J usticeAid believes in justice and the power of art to bring us together in the fight for a more equitable nation and world. This year, in parallel with our fundraising for Black Voters Matter, each month we will highlight Black artists in order to uplift those whose voices have been muted, and whose visions can help us all see ourselves as we really are, and as we could be.

Art

Left: Slick, 1977, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Gift of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York; Middle: Lawdy Mama, 1969, Courtesy of the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Right: Photo Bloke 2016, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Barkley L. Hendricks

Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) was an American painter and photographer known for his lifesized realist portraits of ordinary Black Americans living in urban areas in the 1970s. His subjects communicate assurance, style, and attitude. By giving representation to people who were often overlooked during a time of heightened racial tension, Hendricks’ works were seen as subversive and not mainstream (Duke). But he made it clear that his paintings were not expressly political. “My paintings were about people that were part of my life,” he told the art newspaper The Brooklyn Rail in 2016. “If they were political, it’s because they were a reflection of the culture we were drowning in.”

Hendricks was born in Philadelphia, PA and was Professor Emeritus of Studio Art at Connecticut College. He earned both his BFA and MFA from Yale University and was the subject of a retrospective traveling exhibition, Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool, at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art (2008). His work, which has inspired a new generation of figure painters, including Kehinde Wiley, is included in numerous public collections both within the U.S. and abroad, such as The Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. See his early work until January 7, 2024, at the Frick Collection: Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick. 

“An underground virtuoso, always being discovered in bits and pieces, the portraitist solidifies his place in the canon with a solo show at the Frick — its first ever for a Black artist.”

—From Yinka Elujoba’s New York Times review of Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick.  On view at the Frick Collection, NYC, until January 7, 2024

Music

Common and John Legend

“Glory,” written and performed by American rapper Common and American singer/actor/producer John Legend, was the theme song for the 2014 civil rights drama, Selma.

Both artists are longtime champions of social justice. In 2022, Common was presented with the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the Tribeca Festival. Legend’s latest push is endorsing progressive candidates in local prosecutor and district attorney races (see NPR interview). In this Rolling Stone interview, the longtime friends and collaborators reflect on their music, artistic vulnerability, and the importance of championing cultural diversity in America.

Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

“Glory” won an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2014, and a Grammy in 2015. On the left: A rousing performance of “Glory” at the 87th Annual Academy Awards. On the right: Another collaboration by Common featuring John Legend: “Rain” from his politically charged album, Black America Again (2016).

Watch the Trailer

Film

Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom

This 2013 biographical film is based on the 1994 autobiographical book of the same name by anti-apartheid revolutionary and former South African President, Nelson Mandela. Directed by Justin Chadwick and starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, the film chronicles Mandela’s early life, coming of age, education, and 27 years in prison before becoming President of South Africa and working to rebuild the country which was ravaged by Apartheid.

Featured Writing

Angela Davis 

One of America’s most historic political trials is undoubtedly that of Angela Davis. In 1971, Angela Davis was tried, and ultimately cleared, for kidnapping and first degree murder when guns registered in her name were used by a Black teenager to take over a courtroom, ending in the death of the teen, judge, and two defendants.

If They Come in the Morning:Voices of Resistance is not only an account of Davis’s incarceration and the struggles surrounding it, but also perhaps the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the prison system of the United States.

With contributions from George Jackson, Bobby Seale, James Baldwin, Huey P. Newton, and others. Verso

Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz, is known internationally for her ongoing work to combat all forms of oppression in the U.S. and abroad. Over the years she has been active as a student, teacher, writer, scholar, and activist/organizer. She is a living witness to the historical struggles of the contemporary era.

Professor Davis’s political activism began when she was a youngster in Birmingham, Alabama, and continued through her high school years in New York. But it was not until 1969 that she came to national attention after being removed from her teaching position in the Philosophy Department at UCLA as a result of her social activism and her membership in the Communist Party, USA. In 1970 she was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List on false charges, and was the subject of an intense police search that drove her underground and culminated in one of the most famous trials in recent U.S. history. During her sixteen-month incarceration, a massive international “Free Angela Davis” campaign was organized, leading to her acquittal in 1972.

Photo: Angela Davis during interview at Santa Clara County jail at Palo Alto, 1971. Courtesy of Associated Press.

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