2023 Black History Month Resources: Visual Arts

Williams Walker Theater Company (George Walker and Bert Williams)

A dynamic theater duo who owned the largest African American theater company of the 20th century, who daringly reframed minstrelsy, a tool of oppression, to reframe public perception about Black Americans

Bert Williams

• Suisman, David. “Bert Williams and George Walker--Victor Releases (1901).” Loc.gov, 2003.
  • Davis Suisman investigates the significant impact of the Williams and Walker Theater Company on Black theater and argues the ways in which their performances interfered with the legacy of minstrelsy during the 20th century.
• Post, Tina. “Williams, Walker, and Shine: Blackbody Blackface, or the Importance of Being Surface.” TDR (1988-) 59, no. 4 (2015): 83–100.
  • During the 20th century, Bert Williams and George Walker performed as a minstrel duo in which only Williams wore burnt cork. By mixing the surfaces of blacking and their own black skin, Williams and Walker offered an aesthetic critique of the subject/object status of the black body—animating the inanimate substance of burnt cork while objectifying animate black skin. Tina Post examines how this performative intervention with the concept of blackness turned minstrel performance into a vehicle for racial critique.

George Walker

A Pulitzer Prize winning classical music prodigy who combated convention within the classical music world with his musical talents and compositions, inspired by African American traditional music- despite not being recognized or offered many opportunities to play his compositions during his life

• Terry, Mickey Thomas, Ingrid Monson, and George Walker. “An Interview with George Walker.” The Musical Quarterly 84, no. 3 (2000): 372–88.
  • An interview with George Walker discussing his upbringing and music career. Walker discusses the difficulties of being a Black composer, and the ways he navigated it as an artist.
• Huizenga, Tom. “Steven Beck, 'Piano Sonata No. 5' (George Walker).” NPR. NPR, January 19, 2022.
  • A sample of George Walker's Piano Sonata No. 5, which points to the subtlety of his musical composition.
• Service, Tom. 2022. "George Walker: The Great American Composer You've Never Heard Of". The Guardian.
  • Tom Service details the life and legacy of George Walker and details the nuances of his craft despite industry discrimination.

Carrie Mae Weems

A fearless female photographer, dedicated to challenging viewer understanding of American History through the eyes of Black femininity

• Willis, Deborah. “TRANSLATING BLACK POWER AND BEAUTY—CARRIE MAE
• WEEMS.” Callaloo 35, no. 4 (2012): 992–95.
  • A historical background on Carrie Mae Weems and her impact.
• DW Documentary. 2022. Retrospective Of Resistance: Carrie Mae Weems. Video.
  • A documentary film that details a retrospective show of Carrie Mae Weems’ work including the motivations of the artist.

SNCC Photographers (Danny Lyon, Herbert Randall)

Dynamic group of young Black student photographers documenting the productive rebellion and monumental work of the SNCC during the Civil Rights Era.

• Wood, Sara. 2018. "“The Thousand And One Little Actions Which Go To Make Up Life”: Civil Rights Photography And The Everyday". American Art 32 (3): 66-85.
  • Sara Wood narrates the work and legacy of the SNCC photographers and the importance of their unique photographic intervention within the Civil Rights Movement.
• "Photography Department - SNCC Digital Gateway". 2022. SNCC Digital Gateway.
  • An online repository for the SNCC archives as well as articles on how the organization functions today and how it functioned in the past.

Don Cornelius (Soul Train)

Courtesy of John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com

A dynamic host and entrepreneur who ran the longest running Black owned television show dedicated to syndicating Black joy during a tumultuous time in Black history

• Lehman, Christopher P. 2008. A Critical History Of Soul Train On Television. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company.
  • Christopher Lehman narrates how Soul Train provided a venue for Chicago's soul singers and political activists and gave African American teenagers their first significant chance to see and identify with their peers on television. The book discusses Don Cornelius's role in the evolution of his groundbreaking series from a small television show to a lucrative brand name.
• Lynskey, Dorian. 2022. "'An Ad For Blackness': How Soul Train Made America Do The Hustle". The Guardian.
  • Dorian Lynskey reflects on the serious paradigm shift in American mass entertainment, toward “Black is Beautiful”, that Soul Train helped to usher in.

Sherman Hemsley (Negro Ensemble Company)

Courtesy of The Negro Ensemble

A brilliant actor who’s iconic character, George Jefferson, unapologetically tackled racial issues in the longest running television sitcom with an all-Black cast.

• Neal, Mark. 2019. "The Genius Of George Jefferson". Ebony
  • Mark Neal investigates the intentional intelligence behind Shermam Hemsley’s portrayal of George Jefferson on the television series “The Jeffersons” and underscores how his portrayal uniquely confronted political and social issues facing Black America in the 1970s and 80s.
• "The History Of NEC - The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc.". 2022. The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc.
  • The Negro Ensemble website that details the history of the ensemble, advertised current productions, and points to helpful primary resources and information on how to access them.

In Living Color (Keenen Ivory Wayans)

A dynamic comedian who elegantly pushed against political issues with well executed comedy sketches

• Lindsay, Benjamin. 2022. "How In Living Color Tricked Fox’s Censors To Get Jokes On Air". Vanity Fair.
  • Lindsay explains how Keenen Ivory Wayans worked around television censors in order to concretely communicate the comedic potential of Black sketch comedy.
• Peisner, David. 2018. Homey Don't Play That!: The Story Of In Living Color And The Black Comedy Revolution. 1st ed. New York City, New York: 37 Ink.
  • David Peisner reveals the captivating story of how In Living Color overcame the odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit. The detailed narrative includes exclusive interviews which unveil vital pieces of history in the evolution of comedy, television, and Black culture.

Elizabeth Keckley (Quilting)

Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

A skilled and creative quilter and seamstress during the 19th century who created quilts that served as political objects for abolitionism, women's suffrage, and the Civil War despite the boundaries placed on her during the era.

• Young, Jason R. Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2007.
• Jason R. Young examines the relationship between the religiousity of precolonial Kongolese and the enslaved men and women of the Lowcountry South, two populations linked intimately by the transatlantic slave trade for nearly two centuries. In four comparative case studies, Young details the ways in which the Kongolese people and their enslaved contemporaries and descendants in the Lowcountry interpreted and modified the theology of Christianity as a means of resisting the institution of slavery.
• Keckly, Elizabeth, Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House, (New York: G. W. Carlton & Co., Publishers, 1868),
• Elizabeth Keckley details her experience being a slave and then the white house seamstress and personal friend of Mary Todd Lincoln.