Transcending prejudice From: ©1996 The Manila Times

[Clyde Adkins]

From: ©1996 The Manila Times
http://www.portalinc.com/manilatimes/news1.html
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Copyright Reprinted by permission

Sunday, November 3, 1996

OPINION

Transcending prejudice

By Hillary Rodham-Clinton
Columnist

AN EDUCATOR from New York visited Wash-ington a few years
ago and decided to go on a tour of the White House. He waited in
line with thousands of others, eager for the opportunity to see
America's most famous residence.
But as he walked through the public rooms and corridors, taking in
all of the beautiful art on the walls, he was immediately struck that
something was wrong. There were no depictions of black faces in
any of the paintings, not even a portrait of the legendary abolitionist
Frederick Douglass. In fact, there wasn't a single work by an African
American artist--not Edward Bannister, or Jacob Lawrence, or
William Johnson, or any of the fine black painters our country has
produced.
As an African American man, Edward D. Bell was saddened to
discover this historical omission. So, he decided to do something
about it. He wrote to the President to suggest a more representative
White House collection that would offer a truer picture of American
history--one that would make all children who visit the White House
feel a connection to our country's past.
The President read Bell's letter and directed White House Curator
Rex Scouten to look for a work by a leading African American artist
to hang in one of the public rooms. Two leading experts on African
American art--the late Sylvia Williams, former director of the
Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution, and scholar
David Driskell--helped locate a magnificent landscape by one of our
nation's finest painters, Henry Ossawa Tanner.
Titled "Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City," the painting was
purchased by the White House Endowment Fund earlier this year
from Tanner's grandniece, Dr. Rae Alexander-Minter. The painting,
along with others by Tanner, had been kept over the years in her
mother's house, where the shades were always drawn to preserve the
canvasses.
This week at the White House, the President and I presented the
painting at a special ceremony that included Dr. Rae
Alexander-Minter, Tanner's grandson, Jacques, and Edward Bell. It
was a fitting tribute to Tanner and a homecoming of sorts for an
artist whose work was far more appreciated overseas than here in the
United States, largely because of racism during his time.
The artist was born in Pittsburgh in 1859, just before the Civil War.
His father was a minister, and his mother, whose family had escaped
slavery by riding to freedom on the Underground Railroad, was a
teacher. Both parents instilled in him a belief in education, good
citizenship and racial pride.
His life goals crystallized when he was 13 years old and saw an
artist painting in a park. Mesmerized by the painter's work, he
decided to pursue an artistic career for himself.
Not only did Tanner have to overcome racial prejudice among art
teachers and art schools, he also had to endure skepticism from his
peers, who doubted he could ever make a living as an artist.
But he persevered, even when fragile health forced him to scale
back his work. By the time he died in 1937, he had won modest
acclaim in art circles in the United States, but he had achieved far
greater celebrity in France, where he had lived for many years and
was named an honorary chevalier of the Order of the Legion of
Honor, the highest civilian title the country confers.
In a poignant expression of the difficulties he faced as an African
American painter, he once wrote from Paris about the prejudice that
led him to live much of his life far from his native land: "True, this
condition has driven me out of the countryÉand while I cannot sing
our National Hymn--'Sweet Land of Liberty'--deep down in my
heart, I love it and am sad that I cannot live where my heart is."
Now, at long last, Henry Ossawa Tanner is taking his rightful place
alongside Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt,
John Singer Sarg"Sand Dunes" will stand as a shining example of the
great contributions that African Americans have made to the cultural
life of our nation. And it will offer a reminder to every child who
visits the White House that talent always has the power to transcend
prejudice.e cultural life of our nation. And it will offer a reminder to
every child who visits the White House that talent always has the
power to transcend prejudice.