Freddie Styles was an abstract painter and collage artist from Madison, Georgia. Untitled is an ink painting of three women with elongated necks, curled hair, and black-painted skin. Their faces are partially concealed as they stare straight ahead. Their torsos are white, with exposed breasts outlined in black ink.
Skunder Boghossian was an artist from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Untitled depicts a spiritual scene of four masquerade figures hanging from a central pole. The four masquerades each wear different masks and wear beads, shells, and bands of color patterns.
William H. Johnson was a painter from Florence, SC. Untitled Folk Scene depicts a couple doing a wide variety of dances within the Southern Jazz tradition. In this iteration of the series, a dapper man dips an equally stylish woman as instruments play around them.
A poem written by former Black Panther Party Member Afeni Shakur after the death of Timothy Adams on June 22, 1982. His death came from complications from gunshot wounds he suffered 8 years prior at the hands of the police that left him paralyzed. The poem is offered as libation to him and several others who gave their lives for freedom.
A speech about the role of Black women in the Republic of New Afrika. Sister Ayo writes that New Afrikan women are dedicated to the total liberation of their people and will also teach the history and heritage of their children to prepare them for self rule. The Republic of New Afrika was founded in 1968 and popularized by black militant groups.
In this letter between Dr. B. L. Perry, Jr. and Ifekandu Umunna, Perry updates Umunna, a Nigerian master’s student, on his and his family’s personal lives. This was an example of the long-lasting, sentimental bonds Perry created during his visit to Nigeria.
A newspaper article from The Topeka Capital Journal about defense lawyers in the Topeka Public Schools desegregation case arguing that a memo from the ACLU shows that the organization had preconceived notions about what the evidence should show.
Velma Willis was born in Newton County, Mississippi in 1903 and moved to Jackson in 1943. Ms. Willis talks about starting school in 1911 and finishing 8th grade and becoming a certified teacher for the next 35 years. She talks about her views on race relations in Newton County, one of the counties she taught in. Transcript is hand written.
Walter Augustus Simon was an art historian, professor, and artist best known for his abstract oil paintings from Petersburg, VA. Venezia is a cubist landscape abstraction depicting San Marco, Venice, ITL. Simon uses a variety of shapes and colors to illustrate Venice’s main public square.
Hayward Oubre was a multimedia artist and educator from New Orleans, LA. Verily, I Say Unto You depicts a modern portrait of a Black Jesus. Jesus is drawn with an elongated nose with wide nostrils, large eyes, pursed lips, locs, and a raised finger.
Verna Anderson began teaching 2nd grade at Smith Robertson School in 1936 and worked there until the school’s closing in 1971. She discusses her experiences as a teacher and the factors that caused the school to close in 1971 as well as actions taken to preserve the school in the present.
A brochure for a walking tour of the Farish Street Historic District, containing a tour map and pictures of significant homes, churches, nightclubs, and other buildings in the District.
In this interview, Texas Southern art alumnus Vernon Simmons discusses his experience as a student who graduated in 1996. Simmons' enrollment was interrupted by his Air Force service; as a result, he learned from different groups of faculty, including Biggers, Simms, Harry Vital, and Harvey Johnson. Biggers inspired him to paint what he could see.
This image shows three graduate students within the College of Veterinary Medicine conducting an examination of a dog, under the supervision of their professor. An image taken by university photographer Stephan Smith.
Lois Mailou Jones was an artist and art educator from Washington, D.C., known for her costumes, textile designs, watercolors, paintings, and collages. Ville d'Houdain, France, is a landscape painting depicting a community in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region.
The honorable Charles D. Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mrs. Bess B. Walcott, retired curator of the Carver Unit of the Tuskegee Cultural Center, discuss the new cultural center at Cape Mount.
Lois Mailou Jones was an artist and art educator known for her costumes, textile designs, watercolors, paintings, and collages from Washington, D.C. Voodoo Worshippers, Haiti, is a watercolor scene of three Haitian Voodoo practitioners around four candles under a full moon. Jones places colorful shapes behind black brushstrokes that create depth.
A purple button with text that says "Wage Peace." The phrase was popularized in a speech given by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 during the Cold War. “Wage Peace” went on to be a rally cry for the anti-war and peace movements, especially during the Vietnam War.
3rd Architectual blueprint drawing to the additions and renovations of library building. Blueprint shows the wall sections of the building and miscellaneous details about the walls.
Attorney Walter Brown served in the Mississippi State Legislature from 1968-1990, serving Adams County, where Natchez is the county seat and only city. Rep. Brown talks about the Robert Clark era in Mississippi politics, including when they first met, some of the first bills Rep. Clark introduced, and his gradual rise to power in the legislature.
Walter Stewart lived his entire life in the Farish Street District from 1910 and was the funeral director at People's Funeral Home in the district. He talks about the changes the area has gone through over the years and recounts several stories about people and places in the area. The transcript is edited with handwritten notes.
Hampton’s senior notebook includes her written philosophy of art and photographs of the artist’s works. As a part of the Texas Southern art curriculum under Dr. John T. Biggers and Professor Carroll Harris Simms, students would create these notebooks to explain their artistry and showcase the works they created as students.
Michaux, a war veteran, was given the opportunity by Dr. Biggers to paint this mural during his first year as an art major. Reflecting on the devastation of the then-recent World War II, the mural depicts terror, hunger, and human compassion.
A white square button with a drawing of a flower. The text says: "War is not healthy for children and other living things." The button uses the poster design created by Chicago, Illinois, artist Lorraine Schneider in 1966. The design and slogan became an enduring symbol of the peace movement starting in 1967 with the Vietnam War.
Evans’ mural features a self-portrait of the artist below the muscular arms of two angels. Above, an open book radiates light onto the setting. Evans is a founding member of Otabenga Jones & Associates, an artists’ collective founded by four former TSU students.
Entrusted to Florida A&M because of the university’s studies in agriculture, this spirit is a mound of body parts that appears to display the grim consequence of trespassing. Three severed heads with gruesome expressions are conjoined together – attached only by naked bone and brain matter.
Entrusted to FAMU based on the university's studies in agriculture, the spirit depicts an eviscerated body of a woman, that serves as a clear warning to trespassers. The spirit gives the impression of a healthy woman on the right with a clear stark warning on the left with the face and upper body hollowed out to the bone.
Frederick D. Jones, Jr., was a mid-twentieth-century artist from South Carolina. Wash Day is an impressionistic painting depicting a Black woman doing laundry. In the piece, a robed woman with a laundry bag on her head is washing linens outside in a neighborhood. In the background, a house and two trees are visible.
