African American Artist House Trivia

In preparation for a post for July 4, I went in search this morning of the house of a civil rights hero, who grew up in my hometown.  I was excited to see, after some work in the census of 1920, that he lived on the same street I grew up on, though a few miles away (and decades earlier, obviously).  Unfortunately, as I feared, the house was taken down some years ago.  There's a church parking lot where Bayard Rustin lived according to the 1920 census and there's a small parking lot a block away, where Rustin's family lived according to the 1930 census.  (I think.  I've seeing something on-line that suggests they lived a little further down the street than I thought.)  I was particularly interested in Rustin's home because I'm interested in a question that Marc Poirier has been asking, which is what places should we use to commemorate gay history (and particularly gay legal history).  I think that Rufus King's birthplace and cemetery are both good locations for this.  But so would be Rustin's childhood home, given that he is a major figure in the history of African American and gay civil rights.  In the apt phrasing of Devon Carbado and Donald Weise, who have collected Rustin's key writings on civil rights, he carried two crosses.  Alas, that isn't to be -- though there is a high school named for him here in West Chester.  I was glad many years ago when the school board made that decision and then stood by it despite some local disagreement.  A bunch of the other places of importance to Rustin in this town are also missing -- his grandparents' house in the 1940s, on the other side of town, is now the parking lot of a marble store.  Moreover, I am having trouble figuring out where he conducted his early protests against segregation.

Close followers of Rustin may recall that his famous time on a chain gang in North Carolina was the result of a conviction in Orange County, when he was integrating a bus on a trip between Durham and Chapel Hill.

Still, wandering around his old neighborhood this morning, where a lot of the houses from Rustin's childhood still stand, I had a couple of consolation prizes.  One is the Elks Club where Rustin's grandfather (who raised him) worked.  It is still standing.  More importantly, I got a picture of a famous African American artist, which had been on my wish list for some time.  Steven Lubet may be particularly interested in this one, because among his paintings was one about John Brown.  This brings me to the key: what artist lived in the house at right?  

And it leads me to wonder whether Rustin knew this artist?  They lived within a couple of blocks from Rustin's birth for some years; I'm not exactly sure how many.  In fact, as of the 1930 census they lived on the same block.  And they were both in this town until Rustin was an adult.  So it is entirely possible that the artist and Rustin knew one another, which opens up some possibilities for speculation about the ideas of equality in circulation in the African American community here and how art and religious thought (in Rustin's case) worked in conjunction to change law.  At many places people were remaking the world, often without much fanfare or financial support.

Update as of July 3: The Brandywine River Museum has an exhibit of Pippin's work and a very useful paper on Pippin's work in West Chester.  Guess what?  He painted the Chester County Courthouse and the Civil War memorial out front.

Comments

[James Fox]

Al, I am going with Horace Pippin on this one. I first thought of Jacob Lawrence's great series on John Brown, but he was from New Jersey. Also, the Rustin report you link to is really something. Thanks.

[Owen]

Another fun one... It's the former home of Horace Pippin, at 327 West Gay Street in West Chester, PA.

Cribbing from PAFA's description of "John Brown Going to His Hanging":

"Pippin is recognized as one of the premier self-taught artists of this century. A native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, he depicted his local environment in numerous images. He also explored historical subjects, such as this homage to the fiery abolitionist John Brown. A white man who became a martyr for the anti-slavery cause, Brown occupied a special place in African-American memory throughout much of the twentieth century. Pippin depicted him as a quietly heroic figure in three separate paintings: "John Brown Reading His Bible," "The Trial of John Brown" and "John Brown Going to His Hanging".

One of the artist's most famous works, "John Brown Going to His Hanging" pictures the controversial figure on the way to his death. A crowd has gathered to watch (presumably cheer) Brown's execution, the black woman at lower right who, scowling, refuses to participate in the event. According to family legend, Pippin's grandmother was present at the hanging. By including her - the only black figure in any of the artist's history paintings - Pippin emphasized his personal connection to Brown's legacy of black liberation. This work was exhibited in and purchased from the Pennsylvania Academy's 1943 annual exhibition."

https://www.pafa.org/collection/john-brown-going-his-hanging

[Alfred Brophy]

As soon as I saw you had weighed in, I knew this was solved, Owen. Pippin's a great artist -- and I know that Steve Lubet would like Pippin's John Brown. I didn't know that his grandmother was a figure in the painting. This house is where he painted it. And makes me wonder even more about the connections of Pippin and Bayard Rustin, who lived within -- literally -- a stone's throw of each other at least for some time when Rustin was young. More on this on July Fourth.

An update on July 3 -- I just found Jamie's comment in the spam filter. Sorry I didn't see this sooner, Jamie. Congratulations to both of you!

Here's another cool thing -- I was looking at some of his other paintings today. I noticed a painting that looked just like the Birmingham Friends Meeting, which is a place I've visited to photograph.

[cm]

In 1937 they appear to have been at the West Chester Community Center at the same time.

From Judith Stein's I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin:

"Two days following the close of the art association show, Pippin's solo exhi­bition of ten paintings and seven burnt-wood panels opened at the West Chester Community Center, located on the other side of town. It was sponsored jointly by the center and the CCAA, and the opening ceremonies included talks by such local dignitaries as Christian Brinton, N. C. Wyeth, and Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill, pres­ident of Cheyney State Teachers College. The future civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, then a student at Cheyney State, was a featured tenor soloist." ( essay here: http://judithestein.com/american-original )

The CD of his two albums is difficult to find but you can download them from iTunes. Rustin sings one spiritual here: http://arts.gov/audio/heres-rare-recording-great-civil-rights-leader-bayard-rustin-singing-old-spiritual-live

[cm]

Rustin and Pippin appear to have been together at the West Chester Community Center in 1937.

In I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin, Judith Stein writes:

"Pippin's solo exhibition of ten paintings and seven burnt-wood panels opened at the West Chester Community Center, located on the other side of town. It was sponsored jointly by the center and the CCAA, and the opening ceremonies included talks by such local dignitaries as Christian Brinton, N. C. Wyeth, and Dr. Leslie Pinckney Hill, president of Cheyney State Teachers College. The future civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, then a student at Cheyney State, was a featured tenor soloist." (http://judithestein.com/american-original)

A few years later Rustin was also part of the chorus in the brief Broadway run of John Henry with Paul Robeson and singer Josh White. That might be how Rustin ended up singing with Josh White and his Carolinians. Ironically, they put out an album of chain gang songs in 1940, about seven years before Rustin's time on that North Carolina chain gang. Most, if not all, of them are up on YouTube. Trouble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUdmP1T97iA

The CD of Rustin's two solo albums is difficult to find but you can download them from iTunes. NEArts has a recording of him singing a spiritual here: http://arts.gov/audio/heres-rare-recording-great-civil-rights-leader-bayard-rustin-singing-old-spiritual-live

[Al Brophy]

Great work, CM -- really good to know about this join appearance of Pippin and Rustin.