [USIA], Lagos, to Lawrence, September 28, 1964, Lawrence-Knight Papers, AAA, reel D-286, frame 42. In 1965 the
to date.” 34. Ibid., 116.
USIA printed a special issue of their publication, Topic (No. 5),
35. Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” 9.
focused on “The Negro in the American Arts,” which featured
36. Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, taped interview by au-
Lawrence; see Lawrence-Knight Papers (not filmed), box 4, “Printed Matter,” AAA.
thor, April 20, 1995. 37. “Leading Negro Artists,” Ebony, September 1963, 131–40.
47. Lawrence, interview by author, April 19, 1995.
38. Lawrence’s involvement with the civil rights movement prompted
48. Lawrence’s friend Langston Hughes had just written a musical
Philip Evergood to write him on October 21, 1963: “You are doing
about the civil rights movement, Jericho-Jim Crow, which was to
a wonderful job heading the Artists Committee of Snick [SNCC],”
open in January 1965 at the Greenwich Mews Theater on West
Jacob Lawrence Papers, SCRC. 39. Terry Dintenfass, interview by Paul Cummings, January 13, 1975, AAA, www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/ dinten74.htm. Raymond Saunders exhibited at the Dintenfass Gallery in 1962, 1964, 1966, 1969, and 1971. 40. He had wanted to travel to Nigeria in 1961, but the State Department denied him a visa that year (see Chapter 7). 41. Lawrence and Knight, interview by author, April 19, 1995; see also Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 107–8.
13th Street. In a letter to Hughes sometime before Christmas, Lawrence told Hughes of his plans to see it; Lawrence to Hughes, n.d. (December 1964?), Hughes Papers, box 101, folder 1894. 49. See Lucy R. Lippard, A Different War: Vietnam in Art, exh. cat. (Seattle: Real Comet Press/Whatcom Museum of History and Art, 1990), 12. 50. The painting is based on a drawing, Struggle (Drawing for), done ca. 1965. 106th Street is a broad street of large early twentiethcentury apartments on the Upper West Side; the Lawrences
42. Gwendolyn Knight, in Knight and Lawrence, transcript of taped
lived in 8E, a two-bedroom apartment. During his stay at Bran-
interview by Michelle DuBois and Peter Nesbett, June 7, 1999:
deis, Lawrence had received a major honor from the cultural
“We went on our own. We paid our own way to go, and we paid
world when he was inducted into the prestigious National Insti-
our own living expenses, but still they wanted control over our
tute of Arts and Letters on May 19, 1965. His friend Ben Shahn
coming and going, they wanted to keep an eye out. . . . When we
made a moving nomination speech, and other artists paid trib-
322 notes to pages
242 – 249
ute to Lawrence through their congratulatory letters. Philip Ev-
World, 1922), 53. Lawrence was one of the pallbearers at McKay’s
ergood wrote Lawrence before the induction on February 5,
funeral in 1948, when the poem was read; see Lillian Scott, “Along Celebrity Row,” Chicago Defender, June 5, 1948, 17.
1965, saying he was glad of the election and adding: “The Institute needs more painters with some guts and imagination”;
62. Lawrence, interview by Karlstrom, November 18, 1998, 13.
Lawrence-Knight Papers, reel D-286, frame 55.
63. Lawrence painted Confrontation at the Bridge when commissioned by Transworld Art, New York, to design an image to be
51. I am grateful to Ann Prentice Wagner for sending me archival materials from the National Portrait Gallery. See Ann Prentice
included in one of three portfolios to accompany An American
Wagner, “Catalogue Entry 43, Stokely Carmichael by Jacob Law-
Portrait, 1776–1976, 10 vols.; see Peter T. Nesbett, Jacob Law
rence,” in Eye Contact: Modern American Portrait Drawings from
rence: Thirty Years of Prints (1963–1993), a Catalogue Raisonné
the National Portrait Gallery, ed. Wendy Wicks Reaves, exh. cat.
(Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery/University of Washington
(Washington, DC: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institu-
Press, 1994), 32. For the actual event, see film footage in the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize.
tion, 2002), 216–19. 52. “The Nation,” Time, July 15, 1966, 15.
64. The excerpts that follow are from Rustin, “Role of the Artist,” 260–63.
53. Telephone conversation, noted on memorandum, between Jacob Lawrence and Frederick S. Voss, November 8, 1991, National
65. One needs to recall that W. E. B. Du Bois, a previous editor of the
Portrait Gallery curatorial files, quoted in Wagner, “Catalogue
Crisis, defended “propaganda” in the service of fighting racism. See p. 292, n. 48.
Entry 43,” 218. Time, however, did not publish the cover. 54. Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics and African
66. See Bayard Rustin, “The Role of the Artist in the Freedom
American Identity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
Struggle,” Crisis 77 (August–September 1970): 260–63, and Ja-
2004), 76–77, notes three explanations for why the panther be-
cob Lawrence, “The Artist Responds,” Crisis 77 (August–September 1970): 266–67.
came the symbol of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, based on his interviews with participants.
67. Quoted by Stan Nast, “Painter Lawrence Is Honored for a ‘Protest’ That Was Life,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 5, 1980, quoted in
55. Addison Gayle Jr., introduction to The Black Aesthetic (Garden
Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 114. This statement echoes what José
City, NY: Doubleday, 1971), xvii–xviii. 56. Jane Van Cleve, “The Human Views of Jacob Lawrence,” Stepping
Clemente Orozco told the New York Times reporter in 1940, that
Out Northwest 12 (Winter 1982): 33–37, quoted in Wheat, Jacob
his art had “no political significance”; see “Orozco Completes Fresco at Museum,” New York Times, July 4, 1940, sec. 1.
Lawrence, 113. Lawrence reiterated this story to the author on April 20, 1995. 57. Lawrence and Knight, interview by author, April 20, 1995. At this
68. John Hersey, Hiroshima (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), 8–9. 69. Ibid., 48–49.
interview Gwendolyn Knight pointed out that the students at
70. Ibid., 60.
California State College in Hayward, where Lawrence was a vis-
71. In the mid-1980s Professor William Vance, my colleague at
iting artist from September 1969 to March 1970, were even more
Boston University, recalled in conversation that Hersey’s ac-
militant because of the influence of the Black Panthers, head-
count, coming as it did in 1946, did much to dispel anti-Japa-
quartered in nearby Oakland.
nese sentiments among Americans in the early postwar years.
According to Edward J. Barnes, black students at that time
72. I am grateful to Sidney Shiff, who let me photocopy Lawrence’s statement in October 2005.
characteristically rejected traditional techniques and research methods because such learning came from the middle-class
73. “Bikini,” Fortune, December 1946, 156.
white establishment and thus did not seem “relevant” to issues
74. In 2008, when the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts bought
of racism. See Edward J. Barnes, “The Black Community and
the Hiroshima series and subsequently exhibited all eight pan-
Black Students in White Colleges and Universities,” in Black Stu
els, I sent them a draft of my discussion here. I am pleased that
dents in White Schools, ed. Edgar A. Epps, National Society for
the publicity department saw fit to draw liberally from my re-
the Study of Education Series on Contemporary Educational Is-
marks in their press release.
sues (Worthington, OH: Charles A. Jones, 1972), 60–73. 58. The range of viewpoints can be found in Samella S. Lewis and Ruth G. Waddy, Black Artists on Art, No. 1 (Los Angeles: Con-
epilogue
temporary Crafts, 1969).
The epigraph is quoted in M. Levin and J. S. Wilson, “No Bop Roots in
59. See Lawrence, interview by Greene, October 26, 1968, www.aaa .si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/lawren68.htm.
Jazz: Parker,” Down Beat 16 (September 9, 1949): 12. I am grateful to Kenneth Hartvigsen for finding the citation.
60. “The Black Artist in America: A Symposium,” Metropolitan Mu seum of Art Bulletin 27 (January 1969): 259. The actual date of the symposium was not noted in the Bulletin. 61. Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows (New York: Harcourt, Brace and
1. In the northeast suburban section of Seattle, not far from the University of Washington, they lived in a one-and-a-half story bungalow at 4316 Thirty-seventh Street Northeast. In 1982 Law-
notes to pages
249 – 259
323
rence was adamant that they would move back to New York once
launched into a project of filming Lawrence. Frustrated by the
he retired: “We really miss the East Coast, and we want to come
consistently bland responses that he felt he was getting from
back,” he told James Buell and David Driskell. See transcript of
Lawrence, Sutherland attempted to make the artist angry. When
interview, February 4, 1982, 2, Amistad Research Center, Mu-
Sutherland finally succeeded, Lawrence ended that day’s shoot-
seum Services Files, Tulane University. For his years in Seattle, see ch. 4, “At Home in the West: 1968 to Present,” in Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh. cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986).
ing. Sutherland’s documentary was never made. 19. I recall this conversation over drinks in Seattle, after Knight received her Women’s Caucus for Art award on February 2, 1993. 20. At a dinner given after the opening of the 1994 MoMA exhibition
2. It is now called California State University/East Bay.
of the Migration series, I recall Lawrence’s standing to thank the
3. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, “Chronology,” in Over the
patrons and others and reciting his usual litany of all the sup-
Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett
portive groups in his life. When he came to the word commu
and Michelle DuBois (Seattle: University of Washington Press/
nists, Henry Luce III, one of the guests at the dinner, com-
Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000), 50.
menced a very noisy coughing fit. (My thanks to Elizabeth
4. Allan Kollar, e-mail to author, November 8, 2008. 5. George Washington Bush (1779–1863) was one of the first black settlers in what is now the state of Washington. For information
Hutton Turner, who also attended the dinner, for reminding me of this incident.) 21. The Whitney show, curated by Milton W. Brown, traveled to the
on commissions, honorary degrees, and major exhibitions, see
Saint Louis Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the
Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology.”
Seattle Art Museum, the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art
6. Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of African-
and the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, and the New
American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (New York: Pantheon
Orleans Museum of Art. The Seattle show circulated to the Oak-
Books, 1993), 312, discuss the pressures on Lawrence during his
land Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Phillips
New York years.
Collection in Washington, D.C., the Dallas Museum of Art, and
7. Michelle DuBois, e-mail to author, March 2008. 8. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of interview by Henry Louis Gates Jr., June 3, 1992, 19, Phillips Collection.
the Brooklyn Museum. 22. The Hampton exhibition traveled to the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
9. Bonnie Hoppin, “Arts Interview,” Puget Soundings, February 1977,
Studio Museum in Harlem, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the
6, quoted in Ellen Harkins Wheat, “Jacob Lawrence” (PhD diss.,
Delaware Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Car-
University of Washington, 1987), 447.
negie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. The Phillips exhibition circu-
10. Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, transcript of taped
lated to the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum in
interview by unknown interviewer, June 1, 1987. The bracketed
Oregon, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Mu-
ellipses indicate material I have omitted; the other ellipses are
seum, and MoMA.
in the original transcript. I am grateful to Barbara Earl Thomas
23. See Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology.”
for providing me in May 2006 with a photocopy of the transcript,
24. See Peter T. Nesbett, Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints
which was held in the archives of the Jacob and Gwendolyn
(1963–2000), a Catalogue Raisonné (Seattle: University of Wash
Lawrence Estate prior to deposit in the AAA. 11. Robin Updike, “Modern Master,” Pacific Northwest [Seattle Times Magazine], June 28, 1998, 18.
ington Press / Francine Seders Gallery, 2001). 25. Over the Line opened at the Phillips Collection and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Detroit Institute of
12. Walter Christmas, audiotaped interview by author, May 4, 1995,
Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum
maintained that Knight was then “a better painter” than
of Fine Arts, Houston. The paperback version of Over the Line
L awrence.
served as the catalogue and contains a section of fifty additional
13. Whitfield Lovell, e-mail to author, July 2, 2008.
pages that includes statements from the sponsors, the director,
14. Barbara Earl Thomas, “Never Late for Heaven,” in Never Late for
and the curator, as well as the list of exhibited works and addi-
Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight, by Sheryl Conkelton and Bar-
tional photographs to make complete the photographic record
bara Earl Thomas, exh. cat. (Seattle: University of Washington
of the exhibition.
Press / Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2003), 18. This cata-
26. Walter Christmas, interview by author, May 4, 1995.
logue is the primary source for information on Knight.
27. Lawrence, interview by author, January 11, 1994.
15. Lawrence and Knight, interview by unknown interviewer, June 1,
28. I previously discussed the prints with builders as a theme in Patricia Hills, “The Prints of Jacob Lawrence: Chronicles of Strug
1987. 16. May Stevens, telephone conversation with author, March 23, 2007, and February 8, 2008.
gles and Hopes,” in Nesbett, Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints. See also Peter T. Nesbett, “Jacob Lawrence: The Builder
17. See p. 319, n. 70.
Paintings,” in Jacob Lawrence: The Builders, Recent Paintings,
18. In 1986 David Sutherland, a noted documentary filmmaker,
exh. cat. (New York: D. C. Moore Gallery, 1998); and Lowery Stokes
324 notes to pages
259 – 266
Sims, “The Structure of Narrative: Form and Content in Jacob Lawrence’s Builder Paintings, 1946–1998,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line.
Knight Papers, Estate of Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence, Seattle, 2006, promised gift to AAA. 2. See funeral service program, Lawrence-Knight Papers, box 1 of
29. Jacob Lawrence, transcript of responses to queries from Belle
10 (unfilmed as of 2006), AAA; and the Web page for the
vue Art Museum, Washington, not dated, in response to a request
Ebenezer Baptist Church, www.ebenezer909.org/historypage1.
that he write up comments for students in connection with the
html.
exhibition Celebrations—No Place Like Home (November 20,
3. I am most grateful to Chris McKay for researching the South
1993–January 8, 1994), Lawrence-Knight Papers, Estate of Jacob
Carolina records of Ancestry Library Edition and the various U.S.
and Gwendolyn Lawrence, Seattle, 2006, promised gift to AAA.
censuses referenced here and for providing me with the relevant
Quoted in Elizabeth Steele, “The Materials and Techniques of Jacob Lawrence,” in Nesbett and DuBois, Over the Line, 254, based on her interview of Lawrence on March 5, 1999.
photocopies. 4. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, “Chronology,” in Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and
30. See Michelle DuBois, “Playing with the Game Motif: An Interpre-
Michelle DuBois (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob
tive Study of Jacob Lawrence’s Game Paintings” (MA thesis,
Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000), 25, provide infor-
University of Washington, 2000). 31. Floyd Coleman, e-mail to author, March 22, 2008. 32. Whitfield Lovell, e-mail to author, July 2, 2008. Subsequent quotations from Lovell are also from this e-mail. 33. According to Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, Jacob Law rence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935–1999), a Cata logue Raisonné (Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000), 112, an undated note by Lawrence in the Terry Dintenfass Papers, AAA, stated the figure was Jackie Robinson. Integration did not just happen
mation regarding Lawrence’s siblings; one assumes that the art- ist provided them with the information. Geraldine’s family has reserved their privacy on Lawrence family matters. Throughout the chronology, Nesbett and DuBois refer to Lawrence’s mother as “Rosa Lee.” 5. Mort Cooper, “Portrait of a Negro Painter,” Chicago Defender, May 18, 1963, 9. 6. “Jacob Lawrence,” Current Biography Yearbook, ed. Charles Moritz (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1965), 252. 7. Ellen Harkins Wheat, Jacob Lawrence: American Painter, exh.
because baseball managers suddenly became antiracist. Active
cat. (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986), 30–31, 194 n. 25.
campaigns in the black community brought integration to the
8. Ellen Harkins Wheat, “Jacob Lawrence” (PhD diss., University of
sport: for example, the actor Canada Lee was active in the End
Washington, 1987), 413, from her recorded interview of Law-
Jim Crow in Baseball Committee; see Wright Papers, box 100, folder 1436. 34. See Nesbett, Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints, 26. The screenprint image had an edition of two hundred signed and numbered; another edition of four thousand signed on the plate,
rence, February 22, 1983. 9. Nesbett and DuBois, “Chronology,” 48. 10. See Wheat, Jacob Lawrence, 31. 11. Judy Coles Payne to Jacob Lawrence, May 11, 1980, LawrenceKnight Papers, box 4 of 10 (unfilmed as of 2006), AAA.
and an unlimited edition of posters. Nesbett notes that the im-
12. For Knight’s mother, see Certificate of Baptism, Island of Bar
ages were created “to commemorate the involvement of black
bados, for Miriam Helena Small, registered June 15, 1961,
athletes in the Olympic games, track being an event in which
L awrence-Knight Papers, Estate of Jacob and Gwendolyn Law-
black athletes had traditionally excelled. But it also serves as a
rence, Seattle, 2006, promised gift to AAA; for Knight’s father,
poignant, if indirect, reminder of Jesse Owens’s triumphant vic-
see Barbara Earl Thomas, “Never Late for Heaven,” in Never
tories in the 1936 Berlin Games.”
Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight, by Sheryl Conkelton
35. Updike, “Modern Master,” 18.
and Barbara Earl Thomas, exh. cat. (Seattle: University of Wash-
36. Lawrence, lecture, November 15, 1982, quoted in Wheat, Jacob
ington Press; Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2003), 9
Lawrence, 105.
and 10. 13. Ibid., 10.
appendix: jacob armstead lawrence and his family
14. Knight kept details of her early life private, although she did open
16. Barbara Earl Thomas, conversation with author, April 4, 2008,
1. Lawrence’s address book and a typewritten memorial notice, dated September 26, 1969, signed “The Family,” Lawrence-
up somewhat to Barbara Earl Thomas. 15. This has changed in the last ten years. Seattle.
notes to pages
267 – 276
325
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Louchheim, Aline B. “An Artist Reports on the Troubled Mind.” New York Times Magazine, October 15, 1950, 15–16, 36, 38. Markovitz, Jonathan. Legacies of Lynching: Racial Violence and Memory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Marquardt, Virginia Hagelstein. “The American Artists School: Radical Heritage and Social Content Art.” Archives of Amer ican Art Journal 26, no. 4 (1986): 17–23. Maxwell, William J. New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. McCausland, Elizabeth. “Jacob Lawrence.” Magazine of Art 38 (November 1945): 254. McKinzie, Richard D. The New Deal for Artists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973. McMahon, Audrey. “May the Artist Live?” Parnassus 5 (October 1933): 1–4. Miller, Douglas T., and Marion Nowak. The Fifties: The Way We Really Were. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977. Mishler, Paul C. Raising Reds: The Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and Communist Political Culture in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Moore, Jack B. “The Voice in 12 Million Black Voices.” Missis sippi Quarterly 42 (Fall 1989): 415–24. Morgan, Stacy I. Rethinking Social Realism: African American
Nichols, Charles H., ed. Arna Bontemps–Langston Hughes Letters, 1925–1967. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980. O’Connor, Francis V., ed. Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1973. ———, ed. The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972. O’Connor, John, and Lorraine Brown, eds. Free, Adult, Uncen sored: The Living History of the Federal Theatre Project. Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1978. Osofsky, Gilbert. Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Negro New York, 1890–1930. 1963. Reprint, New York: Harper and Row, 1968. Ottley, Roi. “New World A-Coming”: Inside Black America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. Panofsky, Erwin. “Iconography and Iconology.” 1939. In Mean ing in the Visual Arts: Papers in and on Art History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1955. Park, Marlene. “Lynching and Antilynching: Art and Politics in the 1930s.” Prospects 18 (1993): 311–65. Patterson, Orlando. Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries. New York: Basic Books, 1998. Patton, Sharon F. African-American Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Art and Literature, 1930–1953. Athens: University of Georgia
Petry, Ann. The Street. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946.
Press, 2004.
Pinder, Kymberly N. “Black Representation and Western Survey
Mumford, Louis. “Atom Bomb: Social Effects.” Air Affairs 1 (March 1947): 370–82. Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1944. Nadell, Martha Jane. Enter the New Negroes: Images of Race in American Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Naison, Mark. Communists in Harlem during the Depression. 1983. Reprint, New York: Grove Press, 1984. Natanson, Nicholas. The Black Image in the New Deal: The Poli tics of FSA Photography. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992. “The Negro’s War.” Fortune, June 1942, 77–80, 157–58, 160, 162, 164. Nesbett, Peter T. Jacob Lawrence: The Builders, Recent Paint ings. Exh. cat. New York: D. C. Moore Gallery, 1998. ———. Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints (1963–2000), a Catalogue Raisonné. Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery/ University of Washington Press, 2001. Nesbett, Peter T., and Michelle DuBois. Jacob Lawrence: Paint ings, Drawings, and Murals (1935–1999), a Catalogue Rai sonné. Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, Seattle, 2000. ———, eds. Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence. Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000.
Textbooks.” Art Bulletin 81 (September 1999): 533–38. Plummer, Brenda Gayle. Haiti and the United States; The Psy chological Moment. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Pollock, Lindsay. The Girl with the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the Making of the Modern Art Market. New York: Public Affairs, 2006. Porter, James A. Modern Negro Art. 1943. Reprint, Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1992. Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. “Is This a ‘White Man’s War’?” Com mon Sense 11 (April 1942): 112. Powell, Richard J. The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Mod ernism. Exh. cat. Washington, DC: Washington Project for the Arts, 1989. ———. “Harmonizer of Chaos: Jacob Lawrence at Midcentury.” In Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois. Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000. ———. Jacob Lawrence. New York: Rizzoli Art Series, 1992. ———. “The Subject in/of Art History.” Art Bulletin 77 (September 1995): 515. Powell, Richard J., and David A. Bailey. Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance. Exh. cat. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. Vol. 2: 1941–
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the American South, ed. Neil R. McMillen, 70–92. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997. Stange, Maren. “ ‘Not What We Seem’: Image and Text in 12 Million Black Voices.” In Iconographies of Power: The Poli
———. No Day of Triumph. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1942.
tics and Poetics of Visual Representation, ed. Ulla Hasel-
———. On Being Negro in America. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
stein, Berndt Ostendorf, and Peter Schneck. Heidelberg:
1951. Reilly, John M., ed. Richard Wright: The Critical Reception. New York: Burt Franklin, 1978. ———. “Richard Wright Preaches the Nation: 12 Million Black Voices.” Black American Literature Forum 16 (Autumn 1982): 116. Renda, Mary A. Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Cul ture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Reynolds, Gary A., and Beryl J. Wright. Against the Odds: Afri can-American Artists and the Harmon Foundation. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum, 1989. Rodman, Selden. Conversations with Artists. New York: Capricorn Books, 1961. Rowley, Hazel. Richard Wright: The Life and Times. New York: Henry Holt, 2001. Saab, A. Joan. For the Millions: American Art and Culture be
Universitätsverlag, 2003. ———. Symbols of Ideal Life: Social Documentary Photography in America, 1890–1950. New York: Cambridge University Press. Steele, Elizabeth. “The Materials and Techniques of Jacob Lawrence.” In Over the Line, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois. Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000. Steinbach, Sophia. “Harlem Goes in for Art.” Opportunity 14 (April 1936): 116. Steinberg, Norma S. “William Gropper: Art and Censorship from the 1930s through the Cold War Era.” PhD diss., Boston University, 1994. Stepto, Robert B. From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-Ameri can Narrative. 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. Stewart, Jeffrey C. “(Un)Locke(ing) Jacob Lawrence’s Migration
tween the Wars. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
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Press, 2004.
beth Hutton Turner. Exh. cat. Washington, DC: Rappahan-
Saarinen, Aline B. [Louchheim]. Jacob Lawrence. Exh. cat. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1960. Schiff, Bennett. “The Artist as Man in the Street.” New York Post Sunday Magazine, March 26, 1961, 2. Schulman, Daniel, ed. A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund. Exh. cat. Chicago: Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies/Northwestern University Press, 2009. Scott, Emmett J. Negro Migration during the War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1920. Shannon, Helen Marie. “From ‘African Savages’ to ‘Ancestral Legacy’: Race and Cultural Nationalism in the American Modernist Reception of African Art.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1999. Shapiro, David, ed. Social Realism: Art as a Weapon. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1973. Sims, Lowery Stokes. “Lowery Stokes Sims Replies.” Art Bul letin 77 (September 1995): 515–16. ———. “The Structure of Narrative: Form and Content in Jacob Lawrence’s Builder Paintings, 1946–1998.” In Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois. Seattle: University of Washington Press/Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, 2000. ———. “Subject/Subjectivity and Agency in the Art of African
nock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993. Stott, William. Documentary Expression and Thirties America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. Studio Museum in Harlem. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. Exh. cat. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987. ———. Tradition and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade, 1963–1973. Exh. cat. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1985. Swift, Hildegarde Hoyt. The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1932. Taylor, Robert W. Harriet Tubman: The Heroine in Ebony. Introd. Booker T. Washington. Boston: George H. Ellis, 1909. Tepfer, Diane. “Edith Gregor Halpert: Impresario of Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series.” In Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series, ed. Elizabeth Hutton Turner. Exh. cat. Washington, DC: Rappahannock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993. ———. “Edith Gregor Halpert and the Downtown Gallery, 1926– 1940: A Study in American Art Patronage.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1989. Thompson, Krista A. “Preoccupied with Haiti: The Dream of Diaspora in African American Art, 1915–1942.” American Art 21 (Fall 2007): 75–97. Turner, Elizabeth Hutton. “The Education of Jacob Lawrence.” In Over the Line: The Art of Jacob Lawrence, ed. Peter T.
Americans.” Art Bulletin 76 (December 1994): 587–90.
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Sitkoff, Harvard. “African American Militancy in the World War
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II South.” In Remaking Dixie: The Impact of World War II on
332 selected bibliogr aphy
2000.
———, ed. Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series. Exh. cat. Washington, DC: Rappahannock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993. Vansina, Jan. Oral Tradition as History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. Vendryes, Margaret Rose. “Art in the Archives: The Origins of the Art Representing the Core of the Aaron Douglas Collection from the Amistad Research Center.” MA thesis, Tulane University, 1992. ———. “Hanging on Their Walls: An Art Commentary on Lynch ing, the Forgotten 1935 Art Exhibition.” In Race Conscious
Wheat, Ellen Harkins. “Jacob Lawrence.” PhD diss., University of Washington, 1987. ———. Jacob Lawrence: American Painter. Exh. cat. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1986. ———. Jacob Lawrence: The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series of 1938–40. Exh. cat. Hampton, VA: Hampton University Museum; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991. Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. Willis, Deborah. “The Schomburg Collection: A Rich Resource
ness: African-American Studies for the New Century, ed.
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New York University Press, 1997. Wallace, Henry. “Violence and Hope in the South.” New Repub lic, December 8, 1947, 15. Wardlaw, Alvia J. Charles Alston. San Francisco: Pomegranate Communications, 2007. Watkins, T. H. The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America. New York: Henry Holt, 1999. Watts, Richard, Jr. “Books in Review: A Liberal View of the South.” New Republic, January 19, 1948, 26.
Rappahannock Press/Phillips Collection, 1993. Woodson, Carter G. A Century of Negro Migration. Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1918. Wright, Richard, with photo-direction by Edwin Rosskam. 12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States. New York: Viking Press, 1941. Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.
selected bibliogr aphy 333
illustrations
All artwork by Jacob Lawrence unless otherwise indicated. Frontispiece: Brooklyn Stoop, 1967 ii Map of Central Harlem, ca. 1930s–1940s 10 1. Jacob Lawrence at work on Frederick Douglass series panel, c. 1939, photographed by Kenneth F. Space 8 2. View of 125th Street, looking west from Seventh Avenue, 1943 12 3. Sid Grossman, Children Playing on Sidewalk, 1939 12 4. Charles Alston in his studio, 1930s 13 5. Page from Arthur Wesley Dow, Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers, 1938 14
1 2. Jacob Lawrence in corner of studio at 306, 1930s, photographed by James L. Allen 22 13. Bob Blackburn working on lithographic stone, 1930s 22 14. Winold Reiss, Alain LeRoy Locke, ca. 1925 24 15. Chow, 1936 28 16. Augusta Savage with her staff at the Harlem Community Art Center, 1930s 31 17. Gwendolyn Bennett, two instructors, Augusta Savage, and Eleanor Roosevelt at the opening of the Harlem Community Art Center, December 1937 31
6. Augusta Savage in her studio, 1930s 18
18. Moving Day (Dispossessed), 1937 32
7. Augusta Savage, Gwendolyn Knight, 1934–35 19
19. Charles Alston, Magic in Medicine and Modern Medicine,
8. Display of masks at Harlem Art Workshop, 1933, photographed by James L. Allen 20 9. Jacob Lawrence and other students at the Harlem Art Workshop, 1933, photographed by James L. Allen 20 10. Jacob Lawrence and other students with teacher at the
ca. 1936–40 34 20. Artists on the WPA Harlem Hopsital murals project, supervised by Charles Alston, ca. 1936 34 21. William Johnson exhibition, Harlem Community Art Center, June 6, 1939 36 22. Halloween Sand Bags, 1937 37
Harlem Art Workshop, 1933, photographed by James L.
23. Rain, 1938 37
Allen 21
24. Dust to Dust, 1938 39
11. Henry W. Bannarn, ca. 1937 21
25. Blind Beggars, 1938 39
335
26. Jacob Lawrence with Mary Beattie Brady at his American Artists School opening, 1939 41 27. Jacob Lawrence presenting a panel from his Toussaint
45. The Life of Harriet Tubman, 1940 (thumbnails of 31 panels) 78 4 6. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 3: “ ‘A house divided
L’Ouverture series to the registrar at the Baltimore
against itself cannot stand. I believe that this govern-
Museum of Art, 1939, photographed by James L.
ment cannot last permanently half slave and half free.
Allen 41
I do not expect this union to be dissolved; I do not
28. Baltimore Museum installation, wall of Lawrence’s work, 1939 41 29. “An Artist of Merit: Pictorial History of Haiti Set on Canvas,” New York Amsterdam News, June 3, 1939 43 30. José Clemente Orozco at work on the fresco Dive Bomber
expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or the other.’— Abraham Lincoln” 84 47. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 4: “On a hot summer day about 1820, a group of slave children were tumbling
and Tank at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, June
in the sandy soil in the state of Maryland—and among
1940, photographed by Eliot Elisofon 45
them was one, Harriet Tubman. Dorchester County,
31. Jacob Lawrence lecturing on his art at Lincoln School, New Rochelle, New York, February 28, 1941, photographed by Ray Garner 47 32. Edith Halpert reading at the home of Charles Sheeler, ca. 1935–40, photographed by Sheeler 49
Maryland.” 85 4 8. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 5: “She felt the sting of slavery when as a young girl she was struck on the head with an iron bar by an enraged overseer.” 86 49. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 9: “Harriet Tubman
3 3. Carl Van Vechten, Jacob Lawrence, 1941 51
dreamt of freedom (‘Arise! Flee for your life!’), and in
3 4. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 7: “Harriet Tubman
the visions of the night she saw the horsemen coming.
worked as water girl to field hands. She also worked at
Beckoning hands were ever motioning her to come, and
plowing, carting, and hauling logs.” 56
she seemed to see a line dividing the land of slavery from
35. Rex Ingram in Haiti, 1938 60 36. The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, 1938 (thumbnails of 41 panels) 62 37. The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 10: “The cruelty
the land of freedom.” 87 50. Margaret Bourke-White, Hood’s Chapel, Georgia, photo in Erskine Caldwell and Bourke-White’s You Have Seen Their Faces, 1937 87
of the planters towards the slaves drove the slaves to
51. William H. Johnson, Chain Gang, ca. 1939–40 88
revolt, 1776. Those revolts, which kept cropping up
52. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 10: “Harriet Tubman
from time to time, finally came to a head in the
was between twenty and twenty-five years of age at the
rebellion.” 69
time of her escape. She was now alone. She turned her
3 8. The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 12: “Jean Francois, first Black to rebel in Haiti.” 71 39. The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 20: “General
face toward the North, and fixing her eyes on the guiding star, she started on her long, lonely journey.” 89 5 3. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 18: “At one time during
Toussaint L’Ouverture, Statesman and military genius,
Harriet Tubman’s expedition into the South, the pursuit
esteemed by the Spaniards, feared by the English, dreaded
after her was very close and vigorous. The woods were
by the French, hated by the planters, and reverenced by
scoured in all directions, and every person was stopped
the Blacks.” 71 4 0. Artist unknown, Toussaint L’Ouverture, in 1863 edition of John R. Beard’s Toussaint L’Ouverture 71 41. The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 23: “General
and asked: ‘Have you seen Harriet Tubman?’ ” 91 5 4. The Life of Harriet Tubman, Panel 24: “It was the year 1859, five years after Harriet Tubman’s first trip to Boston. By this time, there was hardly an antislavery worker who
L’Ouverture collected forces at Marmelade, and on
did not know the name Harriet Tubman. She had spoken
October the 9th, 1794, left with 5,000 men to capture
in a dozen cities. People from here and abroad filled her
San Miguel.” 72
hand with money. And over and over again she made her
42. The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Panel 36: “During the
mysterious raids across the border into the South.” 92
truce Toussaint is deceived and arrested by LeClerc.
55. Forward, 1967 94
LeClerc felt that with Toussaint out of the way, the Blacks
56. Through Forest, Through Rivers, Up Mountains, 1967 94
would surrender.” 73
57. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 18: “The migration
4 3. Artist unknown, Toussaint Captured by Stratagem, in 1853 edition of John R. Beard’s Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture 74 4 4. Artist unknown, Harriet Tubman, in Sarah H. Bradford’s Life of Harriet Tubman, 1869 77
336 illustr ations
gained in momentum.” 96 5 8. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 1: “During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern Negroes.” 101
59. The Migration of the Negro, 1940–41 (thumbnails of 60 panels) 102
ote: The captions under the images give Lawrence’s 1941 N captions for The Migration of the Negro. In 1993 he revised these captions as follows: 1. During World War I there was a great migration north by southern African Americans. 2. The war had caused a labor shortage in northern industry. Citizens of foreign countries were returning to their native lands. 3. From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel north. 4. All other sources of labor having been exhausted, the migrants were the last resource. 5. Migrants were advanced passage on the railroads, paid for by northern industry. Northern industry was to be repaid by the migrants out of their future wages. 6. The trains were crowded with migrants. 7. The migrant, whose life had been rural and nurtured by the earth, was not moving to urban life dependent on industrial machinery. 8. Some left because of promises of work in the North. Others left because their farms had been devastated by floods. 9. They left because the boll weevil had ravaged the cotton crop. 10. They were very poor. 1 1. Food had doubled in price because of the war. 12. The railroad stations were at times so crowded with people leaving that special guards had to be called to keep order. 13. The crops were left to dry and rot. There was no one to tend them. 14. For African Americans there was no justice in the southern courts. 15. There were lynchings. 16. After a lynching the migration quickened. 17. Tenant farmers received harsh treatment at the hands of planters. 18. The migration gained in momentum. 19. There had always been discrimination. 20. In many of the communities the Black press was read with great interest. It encouraged the movement. 21. Families arrived at the station very early. They did not wish to miss their trains north. 22. Migrants left. They did not feel safe. It was not wise to be found on the streets late at night. They were arrested on the slightest provocation. 23. The migration spread. 24. Their children were forced to work in the fields. They could not go to school. 25. They left their homes. Soon some communities were left almost empty. 26. And people all over the South continued to discuss this great movement. 27. Many men stayed behind until they could take their families north with them. 28. The labor agent sent south by northern industry was a familiar presence in the Black communities. 29. The labor agent recruited unsuspecting laborers as strike breakers for northern industries. 30. In every southern home people met to decide whether or not to go north.
31. The migrants found improved housing when they arrived north. 32. The railroad stations in the South were crowded with northbound travelers. 33. Letters from relatives in the North told of the better life there. 34. The Black press urged the people to leave the South. 35. They left the South in great numbers. They arrived in the North in great numbers. 36. Migrants arrived in Chicago, the gateway to the West. 37. Many migrants found work in the steel industry. 38. They also worked on the railroads. 39. Railroad platforms were piled high with luggage. 40. The migrants arrived in great numbers. 41. The South was desperate to keep its cheap labor. Northern labor agents were jailed or forced to operate in secrecy. 42. To make it difficult for the migrants to leave, they were arrested en masse. They often missed their trains. 43. In a few sections of the South leaders of both Black and White communities met to discuss ways of making the South a good place to live. 44. But living conditions were better in the North. 45. The migrants arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North. 46. Industries boarded their workers in unhealthy quarters. Labor camps were numerous. 47. As the migrant population grew, good housing became scarce. Workers were forced to live in overcrowded and dilapidated tenement houses. 48. Housing was a serious problem. 49. They found discrimination in the North. It was a different kind. 50. Race riots were numerous. White workers were hostile toward the migrants who had been hired to break strikes. 51. African Americans seeking to find better housing attempted to move into new areas. This resulted in the bombing of their new homes. 52. One of the most violent race riots occurred in East St. Louis. 53. African Americans, long-time residents of northern cities, met the migrants with aloofness and disdain. 54. For the migrants, the church was the center of life. 55. The migrants, having moved suddenly into a crowded and unhealthy environment, soon contracted tuberculosis. The death rate rose. 56. The African American professionals were forced to follow their clients in order to make a living. 57. The female workers were the last to arrive north. 58. In the North the African American had more educational opportunities. 59. In the North they had the freedom to vote. 60. And the migrants kept coming.
60. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 13: “Due to the South’s losing so much of its labor, the crops were left to dry and spoil.” 112 61. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 14: “Among the social conditions that existed which was partly the cause of the migration was the injustice done to the Negroes in the courts.” 113 62. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 15: “Another cause
illustr ations 337
was lynching. It was found that where there had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant to leave at first left immediately after this.” 113 6 3. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 31: “After arriving North the Negroes had better housing conditions.” 115 6 4. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 38: “They also worked in large numbers on the railroad.” 115 65. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 42: “They also made it very difficult for migrants leaving the South. They often went to the railroad stations and arrested the Negroes wholesale, which in turn made them miss their train.” 116 66. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 44: “Living conditions were better in the North.” 116 67. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 45: “They arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North, in large numbers.” 117 6 8. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 49: “They also found discrimination in the North although it was much different from that which they had known in the South.” 117 69. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 52: “One of the largest race riots occurred in East St. Louis.” 118 70. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 58: “In the North the Negro had better educational facilities.” 119 71. Jack Delano, Sharecropper and Wife, Georgia, photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 121 72. Marion Post, Cotton Buyer and Negro Farmer Discussing
81. Russell Lee, Negro Housing, Chicago, Ill., photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 132 82. Edwin Rosskam, Boy in Front of Apartment House, Chicago, Ill., photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 132 83. Rampart Street, 1941 134 84. “Justice, à la Dixie,” New York Amsterdam News, November 20, 1937 138 85. William C. Chase, “Impatience,” New York Amsterdam News, September 21, 1935 138 86. “Judge Lynch Presides” by T. R. Poston, with photo of the Thomas Hart Benton’s painting A Lynching, New York Amsterdam News, March 2, 1935 139 87. William C. Chase, “Deporting Him, Eh?” New York Amsterdam News, July 5, 1933 140 88. Gwendolyn Knight, Untitled (New Orleans Series), 1941 142 89. Patterson Hotel on New Orleans’ Famous Rampart Street, photo in Peter Wellington Clark’s Delta Shadows, 1942 142 90. Bar and Grill, 1941 143 91. Bus, 1941 144 92. The Wall, 1941 144 93. Spring Plowing, 1942 145 94. “How We Live in South and North,” Survey Graphic, November 1942 146 95. Sidewalk Drawings, 1943 147
Price, Mississippi, photo in Richard Wright and Edwin
96. Unidentified artist, Pvt. Joe Louis Says, 1942 149
Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 122
97. William C. Chase, “Hitler Is Here!” New York Amsterdam
73. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 17: “The migration was
News, June 26, 1943 149
spurred on by the treatment of the tenant farmers by the
98. Charles Alston, The Negro Press, 1944 149
planter.” 122
99. Starvation, 1943 151
74. Dorothea Lange, Hoeing Cotton, Alabama, photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 123 75. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 48: “Housing for the Negro was a very difficult problem.” 125 76. The Migration of the Negro, Panel 60: “And the migrants kept coming.” 127 77. Carl Mydans, Back Yard of Alley Dwelling, Washington, D.C., photo in Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 127 78. John Vachon, Courtroom Scene, Virginia, photo in Richard
100. Killing the Incurable and Aged, 1943 151 101. Decommissioning the Sea Cloud (also known as United States Coast Guard Boat), 1944 153 102. Lawrence with Capt. Joe Rosenthal and Carl Van Vechten at Museum of Modern Art opening, 1944 153 103. Painting the Bilges, 1944 154 104. War, Panel 8: Beachhead, 1947 155 105. War, Panel 11: Casualty—The Secretary of War Regrets, 1947 155 106. Victory, 1947 155 107. Untitled [Sailors at a Bar], 1947 156
Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices,
108. In the Heart of the Black Belt, 1947 160
1941 128
109. Gee’s Bend, 1947 160
79. International News Photos, Lynching, Georgia, photo in
110. Beer Hall, 1947 161
Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam’s 12 Million Black
111. Red Earth—Georgia, 1947 162
Voices, 1941 128
112. July 4th, Independence Day, Vicksburg, Mississippi,
80. Twenty-six panels from Lawrence’s Migration series as they appeared in Fortune (November 1941) 130
338 illustr ations
1947 162 113. One-Way Ticket, 1948 165
114. Silhouette (The Lynching), 1948 165
155. Ben Shahn, Conversations, 1958 209
115. Untitled [Lynchings], 1947 167
156. Malvin Gray Johnson, Negro Masks, 1932 211
116. Untitled [Man with Hat and Cigarette], 1948 167
157. Lois Mailou Jones, Les Fétiches, 1938 211
117. Slave Rebellion, 1948 167
158. Square Dance, 1950 215
118. Dixie Café, 1948 167
159. Psychiatric Therapy, 1949 216
119. Play Street, 1942 168
160. Comedians Tim Moore and Johnny Lee at the Apollo, late
1 20. Parade, 1948 171
1930s, photographed by Morgan and Marvin Smith 219
121. Street Scene—Restaurant, ca. 1936 173
161. Tragedy and Comedy, 1952 220
1 22. A street-corner orator, 125th Street, ca. 1938,
162. Makeup (also known as Dressing Room), 1952 222
photographed by Morgan and Marvin Smith 174
163. Night after Night, 1952 223
1 23. Street Orator’s Audience, 1936 174
164. Marionettes, 1952 224
1 24. Pool Parlor, 1942 176
165. Curtain, 1952 225
1 25. This Is Harlem, 1943 178
166. Ventriloquist, 1952 227
1 26. They Live in Fire Traps, 1943 178
167. The Masquerade, 1954 227
127. Often Three Families Share One Toilet, 1943 179
168. Celebration, 1954 228
1 28. Russell Lee, Toilet in “Kitchenette” Apartment House,
169. Masks, 1954 228
Chicago, Ill., photo in Richard Wright and Edwin
170. Supermarket—All Hallow’s Eve, 1994 229
Rosskam’s 12 Million Black Voices, 1941 179
171. American Revolution, 1963 230
1 29. There Are Many Churches in Harlem. The People Are Very Religious, 1943 180 1 30. There Is an Average of Four Bars to Every Block, 1943 180 131. Many Whites Come to Harlem to Watch the Negroes Dance, 1943 181 1 32. The Music Lesson (originally titled Mothers and Fathers Work Hard to Educate Their Children), 1943 182 1 33. Because of High Rents and Unfit Conditions Rent Strikes Are Becoming More Frequent (also known as Rent Strike), 1942 182 1 34. The Ballad of Margie Polite, 1948 185
172. Struggle . . . From the History of the American People, Panel 5: “We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country!—Petition of Many Slaves, 1773.” 1955 234 173. Struggle . . . From the History of the American People, Panel 13: “Victory and Defeat,” 1955 235 174. Struggle . . . From the History of the American People, Panel 11: “120.9.14.286.9.33-ton 290.9.27 be at 153.9.28.110.8.17.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8 . . . —An Informer’s Coded Message,” 1955 235 175. Playroom, 1957 237 176. Charles Moore, Police Dogs Attacking Demonstrator
1 35. Barber Shop, 1946 186
during Anti-segregation Protest in Birmingham, Alabama,
1 36. Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight, February 17, 1946 186
1963 238
137. Going Home, 1946 186
177. Two Rebels, 1963 238
138. The Lovers, 1946 188
178. Taboo, 1963 240
1 39. End of the Day, 1945 188
179. Ordeal of Alice, 1963 241
140. Children at Play, 1947 190
180. Pete Harris, Elizabeth Eckford, One of the Little Rock
141. Shoe-Shine Boys, 1948 191 142. Nichols, Girls Playing Dodge Ball on 142nd Street, 1949 191
Nine, Pursued by the Mob outside Little Rock Central High School, September 4, 1957 242 181. Andy Warhol, Red Race Riot, 1963 243
143. The Checker Players, 1947 192
182. The Family, 1964 244
144. Kibitzers, 1948 193
183. Festival of the Images, Ilobu, photo in Ulli Beier, Art in
145. Dancing Doll, 1947 195
Nigeria, 1960 245
146. The Fur Coat, 1948 196
184. Street to Mbari, 1964 246
147. Rummage Sale, 1948 197
185. Menagerie, 1964 247
148. Slums, 1950 198
186. Dreams No. 1, 1965 248
149. Brownstones, 1958 200
187. Struggle III—Assassination, 1965 249
150. Street Shadows, 1959 201
188. Confrontation, 1965 250
151. Romare Bearden, The Dove, 1964 202
189. Portrait of Stokely Carmichael, 1967 250
152. Vaudeville, 1951 204
190. Wounded Man, 1968 252
153. Billboards, 1952 206
191. Cover for Freedomways, winter 1969 252
154. Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Juggler, 1952 209
192. Confrontation at the Bridge, 1975 253
illustr ations 339
193. Ralston Crawford, Test Able, 1946 256
198. Cabinet Maker, 1957 264
194. Hiroshima: Market, 1983 257
199. Poster Design . . . Whitney Exhibition, 1974 265
195. Hiroshima: People in the Park, 1983 257
200. Builders, 1980 266
196. Mary Randlett, Jacob Lawrence on the Stairs to His Attic
201. The Studio, 1996 266
Studio, Seattle, 1983(?) 260 197. Mary Randlett, Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence in Seattle, mid-1980s 261
340 illustr ations
202. Schomburg Library, 1987 267 203. The Long Stretch, 1949 269 204. Study for the Munich Olympic Games Poster, 1971 269
index
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations Abernathy, Ralph, 236
Agee, James, 99
Abyssinian Baptist Church, 15, 16, 281n28
Agricultural Adjustment Administration/Agricultural Adjust-
ACA Gallery, Struggle for Negro Rights (1935 exhibition), 138–39, 306n20 African Americans
ment Act, 99, 300n9 Alan, Charles, 5, 169, 232 Alan Gallery exhibitions, 232
and African history, 23–24
Albers, Josef, 157, 193
in American history, 30, 57, 58, 74–77, 97, 98–99,
Allen, James Egert, 58
133, 231–33 “double consciousness” of, 209–11, 217, 226, 317n31 experience of, vs. that of white Americans, 3–4 (see also racism, psychological effects of) folk traditions of, 75, 172, 279n25 masking and, 210–12, 216–19, 221, 226 and rural life, 121–24, 126, 145 see also civil rights movement; Harlem; Jim Crow segregation African art, 23–26, 286n102
Allen, James L., 17, 40, 42, 211, 283n46 Harlem Art Workshop masks, 20 Lawrence at Harlem Art Workshop, 20, 21 Lawrence at studio “306,” 22 Lawrence with Toussaint panel, 41 Alston, Charles (“Spinky”), 5, 13, 26, 29, 34, 46, 52, 131, 136, 137, 141, 210, 280n8, 280n16, 293n84, 304n60 employed by government, 17, 27, 283n43, 287n119, 290n25 Harlem Artists Guild member, 26, 27 Harlem Hospital murals, 34, 34
exhibitions of, 25, 210, 317n33
The Negro Press, 149, 149
masks, 210, 211
praise for Lawrence, 3, 11, 33, 36
and modern art, 25, 210
Spiral member, 202
“primitive,” defined as, 212
as teacher, 3, 13, 14, 16, 20–21, 25, 28, 35
341
Alston, Charles (“Spinky”) (continued)
Bates, Addison, 34, 35, 265
see also 306 West 141st Street (Alston/Bannarn studio
Bates, Ruby, 137
“306”)
Baudelaire, Charles, 202
American Artists’ Congress, 2, 3, 23, 76, 150 Defense of World Democracy (1937 exhibition), 86, 88 American Artists School, 35–36, 38, 40, 57, 59, 88, 290n9 American Negro Exhibition/Art of the American Negro, Chicago (1940 exhibition), 46 American Society of African Culture, 245
Beard, John Reilly, The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, 59, 60, 70, 72, 74, 295n17, 296n22 Bearden, Romare, 2, 5, 44, 52, 131, 141, 149, 251, 260 The Dove, 202, 203 A History of African-American Artists, 2, 21, 27, 149, 213 “The Negro Artist and Modern Art,” 25, 26
Amos, Emma, 202, 260
bebop style, 170, 194
Amsterdam News (New York Amsterdam News), 29, 38, 42, 57,
Becker, Samuel, 138
58, 59, 136, 172, 212
Beecher, Henry Ward, 76, 77, 84
Bennett reviewed in, 25–26
Beier, Ulli, 245
on CCC camps, 27–28, 287n125–27, 288n128–29
Bellow, George, The Law Is Too Slow, 137
on Harlem Community Art Center, 30, 284n68
Bennett, Gwendolyn, 5, 14, 26, 31, 36, 76, 286n107
on lynchings, 136, 137, 138, 138, 139
Amsterdam News review, 25–26
Savage in, 19, 284n61
and Harlem Artists Guild, 287n114
Anderson, Eddie (“Rochester”), 219 Andrews, William, 77 anticommunism. See cold war antilynching art exhibitions, 137–39 antimiscegenation statutes, 239, 321n21
and Harlem Community Art Center, 30–31, 52–53, 294n111 support for Lawrence, 31, 36, 172, 308n51 Benton, Thomas Hart, 172 A Lynching, 138, 139
antiwar movement, 249
Berman, Avis, 145
Apel, Dora, 135
Bernstein, Leonard, 213
Apollo Theater, 217, 219, 221
Bethune, Mary McLeod, 148
Arden Gallery, 41
Biassou, Georges, in Lawrence’s Toussaint series, 64, 70
Armstrong, Louis, 219
Bikini Atoll atomic texts, 207
Art Digest, 132, 183
Billet, Jeannot, in Lawrence’s Toussaint series, 64, 70
Art Front, 3, 35, 287n113, 300n2
Birmingham, Alabama, 236–38, 242, 243
Art News, 38
Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC), 251
art workshops, 16, 17, 19; see also Harlem Art Workshop
Black Mountain College, 157, 193
Artis, William, 18, 19, 25, 31, 44
Black Panthers, 250, 251, 323n57
Artists Equity, 316n8, 317n23
Black Power movement, 250, 251
Artists’ Union, 3, 23, 26, 27, 34, 35, 287n113
Blackburn, Bob, 5, 21, 22, 29, 44, 52, 285n80, 318n55
Arts, 233
blackface minstrelsy. See minstrelsy
Atkinson, Brooks, 189
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 72, 74
Attaway, William, 23, 29, 44 Attucks, Crispus, 29
in Lawrence’s Toussaint series, 67, 68, 72, 74 Bontemps, Arna, 5, 47, 170 Boskin, Joseph, 220
Balanchine, George, La Valse (1941 ballet), 226 Baltimore Afro-American, 136 Baltimore Museum of Art, Contemporary Negro Art (1939 exhibition), 40, 41 Bannarn, Henry (“Mike”), 21, 21, 27, 57, 136 as teacher, 3, 5, 28, 29, 33, 35, 137 see also 306 West 141st Street (Alston/Bannarn studio “306”)
Bourke-White, Margaret, 86, 99 Hood’s Chapel, Georgia, 86–88, 87 Boykin, Cloyd L., 283n49 Bradford, Sarah, 83–86, 88, 90, 92 Harriet Tubman engraving, 77 Brady, Mary Beattie, 5, 17, 20, 26, 41, 48, 52 support for Lawrence, 33, 40–46, 47, 49, 50 Brandeis University, 247, 249
Baranik, Rudolf, 262
Breckenridge, Mrs. Henry, 30
Barnes, Albert, 172
Bridges, Ruby, 242, 321n25
Barnes, Edward J., 323n57
Brooks, Van Wyck, 24
Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 5
Brown, Eleanor McMillen. See McMillen Gallery exhibition
Barthé, Richmond, 48
Brown, John, 76
342 index
Brown, Milton W., 231, 302n28
Coleman, Floyd, 268, 311n122
Brown, Samuel J., 137
Coleman, Frederick, 34
Brown, Sterling A., 148
Coles, C. B., 159
Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 236, 239–40
Coles, Robert, Children of Crisis, 242, 321n25
Burrows, Carlyle, 205
collage cubist style, 279n24
Burtin, Will, 158
College Art Association (CAA), 2, 16, 17, 19, 282–83nn37–42;
Bush, President George H. W., 263
see also McMahon, Audrey Committee for the Negro in the Arts, 316n8
Cahill, Holger, 3, 14, 17, 29, 30, 171–72
communism. See Communist Party; Left
Caldwell, Erskine, 86, 99
Communist Party (CPUSA), 2, 35, 137, 207
Calkins, Deborah, 48, 50, 293nn84–85, 304n60, 310n101
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), 243, 249
Calloway, Cab, 219
Connor, Eugene “Bull,” 236
Calo, Mary Ann, 17, 283n44, 283n49, 284n69, 284n72
Conrad, Earl, 157
Campbell, E. Simms, 138
Constantine, Mildred, 17
Canaday, John, 93
Cooke, Marvel, 29
Carmichael, Stokely, 249–50, 250
Cooper, Mort, 38, 242, 243
Carnegie Corporation, 16, 17, 20, 282n37, 283n44, 283n49,
Copland, Aaron, 213
284nn68–69, 284n72, 285n75
Cox, Oliver C., 157
carnival, as theme, 208
Crawford, Ralston, Test Able, 207, 255, 256
Carroll, Kathleen, 51
Crichlow, Ernest, 18, 23
Carroll, Lewis, Alice in Wonderland, 242
Crisis, The, 130
Carter, President Jimmy, 254, 318n49
Crowninshield, Frank, 51
Carter, Michael, 175
Cullen, Countee, 23, 50, 52, 183
Catlett, Elizabeth, 132, 322n43
Cummings, Paul, 244
Cayton, Horace R., 120
Cunard, Nancy, 23
Chapelbrook Foundation, 232 Chaplin, Charlie, 213
Daily Worker, 213, 316n8
Chase, William C., 137, 138
Davie, Maurice R., 158
“Deporting Him, Eh?” 140, 140
Davis, Arthur P., 183–84, 185
“Hitler Is Here!” 148, 149
Davis, Benjamin, Jr., 213
“Impatience,” 137, 138
Davis, Jefferson, 76
Chiang Kai-shek, 207
Davis, Sammy, Jr., 219
Chicago Artists Group, 47
Day, Selma, 34, 34
Chicago Defender, 136, 137, 150, 242, 254
DC Moore Gallery, 263
Chicago School of Sociology, 120
DeCarava, Roy, 29
“chitlin circuit,” 219
The Sweet Flypaper of Life, 199, 315n88
Christmas, Walter, 21
Delano, Jack, Sharecropper and Wife, Georgia, 121–22, 121
Christophe, Henri, 72, 74, 296n18, 297n23, 298n38
DePorres Interracial Center exhibition, 42
in Haiti, 60, 296n20
Dermody, Lawrence T., 34
in Lawrence’s Toussaint series, 60, 66, 68
Dessalines, Jean-Jacques, 296n21, 298n38
civil rights movement, 5–6, 236–40, 242–43, 246, 247, 249, 251, 253 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 27–28, 287n125 racism in, 27–28, 287nn126–27, 288nn128–29 Clark, Kenneth B., 18, 236 doll study, 236
Hughes’s play on, 296n18 in Lawrence’s Toussaint series, 60, 65, 68, 73, 74 Devree, Howard, 183, 233 Dewey, John, 3, 14–15, 16 Art as Experience, 15 DeZayas, Marius, 24
Clark, Maurice, 59
Dintenfass, Terry, 5, 244–45, 263
Clark, Peter Wellington, Delta Shadows, 141–42, 142
Dixiecrats, 158
Coast Guard, 150–57, 185, 308n62
Doe, Lewis, 140
Coates, Robert, 152
Dondero, Rep. George, 207
cold war, 5, 231, 206–9, 213–14, 219, 245
“Double V” campaign, 147–49
imagery of, 316n17, 316n22
Douglas, Aaron, 3, 23, 26, 29, 57, 76, 297n23, 298n50
index 343
Douglas, Stephen, 84
Fax, Elton, 11, 15, 18, 29, 31, 212
Douglass, Frederick, 57, 75, 76, 88, 150
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), 207, 322n43; see also
Dow, Alfred Lesley, 13, 14, 61, 194 Composition, 13, 14 Downtown Gallery exhibitions American Negro Art (1941), 141 Crawford, Ralston, solo, 255
Lawrence, Jacob: FBI file Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA/FAP), 2, 3, 14, 17, 19, 30, 34, 38 Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the Works Progress Administration, 38, 59, 296n18, 312n62; see also Haiti
Lawrence, solos, 141, 169, 205, 213, 214–15, 219, 313n41
Fields, W. C., 218
see also Halpert, Edith
films, post-World War II, 316n19
Driskell, David, 172
Fine, Ruth, 317n36
Du Bois, W. E. B., 5, 50, 119, 148, 267
Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Edsel, 52
Black Reconstruction in America, 159, 311n109
Fortune, 207, 255
“double consciousness,” 210, 217, 226, 317n31
“In the Heart of the Blackbelt,” 158–59, 161, 163
and propaganda in art, 29, 292n48
“And the Migrants Kept Coming, 48, 129–131, 130,
The Souls of Black Folk, 210, 217, 226, 299n65, 317n31 DuBois, Michelle, 263, 310n101
143–44, 304n62 “The Negro’s War,” 131, 149
DuBois, William, 59
Francine Seders Gallery, 263
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, “We Wear the Mask,” 216–17, 226
François, Jean, in Lawrence’s Toussaint series, 63, 64, 70, 71
Dunham, Katherine, 23, 52, 219
Frank, Robert, 311n112, 307n38
Dunning, William Archibald, 295n9
Franklin, John Hope, 157
Ebony, 197, 214, 255
Freedom Riders, 236
Eckford, Elizabeth, 240, 242
Freelan, Allan, 138
Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama, 253
Funn, Dorothy, 29
Frazier, Franklin, 158
Edmundson, William, 52, 172 Einstein, Albert, 213
Garrison, William Lloyd, 76
Eisenstein, Sergei, 302n29
Garvey, Marcus, 278n2
Potemkin (film), 120, 301n23 Ellington, Duke, 219 Ellison, Ralph, 3, 23, 27, 163, 209, 217
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 5, 77, 212, 228, 260, 303n52 Figures in Black, 221 The Signifying Monkey, 209–10
“Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke,” 205, 217–18
Gayle, Addison, Jr., The Black Aesthetic, 251
Invisible Man, 28, 194, 239, 314n81
Gaylord, Cecil, 34
“Twentieth-Century Fiction,” 212
Gee’s Bend, Alabama, 311n107
Embree, Edwin R., 44, 175 Emergency Work Bureau of the Gibson Committee, 17, 282n39, 282n42 Emmart, A. D., 40 Evans, Edgar, 34 Evans, Walker, 99, 121, 123, 310n105 “In the Heart of the Blackbelt,” 158–59, 161, 163 Evergood, Philip, 5, 207, 238, 244, 323n50 Renunciation, 207, 255 experience, culture of, 3–4, 14–15; see also Lawrence, Jacob: on experience expressionism, 4
Lawrence’s painting of, 159, 160 Geist, Sidney, 205 Genauer, Emily, 132 Gibson Committee. See Emergency Work Bureau of the Gibson Committee Gilliam, Sam, Jr., 251 Glenn, John, 34 Gold, Mike, 169 Goldwater, Sen. Barry, 249 Goodelman, Aaron J., 139 Goodman, Randy, 15, 45, 60, 150 Gorer, Geoffrey, 220 Gorleigh, Rex, 25, 31
Fair Employment Act (Executive Order 8802), 148
Gottlieb, Harry, 5, 35
Fanon, Frantz, 220, 224
Goya, Francisco, Disasters of War, 233
Black Skin, White Masks, 217
Gramsci, Antonio, 159
Farm Security Administration (FSA), 99, 159, 301n14
Great Depression, 1–3, 5, 9, 11, 13–16, 19
Farmer, James, 243
Great Migration, 97–133
Faubus, Gov. Orville, 240
Greenblatt, Stephen, 1, 5
34 4 index
Greene, Carroll, 75, 187, 231, 251
Harris, Leonard, Alain L. Locke , 278n21, 286n102
“griot,” defined, 75, 97, 270, 298n42
Harris, Michael, 184
Gropper, William, 316n12
Harris, Pete, photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, 240, 242
Grossman, Sid, Children Playing on Sidewalk, 12
Harrison, Richard B., 29
Guggenheim Foundation (John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Haskell, Barbara, 207
Foundation), 152, 157, 187, 232, 310n85 Guillaume, Paul, 4 Guston, Philip, If This Be Not I, 208 Gwathmey, Robert, 238
Hatch, John Davis, Jr., 283n42 Hayden, Palmer, 40, 51, 52 Fétiche et Fleurs, 210 Midsummer Night in Harlem, 172 Hayes, Vertis, 34
Haiti, history of, 36, 59, 60, 69–70, 72–74, 296n21, 298n37,
Hellman, Lillian, 213
298n38; see also Lawrence, Jacob: Toussaint L’Ouverture
Helm, McKinley, 52
series
Hemingway, Andrew, 306n20
Haiti (1938 play), 38, 59–60, 296n20 Halpert, Edith, 5, 49, 172, 183, 232
Henderson, Harry, A History of African-American Artists, 2, 21, 27, 149, 213
as dealer in 1940s, 141, 143, 145, 151, 205
Henry, Barbara, 252
and Lawrence’s Coast Guard assignments, 150, 157
Henry, Patrick, 232, 233
and Lawrence’s early career, 47, 48–50, 51, 52, 129,
Henson, Matthew, 29
141
Herndon, Angelo, 136, 137, 139
on Lawrence’s hospitalization, 212, 214, 318n63
Hersey, John, Hiroshima, 231, 254–56
praise for Lawrence, 310n85.
Herskovits, Melville J., 25
See also Downtown Gallery exhibitions
Hillside Hospital, 6, 197, 206, 214, 319n63
Hampton University Museum, 263
Hiss, Alger, 207
Handy, William C., 52.
Hoover, J. Edgar, 207
Harlem, 5, 9–10, 136, 176–77, 179, 181, 183–85, 189–90,
Hoppin, Bonnie, 260
192–95, 197, 199–203, 219
House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), 207
artistic community in, in 1930s, 9–31
Hudson, Bill, 238
Lawrence’s memories of, 15, 187, 221, 313n52
Huggins, Nathan, Harlem Renaissance, 210, 218
Lawrence’s paintings of, 169–203 (see also specific
Hughes, Langston, 5, 6, 23, 50, 148, 169–71, 175, 183–87, 213,
works under Lawrence, Jacob)
296n18
map of, 10
and FBI, 213
photographs of, 12, 174, 191
friendship with Lawrence, 199, 213, 232, 312nn7–10,
population of, 175, 305n2 riots in, 23, 183–85
322n48 —w ritin g s
Harlem Adult Education Committee, 17, 20, 211
“Ballad of the Landlord,” 170
Harlem Art Committee, 29
“The Ballad of Margie Polite,” 185
Harlem Art Workshop, 17, 20, 50, 211
Chicago Defender essays, 135, 136, 164, 184, 189, 213,
Harlem Artists Guild, 3, 23, 26–27, 34, 76, 262, 287n112, 287n114 Harlem Community Arts Center, 17, 26, 29–31, 48, 52, 53, 262, 288n146, 289n151 Paintings and Sculpture by 21 New York City Negro Artists (1938 exhibition), 36 Exhibition of Negro Cultural Work (1939 exhibition), 291n30
305n4, 306n23, 318n62 “a dream deferred,” 170 “Harlem,” 170 “Laughing to Keep from Crying,” 218 “Lynching Song,” 165 “Minstrel Man,” 218 “Montage of a Dream Deferred,” 170, 194 “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” 3, 170–71
Harlem Highlanders, 52
Not Without Laughter , 218
Harlem Hospital murals, 28, 34, 289n3
“One-Way Ticket,” 164
Harlem Renaissance, 2
One-Way Ticket, 164, 185
harlequin, 221, 228, 320n97
Semple (“Simple”) stories, 135, 189
Harmon, Mrs. William E., 52
“Silhouette,” 164, 169
Harmon Foundation, 17, 19, 20, 26, 40, 42, 48, 50, 52, 58,
Simply Heavenly (musical), 199
284n64, 284n69, 287n112; see also Brady, Mary Beattie
The Sweet Flypaper of Life, 199
index 345
Hughes, Langston (continued)
Klein, Emanuel, 214
—w ritin g s
Knight, Gwendolyn, 5, 6, 34, 36, 53, 76, 186, 187, 197, 247,
“White Shopkeepers Who Own Stores in Negro Neighborhoods,” 184
261, 263, 276, 314n82 Condé Nast employment of, 212, 262
Hunt, Richard, 251
as dance teacher, 157
Hurston, Zora Neale, 15, 50, 209
and Lawrence before marriage, 18, 19, 21, 34, 45, 276
Their Eyes Were Watching God, 141 Hyman, Stanley Edgar, 217
as Lawrence’s assistant and companion, 99, 261, 263, 297n24 on Lawrence’s hospitalization, 214, 318n63
Ingram, Rex, 60
in Lenexa, 145
Ingram, Zell, 31
marriage to Lawrence, 50, 135
Ink Spots, 219
in New Orleans, 141
International Labor Defense, 137
in Nigeria, 245, 262 Savage’s sculptural portrait of, 19
Jackson, Jay, 138
in Seattle, 259, 260–62
Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities,
Seattle Art Museum exhibition, 262
190, 192–93 James, C. L. R., 296n18 James, Skip, 212
Tacoma Art Museum exhibition, 262 Untitled (New Orleans Series), 141, 142 Women’s Caucus for Art award, 262
James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild, 36
Knight, Harry, 17, 282n40
Jarrett, Gene Andrew, 25, 286n102
Knopf, Alfred (publishing house), 169
Jefferson, Louise E., 25, 31
Kollar, Allan, 259, 319n70
Jennings, Wilmer, 138
Korean War, 207
Jet, 205
Kuh, Katharine, 199, 315n86
Jim Crow segregation, 27–28, 135, 136, 139, 143, 157, 158–59,
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, The Juggler, 208, 209
164, 166, 184, 268, 306nn23–26
Kwait, John. See Schapiro, Meyer
in military, 131, 147–49, 150, 151 see also lynching; racism
LaFarge, Father, 42
John Reed Club, 23, 35
LaGuardia, Mayor Fiorello, 16, 40
Johnson, Charles S., 148, 151, 157
Lange, Dorothea, 99, 121
Johnson, James Weldon, 9, 30, 52
Hoeing Cotton, Georgia, 123, 123
Johnson, President Lyndon B., 166, 249
Lawrence, Geraldine (sister), 9, 276, 302n30
Johnson, Malvin Gray, 40, 48, 297n23
Lawrence, Jacob
Marching Elks, 172
ancestry of, 275–76
Negro Masks, 210, 211
on “African Idiom in Modern Art” (lecture), 61
Self-Portrait, 210–11
builder scenes, 265–67
Johnson, William H., 36 Chain Gang, 88, 88, 172
catalogue raisonné, 301n21 CCC service, 27, 28, 33
Jones, John, 140
on civil rights movement, 251
Jones, Lois Mailou, Les Fétiches, 210–11, 211
Clark, Kenneth, friendship, 321n15
Joseph, Ronald, 5, 21, 34, 34, 44, 52
Coast Guard service, 150–57, 185, 308n62
Julius Rosenwald Fund, 43, 44, 47, 53, 98, 133, 135, 145,
and Communist Party, 213, 318n55
175, 307n43
community, praise for, 1, 11, 254, 263 on cubism, 61
Kemp, Ira, 312n25
crying masks, 219
Kennedy, President John F., 166, 239
on discipline in art, 319n70
Kennedy, Stetson, 157
education, early, 280n7
Keppel, Frederick, 17, 283n53, 284n69
exhibitions, 3, 36, 38, 40, 42, 43, 46, 47, 131, 232,
Kersands, Billy, 217 King, Rev. Martin Luther, Jr., 236, 243, 251
293nn68–69, 309n81, 321n9; see also under Downtown Gallery exhibitions
King-Hammond, Leslie, 15, 173
on experience, 23, 251, 307n43
Kirstein, Lincoln 5, 44
FBI file, 212, 213, 245, 286n130, 316n8, 318n49
346 index
finances and income, 38, 43, 44, 48, 49, 50, 99, 135, 143, 152, 169, 183, 291n44, 310n85, 321n8, 321n9
American Revolution, 230, 242, 243, 252–53 And Harlem Society Looks On, 181
government harrassment, 322n42
Antiquities, 245–46
Halpert correspondence, 50, 141, 150, 152, 157
Back Room, 291n28
on Harlem, 15, 187, 221, 313n52
The Ballad of Margie Polite, 185, 185
history, interest in, 24, 58, 59, 98, 133, 231
Bar and Grill (1937), 36, 291n28
hospitalization, 6, 197, 206, 212, 214–15, 229, 318n51,
Bar and Grill (1941), 141, 142, 143
319n63
Barber Shop, 186, 187
Hughes friendship, 213, 199, 232, 312nn7–10, 322n48
Beachhead, 152, 154
Julius Rosenwald Fund fellowships, 43, 44, 47, 53, 98,
Because of High Rents and Unfit Conditions, 182, 183
99, 133, 135, 145, 146, 175, 291n43, 307n43
Bed Time, 291n28
Locke correspondence, 42–43
Beer Hall, 159, 161
lynching as theme, 206, 210, 229, 317n40
Beggar No. 1, 291n28
marriage, 50, 135, 293n93
Beggar No. 2, 291n28
masks and masking, 11, 13, 16, 206, 210, 216, 229, 317n40
Billboards, 205, 206
and McCarthyism, 209, 213
Birth, 314n82
McKay friendship, 44–45, 323n61
Blind Beggars, 15, 38, 39, 216
mental breakdown (see hospitalization above)
Born to Fear, 309n74
murals, 259, 321n13
Boy with Kite, 239
in New Orleans, 49, 50, 141–43, 145, 307n42
Brooklyn Stoop, ii, 254
in Nigeria, 245–46
Brownstones, 199, 200
Orozco encounter, 45, 46, 138, 292n62, 292n64
Builders (1980), 266, 266
personal characteristics, 4, 6, 21
The Builders (1947), 161
on Philadelphia, 15, 98–99
Bus, 143, 144, 145, 146
photographs of, 8, 20, 21, 22, 36, 41, 43, 47, 50, 51, 153,
The Businessmen, 159
186, 260, 261
The Butcher, 36
poem “To all mothers,” 75
Cabaret, 239
as “primitive” artist, 38, 172
Cabinet Maker, 187, 264, 265
printmaking, 263
Cat Fish Row, 161
on propaganda in art, 46
Catholic New Orleans, 141, 143
on protest art, 184–85, 242, 254
Celebration, 226–28, 227
on racism, 6, 59, 150–51, 163, 209, 210, 217, 229, 240,
The Checker Players, 192–93, 192, 194
243, 244 residences and studios, 9, 27, 44, 50, 53, 185, 245, 259, 307n48, 309n77, 313n53, 323n1
Chess on Broadway, 199 Children at Play, 190, 190, 192 Christmas, 291n28
on South, 135–36, 150, 158
Christmas Dinner, 36
southern trips, 135, 141–43, 145–46, 150–2, 157–63
A Christmas Pageant, 315n1
stature in American art history, 6, 244, 268
Chow, 28, 28
on “struggle” as way of life, 231–32, 253–54, 270
City College Is Like a Beacon over Harlem, 183
and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 322n38
A Class in Shoemaking, 161
style and techniques, 4, 6, 11, 13, 14, 15, 61, 75, 95, 97,
Coast Guard paintings, 152, 304n73
112, 126, 132, 171, 173, 193–94, 199
Concert, 315n1
teaching, 259–60, 310n93, 321n9
Confrontation, 249, 250
tricksters, use of, 212, 229, 317n46
Confrontation at the Bridge, 253, 253, 323n63
women as sources of inspiration, 76
Creative Therapy, 215
women as subjects, 75, 195, 233, 314n83
Curtain, 205, 225–26, 225
on World War II, 150, 156
Dancing Doll, 194, 195
WPA/FAP employment, 43, 175
Dawn, 36
—wo r ks
Decommissioning the Sea Cloud, 152, 153
After the Show, 205, 315n1
Depression, 215
All Hallow’s Eve, 239
The Dilemma of an Aging Population, 315n85
Alley, 143
Dixie Café, 166, 167
index 347
Lawrence, Jacob (continued)
Ice Peddlers, 173, 291n28
—wo r ks
In the Garden, 215
Dorrance Brook Square, 291n28
In the Heart of the Black Belt, 159, 160
Drama—Hallowe’en Party, 215
Interior, 291n28
Drawing Water, 145
Interior Scene, 172–73
Dreams No. 1, 247, 248
Invisible Man among the Scholars, 239
Dust to Dust, 15, 38, 39, 291n28
John Brown series, 4, 70, 141, 143, 175
End of the Day, 188, 189, 247
July 4th, Independence Day, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 161,
Evening, 36
162
Family, 36
Junk, 36
The Family, 243–44, 244, 247
Kibitzers, 193, 193, 194
Fantasy, 315n1
Killing the Incurable and Aged, 151, 151
Feast, 36
Lady with Veil, 291n28
Fire, 36
The Libraries Are Appreciated, 183
Firewood, 145, 146
Library, 291n28
Forward, 93, 94
Library II, 239
Four Sheep, 246
Library III, 239
Four Students, 239
The Long Stretch, 268, 269
Frederick Douglass series, 4, 8, 57, 70, 74, 75, 86, 97
The Lovers, 188, 189
Freedomways cover, 252, 252
Makeup, 221–22, 222
From Life unto Death, 309n74
Many Whites Come to Harlem (or Dancing at the Savoy),
The Fur Coat, 194–95, 196, 314n82
179, 181, 181, 312n36
Games, 259
Marionettes, 205, 224–25, 224, 226
Gee’s Bend, 159, 160, 194
The Masked Ball, 226
George Washington Bush series, 259, 324n5
Masks, 228–29, 228
Going Home, 186, 187, 189, 194
The Masquerade, 226, 227
Graduation, 312n7
Meat Market, 246
The Green Table, 141
Menagerie, 246–47, 247
Halloween Sand Bags, 14, 36
Migration (1947), 161
Harlem (1942), 145, 146, 190
The Migration of the Negro series, 4, 6, 45, 51–52, 97–
Harlem (1946), 316n5
120, 102–11, 122, 124, 126, 128–33, 152, 172, 175,
Harlem paintings (1952–53), 52, 53, 146, 177, 179, 181,
245, 261, 304n69, 304n70; Panel 1, “During the World
183
War there was a great migration . . . ,” 100, 101, 102;
Harriet and the Promised Land series, 93, 94, 95
Panel 13, “Due to the South’s losing so much of its
Harriet Tubman (drawing), 166
labor . . . ,” 104, 112, 112; Panel 14, “. . . injustice done
Harriet Tubman series (1940), 4, 6, 43, 46, 57, 70, 77–
to the Negroes in the courts,” 104, 112, 113; Panel 15,
93, 78–83; Panel 3, “ ‘A House divided against itself
“Another cause was lynching . . . ,” 104, 112, 113, 129,
cannot stand . . . ,’ ” 79, 84, 84; Panel 4, “On a hot
165, 303n58; Panel 17, “ . . . treatment of the tenant
summer day . . . ,” 79, 84–85, 85; Panel 5, “She felt
farmers by the planter,” 105, 122, 122; Panel 18, “The
the sting of slavery . . . ,” 78, 86, 86; Panel 7, “Harriet
migration gained in momentum,” 96, 105, 120, 124;
Tubman worked as water girl . . . ,” 56, 78, 86; Panel 9,
Panel 31, “After arriving North the Negroes had better
“Harriet Tubman dreamt of freedom . . . ,” 79, 86, 87;
housing conditions,” 106, 114, 115; Panel 38, “They
Panel 10, “Harriet Tubman was between twenty . . . ,”
also worked . . . on the railroad,” 108, 114, 115; Panel
80, 88, 89; Panel 18, “At one time during Harriet Tub-
42, “They also made it very difficult for migrants leav-
man’s expedition . . . ,” 81, 90, 91; Panel 24, “It was
ing the South . . . ,” 109, 114, 116; Panel 44, “Living
the year 1859 . . . ,” 83, 90, 92; sources for, 76–77,
conditions were better in the North,” 108, 114, 116;
83–86, 88, 90, 92, 93
Panel 45, “They arrived in Pittsburgh . . . ,” 108, 114,
Hiroshima paintings, 231, 254–56; Hiroshima: Farmers,
117, 124, 126; Panel 48, “Housing for the Negroes was
256; Hiroshima: Market, 256, 257; Hiroshima: People
a very difficult problem,” 109, 114, 124, 125; Panel 49,
in the Park, 256, 257; Hiroshima: Street Scene, 256
“They also found discrimination in the North . . . ,” 110,
Home in a Box, 312n7
114, 117; Panel 52, “One of the largest race riots . . . ,”
Hospital paintings, 214–16, 215, 216
111, 118, 118, 124; Panel 58, “In the North the Negro
348 index
had better educational facilities,” 111, 119, 119;
Slave Trade, 166
Panel 60, “And the migrants kept coming,” 111,
Slums, 197, 198, 199
124, 126, 127
Soldiers and Students, 239
Mothers and Fathers Work Hard to Educate Their Children (or The Music Lesson), 182, 183
Spring Plowing, 145, 145 Square Dance, 215, 215
Moving Day (Dispossessed), 32, 36, 291n28
Starvation, 151, 151
The Music Lesson (or Mothers and Fathers Work Hard
Steelworkers, 187
to Educate Their Children), 182, 183
Stenographers, 187
Night after Night, 222, 223, 224
Street Orator’s Audience, 173, 174, 175, 194, 291n28
Northbound, 239
Street Scene—Restaurant, 15, 172, 173, 194
Occupational Therapy No. 1, 215
Street Shadows, 200, 201, 202
Occupational Therapy No. 2, 215
Street to Mbari, 246, 246
Often Three Families Share One Toilet, 177, 179, 179
Strike, 268
One-Way Ticket, 164, 165
Struggle . . . From the History of the American People
Ordeal of Alice, 239–40, 241, 322n25
series, 4, 199, 231–33; Panel 5, “We have no prop-
Painting the Bilges, 152, 154
erty! . . . ,” 232, 233, 234; Panel 11, “ . . . An Informer’s
Parade, 170, 171, 194
Coded Message,” 233, 235, 316n22; Panel 12, “And a
Peddlers, 291n28
Woman Mans a Cannon,” 233; Panel 13, “Victory and
The People Are Beginning to Organize. They Want a Good Harlem, 183, 313n37
Defeat,” 233, 235 Struggle III—Assassination, 249, 249
Performance paintings, 199, 205–6, 210, 219, 232, 315n1
The Studio, 266, 266 (lithograph)
The Photographer, 176
Study for the Munich Olympic Games Poster, 268, 269,
Play Street, 168, 176
270
Playroom, 236, 237, 254
Subway, 291n28
Pool Parlor, 176, 176, 183
Supermarket—All Hallow’s Eve, 229, 229, 267
Portrait of Stokely Carmichael, 249–50, 250
Taboo, 239, 240
Poster Design . . . Whitney Exhibition, 265–66, 265
Tailors, 187
Praying Ministers, 239
Terror of the Klan, 166
Protest Rally, 249
Theatre, 291n28
Psychiatric Therapy, 216, 216
There Are Many Churches in Harlem, 179, 180
Radio Repairs, 187
There Is an Average of Four Bars to Every Block, 179, 180
Rain, 36, 37
They Live in Fire Traps, 177, 178
Rain, No. 1, 291n28
This Is a Family Living in Harlem, 179
Rain, No. 2, 291n28
This Is Harlem, 177, 178
Rampart Street, 134, 141–42
Through Forests, Through Rivers, Up Mountains, 94, 95
Recreational Therapy, 215
Tombstones, 145, 146
Red Earth—Georgia, 161, 162
Too Blue, 312n7
Roof Top, 36
Toussaint L’Ouverture series, 4, 6, 38, 40, 43, 44, 46, 57,
Roosters, 246
59–74, 62–68, 75, 97, 98, 172, 297–98n23; Panel 10,
Round Up, 36
“The cruelty of the planters . . . ,” 63, 69–70, 69;
Rummage Sale, 195, 197
Panel 12, “Jean Francois, first Black to rebel in Haiti,”
Schomburg Library, 267, 267
63, 70, 71; Panel 20, “General Toussaint L’Ouverture,
The Seamstress, 187
Statesman . . . ,” 64, 70, 71; Panel 23, “General
Sedation, 216
L’Ouverture collected forces at Marmelade . . . ,” 65,
Shell Shocked, 291n28
70, 72; Panel 36, “During the truce Toussaint is de-
The Shoemaker, 187
ceived . . . ,” 67, 72, 73
Shoe-Shine Boys, 190, 191, 192, 194
Tragedy and Comedy, 219–21, 220
Shoe Shine Girl, 291n28
Trapped, 309n74
Shrimps and Potatoes, 291n28
Two Men in a Bar, 292n60
Sidewalk Drawings, 146–47, 147
Two Rebels (lithograph), 238–39, 238
Silhouette (The Lynching), 164, 165
Two Rebels (tempera), 239
Slave Rebellion, 166, 167
Underground Railroad, 166
index 349
Lawrence, Jacob (continued)
and Halpert, 48, 51–53
—wo r ks
and Lawrence, correspondence with, 42–43
The Undertakers Do a Good Business, 181 Untitled (Lynchings), 165–66, 167 Untitled [Man with Hat and Cigarette], 166, 167
and Lawrence, support of, 4, 33, 44, 45, 145 on migration, 97, 119, 120 —w ritin g s
Untitled (Sailors at a Bar), 156, 156
“Advance on the Art Front,” 42
Vaudeville, 204, 205, 219, 221, 320n100
“Art or Propaganda?” 292n48
Ventriloquist, 226, 227
Negro Art: Past and Present, 25, 172
Victory, 152, 155
The Negro in Art, 48
The Wall, 143, 144, 266
The New Negro, 24, 119
War series, 156; Panel 8, Beachhead, 152, 155; Panel 11, Casualty—The Secretary of War Regrets, 152, 155
and Pollack, 47, 51–52, 129 Logan, Rayford W., 148
Watchmaker, 187
Look, “244,000 Native Sons,” 175
When It Is Warm the Parks Are Filled with People, 181
Lord, Francisco, 31, 34
Woman, 36
Lorensen, Jutta, 300n8
Woman with Veil, 36
Lorentz, Pare, The River, 99–100, 124
Worker, 36
Louchheim, Aline [Saarinen], 28, 132, 148, 150, 214
Wounded Man, 251–52, 252
Louis, Joe, 23, 146, 148, 149, 177
You Can Buy Bootleg Whiskey, 179
L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 29, 36, 57, 58, 59–60; see also
Lawrence, Jacob, Sr. (father), 136, 275–76 Lawrence, Rosalee Armstead (mother), 9, 11, 27, 28, 136, 275–76
Lawrence, Jacob: Toussaint L’Ouverture series Lovell, Whitfield, 262, 268, 303n45 Lowndes County Freedom Organization, 250
Lawrence, William (brother), 9, 276
Lozowick, Louis, 3, 35
Lee, Johnny, 219, 219
Luce, Henry, 129
Lee, Russell
Luce III, Henry, 324n20
Church Service, Illinois, 131
lynching, 23, 136–40, 305n11, 305nn14–15
Negro Housing, Chicago, Ill., 131
exhibitions protesting, 137–39
Toilet in “Kitchenette” Apartment House, 179, 179
imagery concerning, 112, 113, 114, 128, 129, 138, 139,
Left, 2, 4, 166, 171, 207, 214, 270
165, 165, 166, 167
Lenexa, Virginia, 145, 307n48 Levine, Lawrence W., 75
MacLeish, Archibald, 52, 99
Levy, Adele Rosenwald (Mrs. David), 52, 304n69
Mailer, Norman, 213
Lewis, Anthony, 322n31
Malcolm X assassination, 249
Lewis, John, 243
Mann, Thomas, 213
Lewis, Norman, 18, 23, 26, 31, 202, 260
Mao Zedong, 207
Lewis, Samella, 14
March on Washington, 130–31, 243
Leyda, Jay, 5, 33, 45, 46, 99, 120, 121, 301n19, 321n5
marionettes, 320n104
Life, 42, 189, 208, 209, 230, 243
Marx, Karl, 59, 317n32
“Peoples of New York,” 197 “Red Visitors Cause Rumpus,” 213
masks and masking, 20, 208, 210–12, 216–19, 221, 226, 317n39; see also Lawrence, Jacob: masks and masking; minstrelsy
Lightfoot, Elba, 34, 34
Masses and Mainstream, 164, 165, 166
Lincoln, Abraham, 76, 77, 84
Massey, Doreen, 202
Lindsey, Richard W., 19, 25, 34
Maurin, Nicholas Eustache, 70, 71
Lloyd, Tom, 251
Mbari Artists and Writers Club, 245
Locke, Alain, 3, 5, 19, 23, 24–25, 43, 61, 183, 232, 286nn101–2
McCarthy, Joseph, 207
on “American” experience, 4
McCarthy Era. See cold war
and Bennett, 53
McCausland, Elizabeth, 46
as book reviewer for Phylon, 157–58, 190
McKay, Claude, 5, 23, 29, 44–45, 169, 323n61
and Brady, 18, 40–42, 46, 49 on community art, 26 controversial ideas of, 24–25, 286nn101–2 on Fortune layout, 129
350 index
Home to Harlem, 219–20, 221 “If We Must Die,” 252 McMahon, Audrey, 2, 3, 16–17, 29, 30, 53, 282nn39–40, 282n42; see also College Art Association (CAA)
McMillen Gallery exhibition, 51–52, 294nn98–99, 294n101 Meredith, James, 239, 242, 249 Metropolitan Museum of Art, 18, 183
New York Public Library, 135th Street Harlem branch, 17, 18, 38, 58, 60, 99, 135 Newman, Arnold, 260
Artists for Victory (1942–43 exhibition), 183
Newsweek, 242
Harlem on My Mind (1969 exhibition and symposium),
Nichols, Girls Playing Dodge Ball, 190, 191
251
Nixon, Herman, 99
Midtown Payson Gallery, 263
Noguchi, Isamu, 139
Miller, Douglas T., The Fifties, 207–8
Nowak, Marion, The Fifties, 207–8
Miller, J. Hillis, 279n23, 302n34 minstrelsy, 217–19, 226, 319n79, 319n86
O’Connor, Francis V., 38
Molesworth, Charles, Alain L. Locke, 278n21, 286n102
Office of War Information (OWI), 149, 308n59
Mondrian, Piet, 114
Oldenburg, Claes, 315n93
Moon, Bucklin, 157
Oliver, Billye, 29
Moore, Bridget, 5
O’Neill, Eugene, The Emperor Jones, 296n18
Moore, Charles, Police dogs attacking demonstrator, 238, 238
Opportunity, 284n63
Moore, Jack, 126, 303n47
oral traditions, 99, 298n47
Moore, Tim, 219, 219
Orozco, José Clemente, 45, 46, 138
Moreley, Eugene, 35
with Dive Bomber and Tank, 45
Mosby, William, 138
Ottley, Roi, “New World A-Coming,” 169, 176–77
Motherwell, Robert, 207–8
Oubre, Hayward L., 268
Motive, 322n30 Motley, Archibald J., Jr., 40
Paine, Thomas, 232
Mumford, Lewis, 207–8
Panofsky, Erwin, 1
Municipal Art Committee (New York), 29, 30, 34
Park, Robert E., 120
Municipal Art Galleries (New York), 288n143
Parker, Charlie, 259
Murray, Albert, 11
Parker, Theodore, 90
Murrell, Sara, 21, 34
Parker, Thomas, 30
Museum of Modern Art (New York), 131, 208
Penn, Irving, 260
African Negro Art (1935 exhibition), 23
Perry, Fred, 31
Muste, A. J., 148
Petry, Ann, The Street, 146, 314n68
Mydans, Carl, 121
Phillips, Duncan, 52, 143
Backyard of Alley Dwelling, 126, 127 Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma, 157
Phillips, Harlan, 11 Phillips, Wendell, 76 Phillips Collection, 131, 263
Napier, I. David, 205
Pickens, Alton, Carnival, 208
Napoleon Bonaparte. See Bonaparte, Napoleon
Pinder, Kymberly, 313n53, 314n79
Natanson, Nicholas, 303n47
Pious, Robert, 31
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 23, 136, 137, 243, 253 An Art Commentary on Lynching (1935 exhibition), 137–39, 306n16
Pippin, Horace, 52, 88, 172 Pittsburgh Courier, 136 place, as cultural concept, 175, 187, 189, 199–202, 219, 313n61, 315n93
Negro History Week, 58, 295n5
Polite, Margie, 184
Nesbett, Peter, 263
Pollack, Peter, 5, 46, 47, 51, 52, 129
Neuberger, Roy, 183
Pollak, Frances, 16, 17
New Masses, 3, 129, 139, 213, 318n56
Pollock, Jackson, 199, 207, 268
New Orleans, 141–43, 142, 306n32, 307n39
Popular Front, 35, 171, 290n7
Lawrence in, 49, 50, 141–43, 145, 307n42 New Republic, 164, 165, 166 New Rochelle (New York), Lincoln School, 46
Porter, Fairfield, 316n3 Porter, James, 25, 57, 286n101 Modern Negro Art, 4, 147, 172, 184
New School for Social Research, 45
Portland Art Museum, Oregon, 183, 184
New York Amsterdam News. See Amsterdam News
Post, Marion, 121
New York Herald Tribune, 9, 19, 20, 211
Cotton Buyer and Negro Farmer, 122, 122
index 351
Poston, T. R., 138, 284n61 Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr., 147–48, 177, 185, 213, 281n28, 282n35 Powell, Adam Clayton, Sr., 184, 281n28
Rivera, Diego, 45 Man at the Crossroads, 23 Roberts, Mrs. E. P., 29 Robeson, Paul, 145, 214, 296n18
Powell, Richard J., 177, 221, 320n95
Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. John D., Jr., 52
Pratt Institute, 251, 259
Rockefeller, Nelson, 23
President’s Commission on Civil Rights, 158
Robinson, Bill “Bojangles,” 219
Preston, Stuart, 205–6, 225–26
Robinson, Jackie, 214, 268, 314n75, 318n60
“primitivism” in art, 25–26, 172, 212, 279n25, 299n71
Rodman, Selden, 231
Progressive Education Association, 17
Rogers, Charles, 5, 44
propaganda, art as, 29, 46, 292n48
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 30, 31, 52
public space, 315n93; see also place, as cultural concept
Roosevelt, President Franklin Delano, 27, 130–31, 137, 148,
Quarles, Benjamin, 159
Rose, Arnold, 157
racism
Rosenberg, Julius and Ethel, 207
305n14 Rose, Ernestine, 20, 284n69, 284n72, 295n6 Lawrence on, 6, 59, 150–51, 163, 209, 210, 217, 229, 240, 243, 244 psychological effects of, 135, 163–64, 185, 236, 240, 242–44, 318n62 see also Jim Crow segregation; lynching
Rosenthal, Captain Joe S., 150, 152, 153, 157 Rosenwald Fund. See Julius Rosenwald Fund Rosskam, Edwin, 98, 120, 122, 126, 128 Boy in Front of Apartment House, Chicago, Ill., 131, 132 Rosskam, Louise, 121
Rampersad, Arnold, 185, 214
Rothko, Mark, 208
Randlett, Mary
Rothstein, Arthur, 121, 123, 126
Jacob Lawrence on the Stairs to His Attic Studio, Seattle, 260
Rustin, Bayard, 148, 243 “The Role of the Artist in the Freedom Struggle,” 253–54
Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence in Seattle, 261 Randolph, A. Philip, 30, 52, 130–31, 148, 243, 294n111
Saarinen, Aline Louchheim, 28, 132, 148, 150, 214
Raynal, Abbé, 69
Saint Sebastian, 239
Reality: A Journal of Artists’ Opinions, 317n23
Salvation Army, 16
Redding, J. Saunders, 148, 163–64, 214
Saroyan, William, 38
No Day of Triumph, 311n116
Saunders, Raymond, 244, 322n39
On Being Negro in America, 214, 215, 318n62
Savage, Augusta, 3, 5, 17–19, 18, 23, 25, 26, 31, 33, 36, 38, 76,
Redpath, James. See Beard, John H. Reed, Daisy C., 11, 280n6; see also Utopia Children’s House
172, 262 as director of Harlem Community Art Center, 30, 31
Reed, Ishmael, 209
Gwendolyn Knight, 18, 19
Refregier, Anton, 35
as teacher, 17, 18, 21, 236, 284n63
Reid, O. Richard, 23, 25, 34
Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, 18, 19
Reilly, John M., 123–34
Schapiro, Meyer, 2–3, 25, 286n101
Reisman, Philip, 35
Schmeling, Max, 23
Reiss, Winold, Alain LeRoy Locke, 24
Schomburg, Arthur, 18, 19, 23, 57, 172
Resettlement Administration (RA). See Farm Security Administration (FSA) Revere, Paul, 232
“The Negro Digs Up His Past,” 58 Schomburg Collection. See New York Public Library, 135th Street Harlem branch
revolutionary artist, defined, 35
Schuyler, George S., 148
Reynor, Vivian, 239
Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace (1949), 213
Rice, Elmer, Street Scene (opera), 189, 314n66
Scott, Emmett J., Negro Migration during the War, 99, 114
Rich, Daniel, 51
Scott, Hazel, 219
Richardson, Earle W., 297n23
Scott, William E., 296n23
Richardson, Grace, 34
Scottsboro Boys, 23, 35, 136, 137
riots, 246, 251, 307n44
Seabrooke [Powell], Georgette, 34, 34
in Harlem in 1935, 23
Seattle, 259–60
in Harlem in 1943, 183–85
Seattle Museum of Art, 263
352 index
Seattle Post-Intelligence, 254
Street, William E., 159
Sebree, Charles, 47, 48
street-corner orators, 1, 15, 58, 99, 173, 174, 312n25
Seders, Francine, 5, 263
Stryker, Roy E., 1, 99, 120, 131, 260, 301n14
Seifert, Charles C., 23, 30, 38, 58, 286n93
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 243, 249,
Selma to Montgomery March, 249, 253
322n38
Seward, William, 76
Studio Museum in Harlem, 1, 260
Shahn, Ben, 121, 123, 207, 322n50
Suggs, Willlie, 75
Conversations, 208, 209
Survey Graphic, 40, 52, 145–46, 146
Shakespeare, William, As You Like It, 224
Sutherland, David, 324n18
Shaw, Lint, 128, 129, 303n57
Swift, Hildegarde Hoyt, The Railroad to Freedom, 76, 77, 84,
Sheehan, Joseph, 30
86, 90, 92, 93
Sheeler, Charles, 143 photo of Edith Halpert, 49
Tacoma Art Museum, 262
Shiff, Sidney, 254, 255
Taine, Henri, 161, 163
Shostakovich, Dmitri, 213
Tanner, Henry O., 26, 268
Shuttlesworth, Fred, 236
Taylor, Paul, 99
Sillen, Samuel, 304n59
Taylor, Prentiss, 138
Simkins, Francis Butler, 166
Taylor, Robert N., 76
Simpson, Mertin, 260
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA), 17
Sims, Lowery Stokes, 187
Tepfer, Diane, 293n84
Siqueiros, David, 45
Terry Dintenfass Gallery exhibitions, 93, 238–40, 242
Sister Minnie (of Harlem), 16
Thomas, Barbara Earl, 263, 276, 325n14
Skinner, Captain Carlton, 152, 157
Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. Harry, 140
Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture, Maine, 268
Thompson, Ralph, 304n59
slave narratives, 76–77, 85, 299n55
Thompson, Robert Farris, 194
Smith, Bessie, 140
Thomson, Virgil, 99
Smith, Garrett, 76
306 West 141st Street (Alston/Bannarn studio “306”), 14, 20–
Smith, Lillian, 158 Smith, Marvin, 18 Smith, Morgan and Marvin, photographers comedians Tim Moore and Johnny Lee, 219, 219
21, 33, 35, 36, 57, 58, 76, 170 as meeting place for artists and writers, 23, 29, 236, 285n30, 285n87 workshop sponsored by WPA/FAP, 17, 27, 28–29
Harlem Hospital murals project, 34, 34
Time, 205, 221, 233, 249–50
street-corner orator, 125th Street, 173, 174
Toomer, Jean, Cane, 151
South
Toussaint. See L’Ouverture, Toussaint attitudes toward, 135–36, 137, 141, 143, 166, 183
Truman, President Harry S., 148, 158
Lawrence’s trips to, 135, 141–43, 145–46, 150–2, 157–63
Tubman, Harriet, 57, 76–77, 84–93; see also under Lawrence,
see also Jim Crow segregation; Lawrence, Jacob: The Migration of the Negro series
Jacob, works Tuppences (Lawrence relatives in Lenexa), 145
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 236, 243
Turner, Elizabeth Hutton, 13, 14, 263, 265
Southside Community Art Center, Chicago, 46, 47
Turner, Mary, 138
Space, Kenneth F., photo of Lawrence, 8 Spiral, 202, 260
12 Million Black Voices, 46, 98, 120–26, 177–79, 302n37,
Sports Illustrated, Sport in Art (1956 cancelled exhibition), 207
304n59
Sprigle, Ray, 158 Springarn, Mrs. Arthur B., 244
Underground Railroad, 90
St. Augustine, Florida, 150, 151, 157, 163, 187, 309nn65–66
United Neighborhood Houses, 16
Stacey, Rubin, 137, 138
University of Washington, 259
Stange, Maren, 301n14, 301n17
Uptown Art Laboratory, 284n63
Steele, Elizabeth, 194, 267
Urban League, 16, 17, 18, 243
Steinbeck, John, 300n7
U.S. Postal Service, 166
Sternberg, Harry, 139
U.S. State Department, 248
Stevens, May, 262 Stott, William, 301n19
Advancing American Art (1946 cancelled exhibition), 207 “usable past,” 24
index 353
USS General Wilds P. Richardson, 152
Whitfield, Andrew, 314n66
USS Sea Cloud, 152, 153, 309n78
Whitney Museum of American Art, 263, 265
Utopia Children’s House, 11, 13, 15, 16, 58, 280n6
Whitten, Jack, 262, 319n70 Wilkins, Roy, 148, 293
Vachon, John, 121 Courtroom Scene, Virginia, 128–29, 128
Williams, Bert, 218 Williams, William T., 251
Van Gogh, Vincent, 214
Wilson, Alona Cooper, 303n58
Van Vechten, Carl, 5, 50, 52, 153, 293n95
Wilson, John, 305n11
Jacob Lawrence, 50, 51
Wilson, Sol, 5, 35
Veeney, James, 140
Wilson, President Woodrow, 59
Vendryes, Margaret Rose, 297n34
Windmill Books, 93
Venice Biennale of 1956 (American Artists Paint the City),
Winslow, Vernon, 47
199, 315n86 ventriloquism, 226 vernacular culture, 99, 170, 185, 209, 210, 217, 229; see also minstrelsy
Wo-Chi-Ca (Workers Children’s Camp, New Jersey), 262, 308n51 Wolfe, Bernard, 220 Woodruff, Hale, 41, 48, 138, 202, 251, 260
Vietnam War, 249
Woodson, Carter G., 58, 99, 114
Vytlacil, Vaclav, 284n63
Woodward, Beulah, 212 Woodward, Ellen S., 30
Walcott, Derek, 221
Worcester Art Museum, 183
Walker, Alice, 209
World War II, 131
Walker, Grayson, 25 Walker, Wyatt T., 236 Wallace, Henry, 165–66 Warhol, Andy, Red Race Riot, 243, 243 Washington, Booker T., 267 Waters, Ethel, 219 Watts, Richard, Jr., 166
African American attitudes toward, 147–48 entry of United States into, 52, 147 Wright, Richard, 5, 23, 46, 52, 97, 120, 121, 209 and Communist Party, 303n50 and Marxism, 120, 126, 128 —w ritin g s “Blueprint for Negro Literature,” 231
Weaver, Robert, 157
Native Son, 46, 121, 175, 238
Webster, Daniel, 76
12 Million Black Voices, 46, 98, 120–26, 177–79, 302n37,
Wechsler, Samuel, 38 Weill, Kurt, 189
304n59 Uncle Tom’s Children, 121
Weinstock, Herbert, 169 Welles, Orson, 59
Yaddo Foundation, 232
Wells, James Lesesne, 11, 20, 211
Yeargens, James, 34
West, Pemberton, 31
YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association)
West, Sarah, 31 Wheat, Ellen Harkins, 263
classes, 19, 284n65 exhibitions, 3, 17, 19, 20, 25, 36
Whipper, Leigh, 23
Young, Whitney, Jr., 243
White, Charles, 51
YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association), 29
White, Josh, 52
Artists and Models (1935 exhibition), 18–19
White, Walter, Rope and Faggot, 136
Negro Art (1935 exhibition), 25
354 index
text 8.25 / 13 Benton Gothic display Benton Gothic Regular, Sackers Heavy Gothic sponsoring editor Stephanie Fay assistant editor Eric Schmidt project editor Sue Heinemann editorial assistant Erica Lee copyeditor Elisabeth Magnus designer Claudia Smelser production coordinator Angela Chen compositor Integrated Composition Systems printer and binder Sheridan Books, Inc.