[The introduction to this series of posts is here.]
“Charles White’s interactions with the editor and publisher John H. Johnson included providing a cover illustration for an issue of Black World journal, which along with Ebony, was published by Johnson. A detail of a work by White, Go Tell It On The Mountain, charcoal, 1961, private collection was used on the cover of the July 1970 issue of Black World (Vol. XIX, No.9) though there was no credit to White or the work within the issue itself.”
“No one African American artist contributed more work to be used as illustrations for book jackets or record sleeves than Charles White. His extraordinary drawings, resonating as they did with incredible levels of sensitivity, empathy, creativity and technical skill, made White something of a go-to artist for a number of publishers. White’s work was used to illustrate the cover of Black History: A Reappraisal, edited with commentary by Melvin Drimmer - Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1968.
The 1960s and early 1970s saw an incredible range of books such as this one being published, responding as they did to the urgency and gravity of the times. Drimmer’s book consisted of essays from leading contemporary historians, journalists, and other contributors on Black history in the United States from its beginnings in colonial times to the late 1960s. This book presents the foremost interpretations of African Americans in American history, each prefaced by an analysis of the historical events surrounding the period covered. The book contains footnotes, bibliography, and an index. The book’s most highly distinguished contributor was W.E.B. Du Bois (incidentally, the book was published during the year marking the centenary of Du Bois’s birth, though the great man had died some five years earlier, in 1963. Other contributors included Basil Davidson, Benjamin Quarles, E. Franklin Frazier, John Hope Franklin, August Meier, E. David Cronon, and Eric Lincoln. Such contributors had distinguished themselves over the course of their careers to furthering and disseminating research and scholarship on Black History, making the book a most impressive undertaking. Du Bois provided a Prologue ‘Of Our Spiritual Strivings.’ which was followed by six sections: Africa and the Beginnings, Slavery Takes Root in the Americas, The Negro Response, The Struggle for Freedom, Patterns of Negro Life and Thought, 1880-1930, and finally, Toward a Second Reconstruction, 1933 - . This final section underlined the magnitude and gravity of the moment, in that the present-day period was framed as having started in the early 1930s, and was ongoing. It was, additionally and for good measure, cast as a ‘Second Reconstruction.’ The jacket illustration was UHURU, Chinese Ink, 1964.”
“Charles White interacted with Freedomways journal more than any other publication. His work appeared on the covers of the journal on many occasions. It was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s, having been published between 1961 and 1985. Freedomways (which represented itself as ‘A Quarterly Review of the Negro Freedom Movement’) remained unsurpassed in its embrace of, and attention to, African, African American and African Diasporic subjects. Each issue of Freedomways amounted to a treasure trove of texts and features, written by a distinguished range of scholars, academics, artists and writers.
This particular issue Vol. 8, No. 1, Winter 1968 (First Quarter) carried on its cover a Charles White drawing (possibly a lithograph) of Nat Turner, dated ’50.’ The drawing/lithograph related to a feature in the issue – ‘William Styron’s Dilemma – on The Confessions of Nat Turner,’ written by Loyle Hairston. Styron’s acclaimed 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel presented as a first-person narrative the historical figure of Nat Turner, who led a slave revolt in Virginia in 1831.
White’s rendering of Nat Turner was first used on a 1950 poster for Nat Turner, a play in three acts, written in 1940 by playwright Paul Peters. This play, which opened in late 1950 in New York City, was an imaginative retelling of the story of Turner and his insurrection.”
“Paul Robeson (born 1898) was one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century, on account of his extraordinary contributions and achievements on many fronts - acting, singing, the theatre, social and civil rights activism. Towards the later part of his life Robeson lived a somewhat reclusive life, in Philadelphia. The battles he waged throughout his life, leading up to and including his battles with the US government, left Robeson exhausted and it was this, in part, that led to him living his life away from public view. Notwithstanding his reclusiveness, Robeson remained a much loved and much respected figure and Charles White captured Robeson as a man of dignity, resolve and destiny, in his circular drawing of the man.
This drawing of Robeson was used on the cover of Salute to Paul Robeson: A Cultural Celebration of His 75th Birthday. The book was, as its title indicated, published on the occasion of Robeson's 75th birthday, in 1973. The book was part pictorial biography, part celebration of Robeson’s life and work, part compendium of accolades, part decade-by-decade visual and written narrative of Robeson’s 20th century, from the 1920s through to the 1960s. Also included were extracts on writings about and by Robeson.
Robeson was truly a global personality, who was a world citizen as much as he was a US citizen. Nowhere in Salute to Paul Robeson: A Cultural Celebration of His 75th Birthday was this more evident than in the ‘Birthday Greetings to Paul Robeson’ section, which included fulsome greetings and salutations from figures such Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, Julius K. Nyerere, President of Tanzania, Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Chairman, Congress of Afrikan People, and Arthur Ashe. This attractive publication was published by the Paul Robeson Archives, Inc.”
This particular issue Vol. 10, No. 2 (Second Quarter) 1970, carried on its cover a detail of one of Charles White’s legendary drawings from his ‘Wanted’ series. The credit on the Contents page read, ‘The cover drawing by Charles White is from his Wanted Poster Series recently exhibited in New York City. A new portfolio of six in the series will soon be available from FREEDOMWAYS.’”
“Charles White interacted with Freedomways journal more than any other publication. His work appeared on the covers of the journal on many occasions. It was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s, having been published between 1961 and 1985. Freedomways, which by 1970 represented itself as ‘A Quarterly Review of the Freedom Movement’ (The word ‘Negro’ by now having been dropped from its masthead) remained unsurpassed in its embrace of, and attention to, African, African American and African Diasporic subjects. Each issue of Freedomways amounted to a treasure trove of texts and features, written by a distinguished range of scholars, academics, artists and writers.
This particular issue Vol. 12, No. 1 (First Quarter) 1972, carried on its cover a reproduction of one of Charles White’s legendary drawings from his J’Accuse! series. The credit on the cover read, ‘Cover Art by Charles White.’ The work in question was J’Accuse! No. 2, 1966.”
“In the mid-1970s, Charles White undertook a most demanding, original and dynamic collaboration, with the writer and editor Lerone Bennett, Jr. The Shaping of Black America (Chicago, IL: Johnson Publishing Co., 1975) was a very handsome publication, featuring copious illustrations by Charles White, including the very distinctive cover. From the flyleaf of the book’s jacket:
The Shaping of Black America is, in the author’s words, ‘a historical reconstruction,’ of the history of black people in the United States, since the famous landing of the 20 blacks at Jamestown in 1619. This book covers virtually the same ground encompassed in the author’s classic Before the Mayflower, published originally in 1962. The difference is in the approach. [….]
The book is developed around the body of thought presented in the concept that Bennett first expressed in The Challenge of Blackness (Chicago, IL: Johnson Publishing Co., 1972): 39, that ‘blacks lived in a different time and a different reality in this country.’ White provided 11 full page illustrations ‘rendered in monochromatic oil on boards.’ Titles included, ‘The First Generation,’ ‘The Black Founding Fathers [Paul Cuffee, Richard Allen],’ ‘The World of the Slave [Harriet Tubman],’ and ‘The Black Worker.’ This was a substantial publication, which demonstrated the ways in which White was equal to any task, when it came to illustrating the Black experience, and rendering Black-figures from history, with sensitivity, creativity and depth. A portrait of Bennett and White, discussing their collaboration, adorned the back cover of The Shaping of Black America.”
“Charles White interacted with Freedomways journal more than any other publication. His work appeared on the covers of the journal on many occasions. It was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s–1980s, having been published between 1961 and 1985. Freedomways, which by 1970 represented itself as ‘A Quarterly Review of the Freedom Movement’ (The word ‘Negro’by now having been dropped from its masthead) remained unsurpassed in its embrace of, and attention to, African, African American and African Diasporic subjects. Each issue of Freedomways amounted to a treasure trove of texts and features, written by a distinguished range of scholars, academics, artists and writers.
This particular issue Vol. 12, No. 1 (First Quarter) 1972, carried on its cover a reproduction of one of Charles White’s legendary drawings from his J'Accuse! series. The credit on the cover read, ‘Cover Art by Charles White.’ The work in question was J'Accuse! No. 2, 1966.”
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