A Study of Artist Aaron Douglas: Painting the Human Figure in the Tradition of Resistance
Lesson by Patty Bode and Stephanie Schmidt
The artwork and leadership of Aaron Douglas foreshadowed the Civil Rights era by setting the visual tone of the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s and 1930s. In this lesson, students will learn about Aaron Douglas and draw silhouettes of marchers, cut out the figures, and paint in Aaron Douglas’s style.
Remembering the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike: A Collaborative Mural
Lesson by Patty Bode and Stephanie Schmidt
An art lesson designed to introduce the complexity and role of ordinary people in the Civil Rights Movement. The addendum provides a practical guide to drawing images of people for murals.
Murals: Redefining Culture, Reclaiming Identity
Reading by Eva Sperling Cockcroft and Holly Barnet-Sanchez
A powerful essay on the connections among art, identity, and activism excerpted from the introduction to Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals.