Block Museum of Art: Wall of Respect Website (1997)

The WALL OF RESPECT ON THE WEB was created in 1996 as a product of the Museum Internship Program, a collaborative project of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and the Academic Technologies division of Information Technology at Northwestern Univerisity. It provides a detailed history and description of the Wall of Respect, an outdoor mural created in 1967 on the South Side of Chicago by a group of visual artists from the Organization of Black American Culture, as well as essays, poems, and lesson plans pertaining to the Wall. The Block Museum holds that this document is the fullest possible account of what the website contains.

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art | 40 Arts Circle Drive | Evanston, IL | 60208-2140 Phone: 847.491.4000 | Fax: 847.491.2261 | Email: block-museum@northwestern.edu 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Homepage....................................................................................................................... 3 Time Lapse........................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 6 Section Descriptions ............................................................................................. 7 How to navigate this site ....................................................................................... 8 The Wall .......................................................................................................................... 9 Vital Statistics ....................................................................................................... 9 Timeline .............................................................................................................. 10 Faces on the Wall............................................................................................... 21 Visit the Wall....................................................................................................... 34 Interpretations ............................................................................................................... 35 Essays ................................................................................................................ 36 Poems ................................................................................................................ 50 Interviews ........................................................................................................... 54 Activities ........................................................................................................................ 57 Lesson Plans ...................................................................................................... 58 Teacher Resources ............................................................................................ 67 Build Your Own Mural......................................................................................... 70 Site Info ......................................................................................................................... 71 Guest Book......................................................................................................... 72 Resources .......................................................................................................... 73 Site Map ............................................................................................................. 76 Credits ................................................................................................................ 77

Welcome to the WALL OF RESPECT ON THE WEB

Time Lapse

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THE WALL • timeline • faces on the wall • visit the wall

Vital Statistics

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timeline

1961

1966

May 1967

August 5, 1967

August,1967

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August 24, 1967

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August 27, 1967

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1967

September, 1967

October 1, 1967

October, 1967

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1968

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1969

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1970

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April 6, 1970

1971

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1972

1973

1974

1977

1979

1983/84

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1985

1986

1990s

1991

1992

1995

1996

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faces on the wall

Welcome to Faces on the Wall.

To view close-ups and biographies of the various heroes in the August 1967 version of the Wall, click on their faces in the image above.

In 1967, the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) decided upon the following definition of a "Black hero": OBAC declares that a Black hero is any Black person who: 1. Honestly reflects the beauty of Black life and genius in his or her style.

2. Does not forget his Black brothers and sisters who are less fortunate.

3. Does what he does in such an outstanding manner that he or she cannot

be imitated or replaced.

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H. Rap Brown/Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (1943- ) Black militant leader While a student at Southern University in Louisiana, Brown joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and, following Stokely Carmichael's departure in May 1967, became the organization's national director. The next year, Brown joined the Black Panthers, and at a February rally in Oakland, California, the Panthers made both him and Carmichael honorary officers of the Party.

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) Black nationalist leader A native of Jamaica, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League in August 1914, with the main objective of building a black-governed nation in Africa. In 191718, Garvey established a chapter of this organization, which eventually changed its name to the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), in the United States, where it flourished. Â Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908-1972) Pastor, public official, civil rights leader Upon succeeding his father as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem in 1937, Powell built up a large membership and drew a considerable public following by securing jobs and housing for the poor. In 1941, he became the first African American to serve on the New York City Council, and in 1945, he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he became a powerful voice for civil rights.

Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) Civil rights activist As a student at Howard University in the 1960s, Carmichael joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He graduated in 1964 and soon afterwards founded the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which used a black panther as its emblem, later adopted in homage by the Black Panther Party. In 1966, he was elected chairman of SNCC; that same year he rallied demonstrators in Mississippi with the now famous phrase "Black Power."

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Malcolm X (1925-1965) Black militant leader Malcolm X grew up in Lansing, Michigan and learned about the Nation of Islam while in prison for burglary. At the end of his sentence in 1952, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam Temple in Detroit and climbed the ranks of the religious sect. He quickly earned a reputation as a dynamic speaker, which eventually created tension between him and Elijah Muhammad, then the leader of the Nation of Islam. This tension ultimately resulted in Malcolm's split with the sect in 1964, when he formed his own movement called the Muslim Mosque, Inc. just before he was assassinated at a rally of his followers in Harlem.

Malcolm X Shabazz Park This photograph shows the dedication of a park to slain Civil Rights activist Malcolm X Shabazz. Roy Lewis took the photograph on Chicago's South Side.

Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali (1942- ) Boxer Ali was the first boxer to win the world heavyweight championship three separate times. He won his first championship in 1964, and he successfully defended his title nine times from 1965 to 1967.

In 1967, Ali was convicted for his refusal to join the armed forces and was consequently barred from the ring and stripped of his championship title. The Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 1971, and Ali went on to win his next two heavyweight championships in 1974 and 1978.

Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabar (1947- ) Basketball player At the University of California, Los Angeles, Abdul-Jabar led his team to three consecutive NCAA championships (1967-69). He then joined the NBA and played center for the Milwaukee Bucks.

For the 1969-70 season, he was named Rookie of the Year--the first on a long list of career accolades, including six Most Valuable Player titles.

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Jim Brown (1936- ) Football player As a fullback for the Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965, Brown set National Football League (NFL) career records in most yards gained rushing and touchdowns scored rushing, and he scored a career-record 126 touchdowns. After his retirement from professional football at the age of thirty, Brown went on to work as a film actor.

Bill Russell (1934- ) Basketball player, coach Russell spent most of his career with the Boston Celtics, who won eleven NBA championships in thirteen seasons with him as their center. In 1966, Russell became the first black coach of a major U.S. professional sports team--the Boston Celtics.

Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999) Basketball player Chamberlain's basketball career began when he was recruited by the University of Kansas in 1956. From there, he briefly played with the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the National Basketball Association (NBA). In the 1961-62 season, as a member of the Philadelphia Warriors, he became the first player to score more than 4,000 points in regular-season NBA play.

Charlie Parker (1920-1955) Alto-saxophonist, composer, bandleader Considered to be the father of the modern jazz style known as bebop and one of the greatest improvisers in jazz history, Parker got his start in Kansas City during the late swing-era of the 1930s and moved to New York City in 1939, where he eventually formed a quintet with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird," Parker developed a style that involved quick tempos and phrasings with unique hesitations and abrupt endings. In their 1967 mission statement, the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) identified Parker as a "prophet of the modern age."

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Nina Simone (1933- ) Vocalist Generally known as "the high priestess of soul," Simone recorded in a range of styles beginning in the late 1950s, including jazz, blues, soul, gospel, and pop. During the 1960s, her vocal performance took on a political dimension, and her singing became associated with the black revolutionary spirit.

Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) Pianist, composer, bandleader A major influence on the development of bebop, Monk was known for the odd, playful quality of his music and the percussive starkness of his performance style, often described as "angular." Many of his compositions, including "'Round Midnight" (1944) and "Blue Monk" (1954), became jazz standards.

Sara Vaughn (1924-1990) Jazz vocalist, pianist Known for her rich voice, her unusually wide range, and the originality of her improvisations, Vaughn got her start at Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre in 1942 and subsequently joined the big bands of Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine, both of which went on to develop bebop. She began performing as a soloist in 1945 and recorded such songs such as "It's Magic," "Misty," and "Send in the Clowns."

Max Roach (1925- ) Jazz drummer, composer Hailed as the world's greatest trap drummer and one of most influential modern percussionists, Roach worked with Charlie Parker during the development of bebop in the mid-1940s, moving the drums away from the fixed pulse typical of traditional jazz toward a more flexible, polyrhythmic approach. During the 1950s, he put together the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet, which became one of the most dominant ensembles of the period. In the 1960s, he and lyricist Oscar Brown, Jr. composed the landmark "Freedom Now Suite," which infused jazz music wi t h a p o lit ical conscioussness and became the battle cry for a ge n e ra ti on .

Sonny Rollins (1930- ) Tenor saxophonist Considered one of the finest improvisers on the saxophone to emerge on the jazz scene since mid-century, Rollins worked with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker in the 1950s before joining the influential Clifford Brown-Max Roach quintet and later recording his own albums. His improvisational style is distinguished by its clarity of thought and its spontaneity.

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Miles Davis (1926-1991) Trumpet player, band leader Universally considered one of the major influences on the art of jazz since the 1940s, Davis played bebop with Charlie Parker's band before his 1949 recording Birth of the Cool ushered in the new style of cool jazz, so named for its more subdued feeling. With the quintets he organized in the 1950s, he helped forge modal jazz, an approach that departed from static harmonies. His album Kind of Blue (1959) remains one of the most significant and popular recordings in jazz history.

Charles Mingus (1922 -1979) Composer, bandleader, bassist, pianist A leading figure in the avant-garde of jazz, Mingus is known for developing a new "conversational" approach to the double bass. After performing with big bands in the 1940s, he formed his own record label in the early 1950s and established the Jazz Composer's Cooperative, which enabled young composers to record and perform their new works.

Eric Dolphy (1928-1964) Woodwind musician Trained on the oboe, clarinet, flute, and alto saxophone, Dolphy established the bass clarinet as a viable solo instrument in jazz and proved a major influence on free jazz, an approach to improvisation that liberated musicians from preset harmonies and timekeeping patterns. Dolphy's best-known work is the 1964 recording Out to Lunch.

Ornette Coleman (1930 - ) Saxophonist, composer, bandleader A chief innovator of "free jazz," an unconventional approach to harmony that abandoned standard chord changes, Coleman developed an improvisational style in the 1950s that influenced not only other saxophonists but also players of many other instruments. His classic recordings include The Shape of Jazz to Come and Change of the Century (1959) and Free Jazz (1960).

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John Coltrane (1926-1967) Saxophonist, bandleader, composer One of most influential figures in modern jazz, Coltrane is perhaps best known for his virtuoso solo performance "Giant Steps," recorded in 1959. While his ceaseless experimentation helped take jazz in new directions, the quartet he formed in the 1960s was among the leading combos of the time.

Elvin Jones (1927- ) Drummer Jones's career is marked by collaborations with some of jazz's most legendary figures, including Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis. In 1960, Jones joined John Coltrane's quartet, and it was as Coltrane's drummer that Jones helped establish the practice of polyrhythmic drumming, an innovative style that suggested a threebeat pulse instead of the common four beats and that, according to jazz critics, lent an African flavor to Jones's music  Wyatt Tee Walker (1930- ) Pastor, author, civil rights activist From 1960-64, Reverend Walker served as Chief of Staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and thus worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy (King's SCLC successor) to organize civil rights protests. Walker is also a respected theological scholar; his book, Somebody's Calling My Name (1979) traces the development of religious music in African American communities.

Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975) Leader of the Nation of Islam In the early 1930s, Muhammad converted to Islam and served as the assistant minister to Wallace D. Fard, the Nation of Islam's founder. After Fard disappeared in 1934, Muhammad succeeded him.

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W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963) Sociologist, author, editor, activist Widely thought to be the most important black protest leader in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, DuBois helped launch the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was an early advocate of Pan-Africanism, a belief that all peoples of African descent should unite in their struggle for freedom. In his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk, he attacked the views of Booker T. Washington, who encouraged accommodation as a strategy for African Americans, and thus aligned himself with the radical tradition of black activism.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) Novelist, essayist, playwright, poet Though Baldwin spent most of his career as an expatriate in Paris, his commentary on racial and sexual prejudices in the United States have secured his place in the African American and American literary traditions.

Baldwin spoke publicly about race relations during the Civil Rights Movement, and the publication of his book The Fire Next Time, about the potential violent conclusions to the nation's racial tensions, coincided with the 1963 March on Washington. Upon viewing his portrait on the Wall of Respect in the fall of 1967, Baldwin was taken aback and impressed by the assertiveness of a local youngster who asked the writer, "How do you like our Wall?"

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- ) Poet, novelist A Chicago native, Brooks became the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 and was named the poet laureate of Illinois in 1968. While her work always addressed the everyday life of urban African Americans, during the late 1950s, she drew inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement, writing poems about lynching and integration, and in the 1960s, she became strongly identified with the Black Arts Movement. She delivered a tribute to the Wall of Respect shortly after its unveiling in 1967.

John O. Killens (1916-1987) Author An internationally-known author of fiction, plays, screenplays, and essays, Killens contributed to such popular and respected periodicals as Ebony, Black World, Black Aesthetic, African Forum, Saturday Evening Post, and Arts in Society. He also taught at schools including the New School for Social Research, Cornell University, Rutgers University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Tufts University. Â

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LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka (1934- ) Writer, playwright, political activist Jones's work covers a range of genres, from drama and poetry to novels, nonfiction, and jazz operas. While his 1963 book Blues People was one of the earliest to trace the social and political development of African American music, his experimentalist 1964 plays Dutchman and The Slave explored the charged relationship between American blacks and dominant white culture. An instrumental leader in the Black Arts and Black Power Movements, Jones established the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and co-edited the 1968 anthology of African American writing Black Fire.

Claudia McNeil (1917-1993 ) Actress Although McNeil got her start as a singer in vaudeville and nightclubs, she won critical and popular acclaim for her role as the matriarch Lena Younger in the 1959 Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, a role she recreated in the 1961 film version. In their 1967 mission statement, members of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) noted that McNeil "evokes the eternal struggle of Black motherhood."

Beginning in the 1950s, she also acted in television roles.

Oscar Brown, Jr. (1926- ) Composer, singer, actor, playwright, director A Chicago native, Brown first gained national attention for his 1960 album Sin and Soul, and, in 1963, wrote and performed in a one-man show--Oscar Brown Entertains--for which he was hailed as "the high priest of hip." In the 1960s, he developed a number of musicals in Chicago, including Opportunity Please Knock (1967), which was produced with the help of a youth gang.

Ruby Dee (1924- ) Actress, social activist Dee's acting career began during the 1940s when she became involved in the American Negro Theater, an esteemed Harlem ensemble. It was her role as Ruth in the Broadway run of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, however, that turned her into an African American icon. Together with her actor-husband Ossie Davis, she became an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

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Ossie Davis (1917- ) Actor, playwright, producer, director, activist After studying theater at Howard University, Davis made his Broadway debut in 1946, at which time he met his future wife and life-long collaborator Ruby Dee. During the 1960s, he worked in film and television, even while he remained active in the theater, appearing in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and writing the hit Broadway musical Purlie Victorious (1961), which mocked racial stereotypes. During this decade, Davis also lent his celebrity status to advance the Civil Rights cause, eulogizing both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. at their funerals.

Sidney Poitier (1927- ) Actor Born in the Bahamas, Poitier moved to New York to study acting in 1945, landed his first film role in the 1950 feature No Way Out, and quickly became a leading black film star. In 1959, he originated the role of Walter Lee Younger in the Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and in 1963, he became the first African American to win a best actor Oscar for his performance in Lilies of the Field.

Cicely Tyson (1933- ) Model, actress First discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony magazine, Tyson rose to the top of the modeling world before she began acting on stage and in film in the late 1950s. Appearing in feature films such as Twelve Angry Men (1957) and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968) and later winning Emmy awards for her performance in the television drama The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), Tyson committed herself only to take roles that portrayed positive images of black women. Â Dick Gregory (1932- ) Comedian, activist After breaking onto the comedy scene in Chicago in 1961, Gregory subsequently made numerous television, nightclub, and concert appearances. During the 1960s, he frequently participated in civil rights demonstrations, using his hard-hitting brand of comedy to attack racial prejudice.

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“ Rhythm and Blues Heroes�

Ray Charles (1930-2004 ) Vocalist, composer, musician Charles learned how to play the piano and clarinet and how to arrange music as a young student in Florida at the St. Augustine School for the Blind. He won his first Grammy Award in 1959 for "Georgia on My Mind," and two years later, he made history in Memphis, Tennessee with his performance before an integrated audience at the city auditorium. Â The Marvelettes Vocalists As high school students in rural Michigan in the late 1950s, Gladys Horton, Georgeanna Marie Tillman, Wanda Young, Katherine Anderson, and Juanita Grant formed the Marvelettes. They were discovered at a school talent show by Robert Bateman, who in turn introduced the young women to Motown Records' Berry Gordy. The Marvelettes made Motown history with their "Please Mr. Postman," which reached number one in the U.S. in 1961 and was the record company's biggest-selling album up to that point.

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Stevie Wonder (1950- ) Vocalist, songwriter, musician Blind from birth, Wonder won an audition at Motown Records when he was just twelve years old. In addition to the huge commercial success he has achieved as a recording artist, he has used his music to advance social issues and political causes. His song "Happy Birthday" (1960), for example, helped further the campaign to recognize Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday.

Muddy Waters (1915-1983) Musician Musician Waters learned how to play the harmonica and guitar as an adolescent farm laborer in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He first recorded for the Library of Congress in 1941-42, before moving to Chicago, where he launched his career at small taverns throughout the city's South and West sides. His first hit came in 1947 with "I Can't Be Satisfied," which he recorded for Aristocrat Records.

Billie Holiday (1915-1959) Vocalist Singing in obscure Harlem clubs as a teenager, Holiday was discovered in 1932 by legendary producer John Hammond. He introduced her to Benny Goodman, with whom Holiday would make her first commercial recordings the following year. Holiday made history in 1939 with her recording of "Strange Fruit," a strong antiracism statement that remained part of her repertoire for the rest of her career.

James Brown (1933- ) Vocalist With his musical roots in gospel, Brown began recording successfully in 1956 with his single "Please, Please, Please."

He went on to place ninety-eight singles on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues charts, seventeen of which reached number one.

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Aretha Franklin (1942- ) Vocalist Also known as the Queen of Soul, Franklin was the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She made her first professional recordings as a gospel artist at the age of fourteen, began recording for Atlantic Records in 1966, and was named top vocalist of 1967 by Billboard magazine. In 1967, Franklin also released her hit "Respect," which became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles Vocalists As a high school student, Smokey Robinson, together with friends Warren Moore, Clarence Dawson, James Grice, and Donald Wicker, formed the group that would eventually be known as the Miracles. In 1957, after several changes in its line-up, the Miracles met Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. The Miracles' second release, "Shop Around" (1962), became Motown's first million-dollar seller, and the group made history again in early 1961 as the first Motown act to appear on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.

Nat Turner (1800-1831) Slave revolt leader On August 21, 1831, Turner and five other slaves on a Virginia plantation killed their master and incited a large-scale revolt among other blacks in the area.

Southern lawmakers responded to the rebellion with legislation that prohibited the education, transportation, and assembly of slaves-restrictions that lent considerable force to the proslavery, antiabolitionist movement.

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visit the wall This page allows you to explore the site at 43rd Street and Langley Avenue where the Wall of Respect originally stood.

The first section, About the Area, contains short essays about the neighborhood.

The second section, QTVR, contains two Quick Time Virtual Reality tours that allow you to turn in a circle and zoom in and out of the site. The first QTVR is a panorama that includes a "ghost image" of the Wall of Respect on the current site. The second QTVR provides views of the four sections of Eugene Eda's X-shaped mural that currently stands at the site of the Wall of Respect. You may also view an interview with Eugene Eda about this mural on the Interviews page.

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INTERPRETATIONS • essays • interviews

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essays The three essays provide a brief introduction to the Wall of Respect within its cultural, political, and art historical context. Each essay is followed by a short bibliography of works cited.

The two poems were written specifically for the Wall of Respect by Gwendolyn Brooks and Don L. Lee (Haki Madhubuti), both of whom were central figures in the Black Arts Movement. Brooks is currently the poet laureate of Illinois; Lee/Madhubuti is the founder and publisher of Third World Press in Chicago. Both poems were read by their authors at the Wall's dedication on August 27, 1967.

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The Wall of Respect and the Black Arts Movement Generally regarded as the artistic counterpart to the militant Black Power Movement, the Black Arts Movement (BAM) was a cultural flourishing involving a loose association of African American visual artists, writers, poets, playwrights, and musicians. Seen by some historians as the successor to the Harlem Renaissance (or New Negro) movement of the 1920s, BAM took definite shape around 1965 and lasted until the mid- to late-1970s. The movement’s artists were united by a desire to cultivate a vital black aesthetic--separate and distinct from the standards of the white middle-class mainstream--that reflected and addressed the particular experiences and sensibilities of black Americans. Likewise, the movement set out to re-affirm the intrinsic beauty of blackness, an explicit challenge to centuries of racism.

In short, as writer Larry Neal articulated in his seminal 1968 essay “The Black Arts Movement,” BAM “envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America.” Other artists who made significant contributions to the Black Arts Movement include poets Gwendolyn Brooks, Don L. Lee (Haki Madhubuti), Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez, playwrights LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Ed Bullins, and Adrienne Kennedy, visual artists Jeff Donaldson, Vincent Smith, Faith Ringgold, and Betye Saar, and jazz musicians Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and Richard Muhal Abrams.

One of the earliest manifestations of this new creative impulse was the establishment of the Black Arts Repertoire Theatre/School (BART/S) in Harlem, New York. Founded by LeRoi Jones and a number of other black artists and activists, this organization used theater as a means of presenting radical cultural ideas to the people of Harlem. Jone s, who is considered one of the foremost figures of the Black Arts Movement, touted the notion of a “Revolutionary

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Theatre” that “should force change.” This call represented an outright rejection of the notion of art for art’s sake. Before its funding was cut, BART/S brought plays, concerts, and poetry readings to the streets of Harlem. More importantly, the spirit of community activism that lay at the heart of BART/S quickly spread to other cities around the nation, which established their own organizations dedicated to the production and dissemination of politically engaged black art.

One such group was Chicago’s Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), founded in the spring of 1967 by Jeff Donaldson, Gerald McWorter, and Hoyt Fuller.

Conceived as a collective of workshops devoted to the visual, literary, and performing arts, OBAC (pronounced “obasi”) was designed “to provide a new context for the Black Artist in which he can work out his problems and pursue his aims unhampered and uninhibited by the prejudices and dictates of the ‘mainstream.’” The group’s aims were thus entirely consistent with BAM’s focus on separatism and self-determination. In 1968, these same goals served as the impetus for the formation of Afri-Cobra (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), one of the best known arts organizations to espouse a black nationalist aesthetic.

To be sure, the Wall of Respect itself--a product of the visual art division of OBAC-exemplified some of the most fundamental principles of the Black Arts Movement. Not only did the mural project place art literally on the level of the street, but its exhibition of black heroes constituted a decisive affirmation of a rich African American cultural, intellectual, and political heritage. In this latter respect, the Wall’s creators seemed to anticipate writer Addison Gayle’s 1971 declaration that the role of the black artist was to "provide us with images based on our own lives." Crucially, the public mural also directly united artists with the local black community, for OBAC members turned to South Side residents for inspiration and input on which heroes they wished to see represented on the outdoor mural. Local

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youth in particular took a strong interest in the project, keeping close tabs on the Wall during its construction phase and becoming authorities on its featured subjects. With the formation of Kuumba Theatre in 1968, the Wall also served as the site of theatrical street performances, thereby deepening the link between the arts and the surrounding community.

While the Black Arts Movement has no precise end date, its momentum had begun to dwindle by the mid-1970s. Its lasting influence, however, can be seen not only in the work of subsequent black artists, but also in the proliferation of black art galleries, theatres, and publishing houses, as well as in the establishment of African American studies departments in universities nationwide.

Bibliography Campbell, Mary Schmidt. Tradition and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade, 1963-1973.

New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1985.

Gayle, Addison. The Black Aesthetic. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Publishers, 1971.

Huebner, Jeff. “The Man Behind the Wall.” Chicago Reader, 29 August 1997, p.1+. Jones, LeRoi. "The Revolutionary Theatre." Liberator 5, no. 7 (July 1965): 4-6.

Neal, Larry. "The Black Arts Movement." The Drama Review 12, no. 4 (1968): 29-39.

Smethurst, James, “Black Arts Movement.” http://www.africana.com http://www.umich.edu/~eng499/ (Black Arts Movement site)

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The Wall of Respect and the Black Power Movement

In 1966, former leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Stokely Carmichael definitively introduced the term “black power” into popular consciousness at a rally in Mississippi. The Movement that would subsequently take the name “Black Power” evolved quickly, most fundamentally from the philosophy of Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) founder Marcus Garvey, who, earlier in the twentieth century, opposed racial integration in favor of a self-reliant black nation. During the 1960s, Malcolm X’s rhetoric of empowerment and the militancy of groups such as the Black Panther Party more directly influenced the character of the Movement. The Wall of Respect’s creation bears striking resemblance to the beginning of the Black Power Movement. For as central as the Wall of Respect was to the beginnings of the Community Mural Movement in the United States and to redevelopment and beautification efforts on Chicago’s South Side in the 1960s, its cultural significance cannot be addressed as separate from or as merely coincidental to the Black Power Movement. Rather, the Wall of Respect was as integral to the evolution of the Movement as the Movement was to the life of the Wall. In partic ular, the condition of the Wall’s creation, celebration, and demise reflect the major stages of the Black Power Movement’s development in the 1960s.

Like the Black Power Movement, the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) functioned as a self- reliant collective. First, this group of artists worked exclusively within the 43rd and Langley community on the South Side of Chicago. OBAC’s members intended the Wall to belong to the community, and residents were invited to attend and participate in OBAC meetings, where the heroes for the Wall were selected. OBAC’s members

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also gathered the supplies needed to paint the Wall, and they made an initial agreement not to sign their names to their work—further testimony to the collective, self-reliant essence of OBAC. Later, when the Wall began to receive increased attention in the press, members regrouped and decided not to speak to reporters individually in response to “sensational” coverage the Wall had begun to generate.

Also, the celebration of the Wall paralleled the public presence that surrounded the Black Power Movement in the late 1960s. A black aesthetic was critical to both the Wall and the Movement, and in the fall of1967, Eugene Eda painted over Norman Parish’s section of the Wall that depicted black statesmen with an upraised, clenched fist—the official symbol and salute of the Movement. The fist, surrounded by painted streaks of light, complimented the celebratory nature of the Wall. For example, the upraised fist paralleled the raised, triumphant arms of Muhammad Ali on the bay window adjacent to Eda’s section.

Furthermore, congregation was central to both the development of Black Power and the celebration of the Wall. For the Black Power Movement, assembly in the form of rallies fostered public solidarity necessary for the formation of a self-reliant black nation. The two principal gatherings at the Wall— the August 1967 rally organized by SNCC and the October 1967 “black festival of creativity” organized by the 43rd Street Community Organization— likewise encouraged solidarity, both within the South Side community around the Wall and within the Black Power Movement at large. “Black unity is the only thing that will save us,” declared speaker Russ Meaks at the SNCC rally.

In addition to serving as a call for solidarity, rallies that took place as part of the Black Power Movement—including the rallies held at the Wall—fostered a spirit of protest; implicit in the black nationalism espoused by the Movement was the outright rejection of the white, middleclass status quo. As Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) official Lincoln B. Lynch declared

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at the SNCC Wall rally, “The mood of the people…is…not to beg…but to demand. There’s a black wave passing over us and…we’re not going to take it anymore.” Both the Wall—the primary catalyst for the Community Mural Movement—and the Black Power Movement— one of the most successful efforts at black mobilization—largely redefined the notion and shape of public protest. Whereas the protest movement spurred by U.S. involvement in Vietnam in the 1960s located the nexus of “public” protest within college campuses, the Black Power Movement moved outside of the narrow parameters of these institutions to mobilize a larger and more diverse group of people.

Strikingly, both OBAC and the Black Power Movement were subject to constant scrutiny by local police and the federal government. This scrutiny sowed irreparable dissension among members of the former group and contributed to the dissolution of the Movement. The Chicago Daily Defender, for example, reported the presence of undercover police and FBI at the Wall. Jeff Donaldson, one of the founders of OBAC, maintains that he received an anonymous postcard that threatened his life because of his participation in the Wall and that the FBI, under the auspices of its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) created files to track the activity of each of the artists involved in the project. In much the same way, the FBI kept extensive files on the activity of Black Power leaders like Stokely Carmichael (depicted on the Wall by Parish and Eda).

Although OBAC disbanded and the Wall perished long before the dispersal of the Black Power Movement, the Wall and the Movement existed and flourished almost simultaneously.

Today, these two entities exist as landmarks of history—not only the

history of the Community Mural Movement, but also the history of local and national black protest movements, and the history of human rights.

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Works Cited and Consulted Chen, Hans H. “LBJ Targeted Black Power Radicals.” APBnews.com http://www.apbnews.com/media/gfiles/carmichael [Accessed 11 August 2000].

Chicago Daily Defender, 30 August 1967, 16.

Huebner, Jeff. “The Man Behind the Wall.” Chicago Reader, 29 August 1997, sec. 1, pp.1, 14-32.

Potter, Dave. “Crowds Gather As ‘Wall’ Is Formally Dedicated.” Chicago Daily Defender, 2 October 1967, 3.

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The Artistic Evolution of the Wall of Respect In his 1967 poem, The Wall, Don Lee/Haki Madhubuti described the Wall of Respect as “…a black creation / black art, of the people, / for the people, / art for people’s sake / black people / the mighty black wall ….” This essay describes how the Wall of Respect evolved to meet different definitions of “art for people’s sake” from 1967-1971.

The Origin of an Idea, Spring and Summer 1967 The Wall of Respect was the result of both collective action and individual inspiration.

In the spring of 1967 a group of artists formed the multi-disciplinary Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). Many of OBAC’s members were college graduates or art students who wanted to involve their art in the collective political struggles of the era. They established a visual arts workshop headed by artist Jeff Donaldson with the goal of producing a significant collective artwork. But it was the slightly older mural painter Bill Walker who introduced the idea of painting a public work of art on the corner of 43rd Street and Langley Avenue.

Walker had been planning on painting a mural by himself that would address the neighborhood’s impoverished condition and upon joining OBAC he presented the idea to the group. The other artists responded with enthusiasm to the general idea; however, they cooperatively decided that the project should involve everyone in the Visual Arts Workshop and focus on the more optimistic theme of “Black Heroes.” As Donaldson pointed out, the very act of making public portraits of black heroes was a radical undertaking during an era when advertisements and school textbooks rarely featured African Americans and the mainstream media rarely reported positive stories about the black community.

The OBAC artists wanted to create a unified visual statement of the Visual Arts Workshop, so instead of allowing community members to contribute directly to the Wall, they drew up a list of figures that was modified and approved by the community. For

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instance, former gang member turned community activist Herbert Colbert insisted that the more militant Stokely Carmichael, rather than Martin Luther King, be included on the Wall.

Designing the Wall, July and August 1967 The process of designing and painting the Wall was also a cooperative endeavor.

Walker, who had spent more time in the neighborhood than the other artists, served as a community liaison, getting approval and donations of paint from local businesses located at 43rd and Langley. Meanwhile, each of the artists submitted a design scheme for the Wall.

Sylvia Abernathy, a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology, presented the most effective proposal by dividing the Wall into seven thematic sections determined by the building’s doors, windows, and moldings. Norman Parish, a School of the Art Institute student at the time, recalls choosing the section about Statesmen from Abernathy’s design and conducting extensive library research to select the appropriate portraits for the figures in his section. He also included a brilliant red-orange diagonal streak to symbolize the violence implied by the famous Malcolm X quote “by any means necessary.”

While the artists were attentive to the details of their individual sections, they maintained the overall order and symmetry of Abernathy’s design. Some figures were ingeniously “framed” within windows, and the entire composition was focused on Myrna Weaver’s portrait of Muhammad Ali triumphantly raising his fists. The sections on the first story were generally darker and more saturated in color than the sections on the second story. And, in between the two stories, OBAC photographers hung a row of their work, just above eye level. As a dividing line between the two stories, this row of photographs contributed not only to their respective sections but also to the design of the overall composition.

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The Break-Up of OBAC, September 1967 The Wall began to receive significant national exposure even before its completion, drawing viewers from all over the country to stop by and visit the work-in-progress. On August 27, 1967, there was a rally to celebrate the completion of the Wall. Soon thereafter, several members of the group, including Bill Walker and Myrna Weaver, whitewashed Parish’s Statesmen Section of the Wall. According to Parish, his section did have some problems–his portrait of Malcolm X was not finished and suffered because the paint was not adhering to the mortar between the bricks. Nonetheless, he and many other OBAC artists were distraught to find his section whitewashed without the full consent of the group. They were further distraught by media coverage of the Wall that portrayed it as the product of local community activists and amateur artists rather than crediting OBAC. The FBI caused further dissension within the group by sending false threats from fictional gangs and sending agents to monitor the artists’ activities at the mural site.

Changes to the Original Design, Fall 1967 In September, as OBAC splintered and many of its members began to relocate and leave the mural behind, Walker and Weaver invited an outside artist, Eugene Eda, to re-paint the whitewashed Statesmen Section. Veering from Abernathy’s original design, Eda painted the section black, affixed a painting of Malcolm X to the Wall, and painted an upraised fist among the portraits of Carmichael and Brown. That fall, Walker also repainted his Religion Section. Originally, it contained portraits of Nat Turner, Wyatt Walker, and Elijah Muhammad.

However, because Malcolm X had left the Nation of Islam under hostile terms, Walker was asked by the Nation of Islam to paint over Elijah Muhammad, who did not want to be on the same wall as his former protégé. In his place, Walker painted a fictional scene of Nat Turner preaching before a crowd holding signs that read “See, Listen, Learn.”

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A Significant Change in Theme, 1968-1969 Further changes to the site at 43r d and Langley substantially altered the Wall of Respect. The mural began to relate more directly to its local community with the addition of a local heroes section, including a portrait of Herbert Colbert by William Hancock. In addition to depicting black heroes it also began to include significant social commentary about contemporary issues. In early 1969, Walker and Eda painted the Wall of Truth across the street from the Wall of Respect. If the OBAC Wall of Respect was impressive for its optimism, thoughtful integration of political and cultural heroes, and subtle but unified design, the Wall of Truth was impressive for its breadth of style, up-to-the-minute subject matter, and ambivalent depiction of race relations in America. In a section of the Wall of Truth called “Black Laws” the artists regularly pasted up newspaper clippings about contemporary events in the Black Power Movement and occasions of police brutality that testified to the divisiveness of the era.

Walker similarly wanted to update the Wall of Respect so he encouraged Eda to paint over his Statesmen section with something more contemporary. Eda responded by boarding up his earlier image and painting over it with a depiction of a Klansmen, a lynching, and a scene of police brutality that he had seen on the evening news. Fitting for such inflammatory subject matter, the color scheme was red-orange. At the same time, Walker repainted his section of the Wall with an image he called “Peace and Salvation.” It depicts the faces of black and white racists glaring at one another within a circle stretched open by black, white, yellow, and red hands. The image represents Walker’s belief that, in order to force a public conversation about racism, Americans of all colors need to unite.

Long-Term Influence of the Wall of Respect Because of the national media coverage that the Wall of Respect received, it attracted the attention of artists and community activists in other cities. Original Wall of Respect artists Walker, Eda, Elliot Hunter, and Edward Christmas were invited by a group of ministers in

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1968 to paint the Wall of Dignity and several other murals in Detroit. Soon Walls of Respect, as black pride murals came to be known, were painted in Boston, St. Louis, and Philadelphia.

The Wall of Respect also attracted the attention of white, Latino/a and Asian American artists who began to paint similar murals in their neighborhoods. In 1970, Walker and muralist John Weber formed the multiracial Chicago Mural Group, which included such prominent artists as Mitchell Caton, Caryl Yasko, Astrid Fuller, and Ray Patlan. In 1972, Mark Rogovin, a student of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siquieros, founded the Public Art Workshop in Chicago.

Walker, Eda, Weber, and Rogovin drew further attention to the Community Mural Movement when they were invited to paint and show their work in the lobby of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in 1971. Because the muralists feared being co-opted by such a mainstream museum environment, they prepared a manifesto declaring the public’s ownership of the walls created by the mural movement. This same spirit of public stewardship continues to inform the Community Mural Movement to this day. During the MCA show, a fire damaged the Wall of Respect, which was quickly demolished by the City to make way for a community center. Yet, despite various changes to the original mural and its demolition, the Wall of Respect continues to exert a tremendous influence on the development of “art for people’s sake.”

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Works Cited Barnett, Alan W. Community Murals: The People’s Art. Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1984.

Chicago Daily Defender, 30 August 1967, 16.

Cockroft, Eva, Jim Cockroft, and John Weber. Toward A People’s Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1977.

Donaldson, Jeff. “The Rise, Fall and Legacy of the Wall of Respect Movement.”

International Review of African American Art 15, no. 1 (1998): 22-26.

Donaldson, Jeff. “Upside the Wall: An Artist’s Retrospective Look at the Original “Wall of Respect.”” The People’s Art: Black Murals, 1967-1978 Philadelphia: African American Historical and Cultural Museum, 1986.

Donaldson, Jeff. Personal conversation with author 11 August 2000.

Huebner, Jeff. “The Man Behind the Wall.” Chicago Reader, 29 August 1997, sec. 1, pp.1, 14-32.

Parish, Norman. Personal conversations with author. 15 July and 3 August 2000.

Walker, William. Personal conversation with author, 20 July 2000.

“Wall of Respect.” Ebony 23, no. 2 (December 1967): 48-50.

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Gwendolyn Brooks, "The Wall" August 27, 1967 [the day of its dedication] A drumdrumdrum.

Humbly we come.

South of success and east of gloss and glass are sandals; flowercloth; grave hoops of wood or gold, pendant from black ears, brown ears, reddish-brown and ivory ears; black boy-men.

Black boy-men on roofs fist out "Black Power!" Val, a little black stampede in African images of brass and flowerswirl, fist out "Black Power!"--tightens pretty eyes, leans back on mothercountry and is tract, is treatise through her perfect and tight teeth.

Women in wool hair chant their poetry.

Phil Cohran gives us messages and music made of developed bone and polished and honed cult.

It is the Hour of tribe and of vibration, the day-long Hour. It is the Hour of ringing, rouse, of ferment-festival.

On Forty-third and Langley black furnaces resent ancient legislatures of ploy and scruple and practical gelatin.

They keep the fever in, fondle the fever.

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All worship the Wall.

I mount the rattling wood. Walter says, "She is good." Says, "She our Sister is." In front of me hundreds of faces, red-brown, brown, black, ivory, yield me hot trust, their yea and their Announcement that they are ready to rile the high-flung ground.

Behind me. Paint.

Heroes.

No child has defiled the Heroes of this Wall this serious Appointment this still Wing this Scald this Flute this heavy Light this Hinge.

An emphasis is paroled.

The old decapitations are revised, the dispossessions beakless.

And we sing.

Reprinted in Alan W.Barnett, Community Murals: The People's Art. Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1984, 52-53.

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Don L. Lee, "The Wall" sending their negro toms into the ghetto at all hours of the day (disguised as black people) to dig the wall, (the weapon) the mighty black wall (we chase them out--kill if necessary) whi-te people can't stand the wall, killed their eyes, (they cry) black beauty hurts them-they thought black beauty was a horse-- stupid muthafuckas, they run from the mighty black wall brothers & sisters screaming "picasso ain't got shit on us. send him back to art school." we got black artists who paint black art the mighty black wall negroes from south shore & hyde park coming to check out a black creation black art, of the people, for the people, art for people's sake black people the mighty black wall black photographers who take black pictures can you dig, blackburn le roi, muslim sisters, black on gray it's hip they deal, black photographers deal blackness for the mighty black wall black artists paint 52

du bois / garvey / gwen brooks stokely / rap / james brown trane / miracles / ray charles baldwin / killens / muhammad ali alcindor / blackness / revolution our heroes, we pick them, for the wall the mighty black wall / about our business, blackness can you dig? if you can't you ain't black / some other color negro maybe?? the wall the mighty black wall, "ain't the muthafucka layen there?"

Reprinted in Alan W.Barnett, Community Murals: The People's Art. Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1984, 52.

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interviews This series of interviews tells the story of the Wall of Respect from the perspective of artists who contributed to the mural or who were influenced by it.

The interviews are divided into subject headings about the different phases of the mural, its importance to the local community, and its art historical significance.

To access the interviews roll your mouse over the subject headings on the left bar to open the interview menus. Depending upon your internet connection the movies may take a few seconds to appear. To view the movies you will need to download QuickTime4.

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Bios of the Interviewees Robert Sengstacke is a photographer who has worked at the Chicago Defender for over thirty years. He contributed photographs to the Religion Section of the Wall of Respect and documented its creation for a series of articles in the Defender. He is well known for his photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, the Nation of Islam, and the South Side of Chicago.

Eugene Wade (Eda) is a professor of art at Kennedy-King College on Chicago's South Side. He painted the second version of the Statesmen Section on the Wall of Respect and has continued to paint dozens of indoor and outdoor murals around Chicago, including Legacy (1996) at Kinzie Street and Laramie Avenue.

Mark Rogovin is a muralist and the co-founder of the Peace Museum in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood. He arrived in Chicago in 1968 after studying with the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siquieros and was inspired by the Wall of Respectto help found the Chicago Public Art Workshop in 1971 and to co-author Making Murals in 1974.

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ACTIVITIES • lesson plan • build your own mural

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lesson plans Based on Illinois State Learning Standards for junior high and high school curricula, the lesson plans address the subject areas of history, art, and art history. The plans draw on content relating to the Wall of Respect that is provided in other sections of this website and are designed to engage students in grades 6 through 12 in class discussions, debates, research and writing exercises, and a creative project.

This section also contains links to informational web sites related to art education, K-12 curricula planning, museums around the world, and African American studies.

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1. Art and the Civil Rights Movement Subject Area: History Grade level: Junior high school/high school Objectives: Students will be able to •

Learn about the history of the Civil Rights Movement though art;

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Consider the functions of art in the 1960s;

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Learn about the Black Power Movement and discuss the relationship between the Movement and the Wall of Respect.

Instructional material •

Timeline

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Faces on the Wall

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The essay on “The Wall of Respect and Black Power Movement”

Activities •

Small-group discussion: debate which of the ideas within the Black Power Movement in 1960s was the most critical, and support with evidence. You can find relevant websites from the Britannica.com (http://www.britannica.com, Search Keyword: Black Power Movement)

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Ask students to write a short paper from the perspective of an art historian on the multiple functions of art in the 1960s and today.

Goal • Illinois State Standard (http://web-dev.isbe.state.il.us/standards/stand1.html) State Goal 16 Social Science : 16.A.3b Make inferences about historical events and eras using historical maps and other historical sources 59

2. Community art movement Subject Area: History Grade level: Junior high school/ high school Objective: Students will be able to •

Understand the significance of the Community Mural Movement in the 1960s.

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Recognize the significance of artwork in and around their communities and learn about the history of that artwork.

Instructional material •

Faces on the wall

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QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) of the site of the Wall of Respect

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The essay “The artistic evolution of the Wall of Respect”

Activities •

Group discussion on the community mural movement

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Ask students to select and research one piece of artwork in their communities, exploring the history of the artwork as well as its relationship to the social and political events around its creation.

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Have students prepare a short presentation based on their research

Goal • Illinois State Standard (http://web-dev.isbe.state.il.us/standards/stand1.html) State goal 16 Social Science : 16.A.3c Identify the difference between historical fact and interpretation. : Identify significant historical events and evaluate their impact on political system

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3. The Art of Mural Making Subject Area: Art Grade level: K-12 Objectives: Students will be able to •

Learn about the process of collective mural making;

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Find out about important African American historical figures and their contributions to society.

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Learn about various painting methods (i.e., collage, drawing mural, etc.)

Instructional material •

Faces on the Wall

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Paper, paint, brush, glue, scissors, magazines, large white board, smocks or old shirts

Activity •

Group discussion on students’ heroes. Prior to the discussion, ask students to select a hero, research his or her life, and bring in an interesting story related to him/her.

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Ask students to bring in any printed material or pictures of their heroes.

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Cut and paste pictures and create a collage on white paper. (in small groups)

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Based on their collage project, have students draw their heroes onto the big white board using paints and brushes.

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Prepare group presentation on their work.

Goal •

Illinois State Standard

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(http://web-dev.isbe.state.il.us/standards/stand1/html) State goal 26 Fine Art: Visual Art : 26.B.3d Demonstrate knowledge and skills to creat2- and 3dimensional works‌ : 26.B.5 Create and perform a complex work of art using a variety of techniques, technologies and resources and independent decision making.

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4. How artists shape culture Subject Area: Art history Grade level: Junior high school / high school Objective: Students will be able to •

Identify the roles of several mural artists involved in the creation of the Wall of Respect.

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Find out the functions of an African American art collective in the 1960s.

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Detect the changes in the Wall of Respect from its creation to its demolition and understand the societal basis of these changes.

Instructional material •

Timeline

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Interviews with Eda and Sengstacke on OBAC (The Organization of Black American culture)

Activity •

Have students read the essay “The artistic Evolution of the Wall of Respect” and discuss the conflict and cooperation involved in the creation of the Wall of Respect

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Ask students to compare two pictures of the Wall of Respect (1967 and 1971).

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Discuss the reasons for and implications of the changes in the Wall.

Goal • Illinois State Standard (http://web-dev.isbe.state.il.us/standards/stand1/html) State goal 27 Fine Art : 27.A.3b Compare and contrast how the arts function in ceremony, technology, politics, communication and entertainment

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: 27.B.3 Know and describe how artists and their works shape culture and increase understanding of societies, past and present : 27.B.4b Understand how the arts change in response to changes in society

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5. Looking at the Wall of Respect Subject Area: Art history Grade level: Junior high school/High school Objective: Students will be able to •

Recognize the faces on the Wall of Respect and learn about the subjects’ lives

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Identify basic factual information about the Wall and understand its meaning.

Instructional material •

Faces on the Wall

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Question set

Activities •

Go to the “Faces on the Wall” section and explore it. Ask students to choose one figure from each section and study his/her biographical information.

• Discuss the Wall of Respect based on the question set below: : What was the Wall of Respect? : What are subjects and themes in this mural? : Who are the specific people depicted on the mural? : Who created this mural? : How did they paint this mural? : Where is this mural? : What was the overall significance of the mural?

Goal • Illinois State Standard (http://web-dev.isbe.state.il.us/standards/stand1.html) State goal 14 Social Science : 14.D.4 Analyze roles and influences of individuals, groups and media in shaping current debates on state and national policies

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State goal 27 Fine Arts : 27.b.4b Analyze how the art shape and reflect ideas, issues or themes in a particular culture or historical period. : Analyze how the art shapes and reflect ideas, issues or themes in a particular culture or historical period.

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Art Resources Artnet (Williams College Museum of Art) Artsedge: The National Arts and Education Information Network Learning Through Collaborative Visualization SILS Art Image Browser World Wide Arts Resources K-12 Curriculum Resources At Home in the Heartland Online Classroom Connect ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center FamilyPC on the Web Microsoft in K-12 Education N.J. Department of Education NASA - IITA NASA K-12 Internet Initiative NYS Education Department The School Page The School Page - The Educator's Resource Using Computers in Environmental Education: Web66 Wheeling District #21 Museum Resources American Association of Museums (AAM) Amiens Cathedral Web Site Archives & Museum Informatics Art Gallery of Ontario Art Institute of Chicago Art Museum Network ArtScene - Art, Museum, Painting Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive Canadian Centre for Architecture Home Page Charles River Museum of Industry Children's Museum of Indianapolis Cincinnati Art Museum Cleveland Museum of Art DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park 67

Computer Museum Network Corcoran Museum of Art/School of Art David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art David Winton Bell Gallery Davis Museum and Cultural Center Introduction Hudson River Museum Illinois Railway Museum (and Chicago) Illinois State Museum Jarea Art Studio Kennedy Center Kid's Crossing...Childrens Discovery Museum Krannert Art Museum Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark) M. C. Carlos Museum Media Center for Art History Metropolitan Museum of Art Mexican Museum, San Francisco Miami Museum of Science Minneaolis Institute of Arts MIT Museum Home Page MOCA Online Museum and Gallery Sites Museum Explorers Project Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Modern Art Museum of Science, Boston National Air and Space Museum National Museum of African Art Homepage National Museum of American Art Natural History Museum, London Newberry Library Paris Pages - Map of Monuments & Museums Peabody Essex Museum Science Learning Network Museums Science Museum of Minnesota Smithsonian Institution Home Page Walker Art Center Home Page Whitney Museum of American Art Williamson Gallery Yale University Art Gallery

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African American Sites The Encyclopaedia Britannica Guide To Black History The African American MosaicAfricana.com African American Women: Online Archival Collections Mathematicians Of the African Diaspora The Internet African American History Challenge Gale Group: Black History American Slave Narratives Afro-American History Gateway to African American History Black Arts Movement

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build your own mural

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SITE INFO • • • •

guestbook resources site map credits

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Guestbook

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resources Related Links http://www.muralart.org [Accessed 17 August 2000] Chicago Public Art Group. http://www2.rmcil.edu/live/bustour.html [Accessed 17 August 2000]. Chicago Mural Tour with Chicago Public Art Group. http://www.dusablemuseum.org [Accessed 17 August 2000] Dusable Museum of African American History, Chicago. http://blackhistory.eb.com/index2.html [Accessed 17 August 2000]. Encyclopaedia Britannica Guide to Black History. http://www.umich.edu/~eng499/ [Accessed 17 August 2000]. Black Arts Movement site. http://www.africana.com [Accessed 17 August 2000]. Portal for African and African American News, Culture, and Internet Services. http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html [Accessed 8 August 2000]. The AfricanAmerican Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. http://www.tulane.edu/~amistad/ [Accessed 17 August 2000]. Amistad Research Center, Tulane University. http://web-dubois.fas.harvard.edu/ [Accessed 17 August 2000]. W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University.

Works Cited and Consulted Barnett, Alan W. Community Murals: The People's Art. Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1984.

The Barrio Murals--Murales del Barrio. Chicago: Mexican Fine Arts Center and Museum, 1987.

Bone Deep in Chicago: CounterMemorials for the "City of the Big Shoulders." Chicago: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2000.

Campbell, Mary Schmidt. Tradition and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade, 1963-1973. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1985.

Chen, Hans H. "LBJ Targeted Black Power Radicals." APBnews.com http:// www.apbnews.com/media/gfiles/carmichael [Accessed 11 August 2000].

Chicago Daily Defender, 30 August 1967, 16.

Cockroft, Eva, Jim Cockroft, and John Weber. Toward A People's Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1977.

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Cry for Justice. The Amalgamated Meat Cutters' Union, 1972.

Donaldson, Jeff. "The Rise, Fall and Legacy of the Wall of Respect Movement."

International Review of African American Art 15, no. 1 (1998): 22-26.

Gaither, E. Barry. "Social Art." International Review of African American Art 15, no. 1 (1998): 59-63.

Gayle, Addison. The Black Aesthetic. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Publishers, 1971.

Goldman, Shifra M. and Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins. In the Spirit of Resistance: AfricanAmerican Modernists and the Mexican Muralist School. New York: The American Federation of Arts, 1996.

Gude, Olivia and Jeff Huebner. Urban Art Chicago: A Guide to Community Murals, Mosaics, and Sculptures. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000.

Haydon, Harold. "People's Art: 'More Than a Distant Vision.'" Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday, 6 December 1970, sec. 3, p. 1.

"Art." Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday, 13 December 1970, sec. 5, p. 12.

Huebner, Jeff. "The Man Behind the Wall." Chicago Reader, 29 August 1997, sec. 1, pp.1, 14-32.

Jones, LeRoi. "The Revolutionary Theatre." Liberator 5, no. 7 (July 1965): 4-6.

Krantz, Claire Wolf. "Art's Chicago Public, Part One: The Mural Movement." New Art Examiner (May 1996): 23-29.

Malinowski, Sharon. "Killens, John Oliver." Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series (Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1989), 26:213-216.

"The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project." http://www.isop.ucla.edu/mgpp/intro.htm [Accessed 26 July 2000].

"Marvelettes." The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Edited by Colin Larkin (London: Muze UK Ltd., 1998), 5:3495-3496.

Morrison, Allan. "A New Surge in the Arts." Ebony 22, no. 10 (August 1967): 134-38.

Mosby, Donald. "Gun Cache Found At Black Power Hangout." Chicago Daily Defender, 31 October 1967, 3.

"Mural Time Line of Key Historical Events." Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: History of African American Murals. James Prigoff and Robin J. Dunitz. Rohnert Park, CA: Pomegranate Press, forthcoming Aug/Sept 2000.

Neal, Larry. "The Black Arts Movement." The Drama Review 12, no. 4 (1968): 29-39.

"Object: Diversity." Time, 6 April 1970, 80-87.

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Patton, Sharon F. African-American Art. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

The People's Art: Black Murals, 1967-1978. Philadelphia: African American Historical and Cultural Museum, 1986.

Potter, Dave. "Crowds Gather As 'Wall' Is Formally Dedicated." Chicago Daily Defender, 2 October 1967, 3.

Potter, Joan and Constance Claytor. African-American Firsts: Famous, Little- Known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America. Elizabethtown, NY: Pinto Press, 1994.

Rasnaw, Lee A. "The Changing Relationship of the Black Visual Artist to His Community." Black Art 3, no. 3 (1979): 44- 56.

Reid, Leahmon. "Visible Progress, Not Empty Promises Ease Tension in City." Jet 32, no. 23 (14 September 1967):18- 19.

Rogovin, Mark, Marie Burton, and Holly Highfill. Mural Manual: How to Paint Murals for the Classroom, Community Center, and Street Corner. Boston: Beacon Press, 1973.

Scott, Ava and Patrick Gilgallon. "Wall of Respect." School Arts 95, no. 6 (February 1996): 22f.

Smethurst, James, "Black Arts Movement." http://www.africana.com [Accessed 3 August 2000].

Smith, Angela Denise. "The Role of the Visual Image within Community: Chicago's Garfield Park" (master's thesis, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1999).

Sommer, Robert. Street Art. New York and London: Links Books, 1975.

Sorell, Victor. Guide to Chicago Murals: Yesterday and Today. Chicago Council on Fine Arts, 1979.

Van Deburg, William L. New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Walker, Wyatt Tee. Road to Damascus: A Journey of Faith. New York: Martin Luther King Fellows Press, 1985. "'Wall' Neighborhood Vexed By Black Power Connection." Chicago Daily Defender, 1 November 1967, 8.

"Wall of Respect." Ebony 23, no. 2 (December 1967): 48-50. "'Wall of Respect' Is Dedicated Here At Black Festival." Chicago Daily Defender, 3 October 1967, 14-15.

Washington, Betty. "'The Wall' Community Plans For Progress: Residents Rally To New Area Project." Chicago Daily Defender, 16 November 1967, 5, 31.

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credits THE WALL OF RESPECT ON THE WEB is a product of the Museum Internship Program, a collaborative project of at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and the Academic Technologies division of Information Technology at Northwestern University. This program was designed to broaden the experience of those who have an interest in exploring the creative use of technology to disseminate information, provide educational experiences in the context of the museum, and define innovative ways in which technology can be used to improve access to new ideas, research, and scholarship. The goal of the internship program in its first year was to define and implement a project within nine weeks that would contribute to the relationship between advanced technologies and the scholarly practice of museums.

Authors Sharon S. Bautista Charles Chen Gregory Foster-Rice

Anthea Kraut Ethan Plaut Souyeon (Sarah) Woo

Acknowledgements THE WALL OF RESPECT ON THE WEB has been an entirely collaborative project from start to finish; it would not have been possible without the help of numerous people.

First and foremost, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the artists involved with the Wall of Respect who offered their time and knowledge.

Sylvia Abernathy Jeff Donaldson Wadsworth Jarrell Norman Parish Robert Sengstacke Eugene Wade (Eda) Bill Walker We would also especially like to thank Mark Rogovin and Robert Sengstacke for allowing us to use their photographs and related materials.

Thanks to the following individuals for providing access to their archives and knowledge: John Pounds and Alpha Bruton at the Chicago Public Art Group; Jeff Huebner, Journalist; John Weber, Muralist; James Prigoff, Independent Scholar.

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Program Staff for the Block Museum/Academic Technologies Summer Internship Program at Northwestern University, Evanston Program Director: David Mickenberg, Director of Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art Program Manager: Brian Nielsen, Manager, Course Support Systems Program Planner: Bob Taylor, Director, Academic Technologies Program Coordinator: Eda Warren, Staff, Academic Technologies Program Consultant: Dennis Glenn, Manager, Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS) Program Consultant: Debora Wood, Assistant Curator, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art Program Administrator: Brooke Dierkhising, Block Museum Program Assistant Technology support from: Academic Technologies Staff, Northwestern University Smadar Kedar, Coordinator, AT Chicago Campus Adam Fenton, Learning Technologies Group Consultant Leader John Erickson, Learning Technologies Group Consultant Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS) Jason Betke, IT Media Specialist Bill Petersen, Production Assistant Information Technologies Gary Greenberg, Director of Planning & Development Paul Hertz, Multimedia Developer & Applications Specialist, Collaboratory Project Helene Simon, Trainer & Multimedia Specialist, IT Training Northwestern University Claire Dougherty, Director of Digital Media Service, University Library Media Department Mark Schaefer, Interactive Developer, Multimedia Learning Center Program support from: Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University Corinne Granof, Assistant Curator Mary Stewart, Assistant Director Northwestern University Carl Smith, Professor, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences Ann Adams, Assistant General Counsel Other local institutions: Chicago Historical Society Russell Lewis, Andrew W. Mellon Director for Collections & Research Nancy Buenger, Textiles Conservator DuSable Museum of African American History Ramon Price, Chief Curator

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Museum contacts: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Jackie Klein, Collections & Exhibitions Assistant Elysia Borowy, Audience Development Manager Sylvia Chivaratanond, Curatorial Assistant Art Institute of Chicago Alan B. Newman, Executive Director of Imaging Elizabeth Seaton, Website Content Coordinator, Museum Education Chetna Bhosale, Project Coordinator, Museum Education Minneapolis Institute of Art Willy Lee, Webmaster, Interactive Media Group Walker Art Center Robin Dowden, Integrated Information Resources & Website Manager Additional Help: Kim Pinder, Assistant Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Adam Green, Professor, Northwestern University Victor Sorrell, Professor, Chicago State University Kathleen Bethel, Reference Librarian, Northwestern University Daniel Edelson, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University Alexis Steinkamp, Web Trainer Judith Reymond, Instructional Designer

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