LORD PLANT MY FEET ON HIGHER GROUND 3 panels : 60" x 36", 60" x 40", 60" x 36". Overall dimensions : 60" x 112"
I'
LEFT HAND PANEL
The contributions of Youth and Labor form the backbone of this panel. The setting is a composite of Fifth and Twelfth Streets in Lynchburg.
Many young people were frustrated by the slow pace of change and some pressed the leadership to use a more confrontational approach, - exemplified by David Cox’s raised Black Power fist. However constructive outlets were furnished by LynCAG through summer youth programs and the 1969 recreation program at the Marce T. Jones School.
Towards the foreground are clustered Cecelia Jackson, Owen Cardwell, Jr., Linda Woodruff and Brenda Hughes. They were the first African American students to integrate E. C. Glass High School in 1962. Lynchburg schools fully integrated in 1970.
In the 1960s there were very few employment opportunities for African Americans. Bates Ford is shown picketing the local A & P store for jobs. Walter Fore represents organized Labor participation.
An important source of information of civil rights meeting places was the radio. Fletcher Hubbard is shown in his role as announcer for WJJS, and also Robert Goins, who started a pirate radio station while still in high school.
Theodore Burton, Rev. Virgil Wood and Dr. G. F. Jackson were charter members of the Lynchburg Improvement Association.
CENTRAL PANEL
The institution of the Black Church was a prime mover in the community struggle for justice and equality. Court Street and Diamond Hill Baptist Churches are representative of churches in Lynchburg from which issued forth the inspired leadership and committed foot soldiers of the Movement.
Shown on the first two rows are some of the major leaders of the Movement at that time. O. C. Cardwell, Sr., M. W. Thornhill, Jr., Rev. James I. Brooks, Hazelle Boulware, Charles M. L. Mangum, Junius A. Haskins, Jr., L. Garnell Stamps, and Rev. Haywood Robinson, Jr. They and others had the courage to step forward and take the risks necessary to forge change during that volatile period.
Hayes Hall of the Virginia Seminary and College forms a background for college presidents and faculty. Students participated in sit-ins and other demonstrations to open up public facilities.
Monument Terrace, leading down from the old Court House (with its segregated seating areas) and the Confederate sldier monument was the final gathering point of many protest marches.
During the late 1950s boycotts were conducted against businesses on Main Street to protest their racially exclusionary practices. In the right background are the stools of Patterson’s Drug Store where in 1960 and 1961 Virginia Seminary students tried to receive service and were refused.
RIGHT HAND PANEL
Not all progress was made through direct confrontation. This panel shows educators such as Dr. C. W. Seay, (principal of Dunbar High School), Pauline Weeden Maloney, and Carl Hutcherson, Sr. (the first black member of the Lynchburg School Board). There were doctors. lawyers and businessmen and women who also made contributions. The poet Anne Spencer is shown, in the upper left, beside her garden cottage, Edankraal.
In the background are the Jones Memorial Library, (for whites only) and the Lynchburg General Hospital where the local African American physicians were not allowed to practice. Dr. R. Walter Johnson is shown with two of his tennis protégés, Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson whom he trained on his private tennis court in Lynchburg. Public tennis courts and country clubs were closed to them because of their race.
Until the late 1960s
the City of Lynchburg operated separate recreational facilities for the two races. On the 4th of July 1961 Olivet Lee Thaxton challenged that rule by peacefully leading several youngsters to the Miller Park (whites only) pool to swim. In response, the pool was immediately closed by the authorities and subsequently all three public swimming pools were permanently filled in with earth.
Voter registration was a key to increasing political power. Delores Fowler, Anne Wesley, Clarice Banks and Yvonne Ferguson worked valiantly in that area.
Artist: Ann van de Graaf ; Medium: oil on canvas
Watch the video on Youtube: follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kLnMdDjKaU
The three panel triptych is painted in a symbolist style, conceived as a visual expression of a spiritually inspired thought. It is a unique, historic, well researched portrayal of the significant people, events and landmarks that generated the actions leading to greater racial equity in Lynchburg during the 1960s and '70s.
In a colorful, dynamic way the painting conveys the courage, determination and dedicated optimism of African Americans of the period who rallied to the nonviolent movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and took to the streets to dramatize their cause.
The artist was a close observer and participant in the events leading up to social change at that time. She personally knew most of the individuals portrayed in the work.
Seventy five of the figures are memory portraits of key individuals, others represent significant groups such as church choirs, welfare mothers and youth participants who were such an integral part of the struggle. Many who are not shown in the work also played significant roles and are represented by the more abstract figures.
Landmarks at the top of the painting were rallying points for change in the status quo. Many of the structures including Dunbar High School, Hayes Hall of the Virginia Seminary, the Marce T. Jones School, Patterson's Drug Store and the Lynchburg Community Action Building are no longer standing.
The three panels together form a whole, though each panel portrays a certain aspect of the Movement and can stand alone. The left hand panel's focus is on the young people and Labor's struggle; the central panel portrays the main leaders, backed up by a host of folk streaming from churches and homes; and in the right hand panel are the school officials, doctors and voter registration leaders. Through the use of color and design the work portrays the interweaving spirit that unites all in a common goal., -- Freedom.
Key to the People and Places Depicted on the Painting
1 O. C. Cardwell, Sr.
2 M. W. Thornhill, Jr.
3 James I. Brooks
4 Hazelle Boulware
5 Charles M. L. Mangum
6 Junius Allen Haskins, Jr.
7 L. Garnell Stamps
8 Haywood Robinson, Jr.
9 Essie Everette Gordon
10 Georgia Woodruff Barksdale
11 Evelyn Chambers
12 Robert Winfrey
13 Jeanette Franklin
14 Danny McCain
15 Bertha Dickerson
16 Margaret Patterson
17 Mary Payne
18 Shirley Gray
19 Donald Winston Johnson
20 Artis Appling
21 Charles Green
22 Ralph Reavis
23 W. W. Roberts
24 Madeline Thompson
25 Lanksford Hankins, Sr.
51 Evelyn Coles
52 Mildred Shelton
53 Robert "Mad Lad" Goins
54 C. W. Seay
55 Pauline Weeden Maloney
56 Yvonne Thornhill Ferguson
57 Clarice Wilson Banks
58 Delores Colmore Fowler
59 Anne R. Wesley
60 Susie Keats Collins
61 William Gordon
62 Carl B. Hutcherson, Sr.
63 Aurelia Langhorne
64 Virginia W. Hughes
65 Jim Young
66 Thomas R. Mack
67 E. Eldorado Johnson
68 Robert C. Wesley, Sr.
69 Olivet Lee Thaxton
70 Lycurcus Carey
71 Clarissa Wimbush
72 Anne Spencer
73 R. Walter Johnson
74 Althea Gibson
75 Arthur Ashe, Jr.
26 Samuel Trimiar
27 Hiawatha Johnson, Sr.
28 David Cox
29 Virgil A. Wood
30 Theodore Burton
31 George Frank Jackson, Sr.
32 Cecelia Jackson
33 Owen Cardwell, Jr.
34 Linda Woodruff
35 Brenda Hughes Andrews
36 Fletcher Hubbard, Sr.
37 Kenneth Oglesby
38 Walter M. Fore, Jr.
39 William Walthall, Jr.
40 Robert "Bip" Daniels
41 Glen Webster
42 Bates Houston Ford
43 John Miller, Jr.
44 Christopher Sharp
45 Leroy Roberts
46 Frank Poindexter Lewis
47 Harry Ferguson
48 M. C. Allen
49 Mildred Saunders Dyson
50 M. C. Southerland
LANDMARKS
A 12th & 5th Streets
B Bible Way Church of God
C Barbershop
D Sportsman's Club
E Hunton YMCA
F Robert Ladd Goins' home
G LynCAG Office
H Marce T. Jones School
I Hayes Hall, Virginia Seminary
and College
J Monument Terrace & Court
House
K Court Street Baptist Church
L Diamond Hill Baptist Church
M Patterson's Drug Store
N Edankraal,1313 Pierce Street
O Dunbar High School
P Jones Memorial Library
Q Lynchburg General Hospital