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Florida is celebrating a milestone this year, the 500th anniversary of Juan Ponce De León's landing on the east coast. This was the first group of Europeans to document their landing and give a name to Florida -- La Florida. Viva Florida 500 features stories and upcoming events planned throughout the year.
I had planned on writing some pieces in honor of Florida's Quincentenary this year and since February is Black History Month I have found the perfect opportunity to combine both and write about something I stumbled upon last fall - The Florida Highwaymen.
In Florida, during the 1950s when the cruel Jim Crow laws prevented many African-Americans from achieving their dreams, two artistically talented black men - Harold Newton and Alfred Hair - briefly studied under A. E. "Bean" Backus, a white landscape artist. The men knew that as black artists their work would not be allowed inside art galleries so both men hungrily learned all they could as quickly as possible as they were anxious to get to work trying to realize their dreams. Hair, a generous and charismatic man soon taught other black artists his newly developed fast painting technique and before long their numbers were 25 men and one woman.
The group -- a group which was unnamed until 1995 when Jim Fitch a museum curator dubbed them "The Highwaymen" -- working from the Fort Pierce area, would paint fast and furiously in someone's studio or backyard on the less expensive gypsum board instead of canvas. Once the assembly-line had cranked out a number of Florida palm trees, beaches, poinciana trees and sleepy inlets, they would take to the road to sell their wares. They would go door-to-door in residential areas and to businesses as well as along Florida's famed Route US 1 or A1A. As racial tensions and riots sadly became common across the nation during the 60s, Hair and his associates were flourishing. Despite having earned the money for a better standard of living, they were still forced to live in the "black" area of town, but mostly times were good for the artists.
In 1970 the group suffered a huge blow when their founder and organizer, Alfred Hair who at 29 years old was shot and killed during a barroom brawl. On the verge of disbanding, Al Black who had joined the group when he offered them his services as a salesman, took up the torch and attempted to keep the group going. Most of the original members left after Hair's death, but some stayed and they continued to sell their paintings up until the early 80s. Sadly, drug addition led to a 12 year prison sentence for Al Black, but once the warden discovered his talent as a Highwayman, Al was given unprecedented permission to paint murals throughout the facility and he became known as Florida's Prison Painter. Black was released after serving his term and is still actively painting. His murals continue to grace the prison walls to this day.
The first trickle of real notoriety for this group of talented and ingenious entrepreneurs came when their works began to resurface in garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets throughout the state. This is when Jim Fitch, an acquisition agent for the Florida Masters Collection and founder of the Museum of Florida Art and Culture discovered their work and named them "The Highwaymen". In 2001, acclaimed author Gary Monroe published his first of three books featuring the Highwaymen with a fourth devoted to the single woman, Mary Ann Carroll in the works. In 2002, father and son Jack and John Hambrick's documentary film, The Highwaymen: Florida's Outsider Artists was released. The group's most celebrated moment came in 2004 when they were inducted into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame.
For Mary Ann Carroll, the sole woman of the group, an unexpected honor came to her in the form of a man and two women knocking on her front door in 2011. They were there to deliver a personal invitation from Michelle Obama asking Carroll to attend the First Lady's Luncheon at the Congressional Club in Washington, D.C. Ms Carroll and her daughter attended the luncheon and Ms Carroll presented the First Lady with a painting depicting a royal poinciana tree on the riverfront in Fort Pierce.
Over the years it is supposed the Highwaymen created 150,000 to 200,000 painting which they sold for $25 to $35 framed. Today those same paintings sell for thousands of dollars apiece.
There are a good deal of private collectors today and Michelle Obama, Steven Spielberg and Jeb Bush all own a painting.
Eighteen of the 26 highwaymen survive today.
Further reading and resources:
Mount Dora Highwaymen Art Festival
The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters by Gary Monroe
Harold Newton: The Original Highwayman by Gary Monroe
The Highwaymen Murals: Al Black's Concrete Dreams by Gary Monroe
The Highwaymen: Florida's Outsider Artists - A Documentary by Jack & John Hambrick
Florida Highwaymen: Local Art Makes Art History
Florida Highwaymen Art - News, Information and Paintings
Florida Highwaymen
The Highwaymen: NPR
The Landscape Art Legacy of Florida's Highwaymen: NPR
Highwaymen painter from Fort Pierce presents painting to Michelle Obama