Annotated Bibliography
AfriCOBRA: Art for the People. Interviews of AfriCOBRA Founders, 2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed August 1, 2022. https://www.aaa.si.edu/ collections/interviews-africobra-founders-15925.
The Smithsonian Institution stores digital copies and transcripts of the 2010 individual and group interviews of the AfriCOBRA artists recorded for the 2011 documentary.
Billante, Jill, and Chuck Hadad. “Study: White and Black Children Biased toward Lighter Skin.”
CNN. Cable News Network, May 14, 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/13/
doll.study/index.html.
In 2010, following the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, CNN conducted a
modified version of the Clarks’ famous “Doll Study” of the 1940s. The researchers were
startled to find pro-white bias in both White and Black children.
Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.
Chang provides an extremely thorough political and cultural history of the emergence of
Hip Hop from the ruins of the South Bronx during the 1970s and 1980s.
Cole, Teju. “Shadow Cabinet: On Kerry James Marshall.” In Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time, 124-137. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.
Cole riffs on Marshall’s artistic themes (particularly darkness and shadow), providing a wealth of references to works by Marshall and other Black artists as well as diverse references to literature, history, film, and more.
Delcan, Juan, dir. AfriCOBRA: Art for the People (Excerpt). Paramount Global—TV Land, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1suQqWYYJBg.
This twelve-minute, twenty-one-second excerpt of the 2011 documentary, AfriCOBRA: Art for the People, is available on YouTube.
Donaldson, Jeff. “AfriCOBRA Manifesto: Ten in Search of a Nation.” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 2012, no. 30 (spring 2012): 76-83.
https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-1496489.
Donaldson’s upbeat and playful manifesto articulates the AfriCOBRA group’s aesthetic and ethos. It was first published in Black World in October 1970.
Donaldson, Jeff. “The Rise, Fall and Legacy of the Wall of Respect Movement.”
International Review of African American Art 15, no. 1 (1998): 22-26.
Donaldson describes the wall’s origin as a project of the Visual Arts Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC); the Workshop included artists with incompatible viewpoints and did not continue after the wall’s completion. Gang members took control of the wall, charging people to view it and murdering one of the community leaders who had contributed to its construction. The wall was destroyed by fire in 1971, but it had already revived the painting of public murals in the US.
Ellison, Ralph. “Prologue.” Invisible Man, 3-14. Random House, 1952.
The famous “Prologue” of Ellison’s novel introduces its narrator, a man who is invisible due to the racist inability of others to see him.
Gaiter, Colette. “The Art of Liberation: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Artists in 1968.”
The South Atlantic Quarterly 119, no. 3 (July 2020): 567-86.
Gaiter examines the overlooked success of Emory Douglas and his team of Black Panther
illustrators in providing Black communities with a visual manual for acts of resistance and alternatives to assimilation.
Godfrey, Mark. “Introduction.” In The Soul of a Nation Reader: Writings by and about Black
American Artists, 1960-1980, edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, 16–39. New York: Gregory R. Miller, 2021.
Godfrey describes the guidelines that determined which texts were included in the collection, provides an account of the extensive research process, and concludes with a narrative of the aesthetic debates about Black art that occurred between 1960 and 1980.
Hansberry, Lorraine. “The Negro Writer and His Roots: Toward a New Romanticism.” The
Black Scholar 12, no. 2 (1981): 2-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.1981.11414169.
The text of dramatist Lorraine Hansberry’s address to a group of Black writers on March 1, 1959 at a conference organized by the American Society of African Culture.
Hayes, Jeffreen M., curator and contributor. AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People. New York:
North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and Gregory R. Miller, 2020.
The exhibition catalogue for the fiftieth-anniversary exhibition of the AfriCOBRA group’s work, AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People, that opened in 2018.
hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
Hooks describes the relationship between the perpetuation of white supremacist power
and the construction of blackness as inferior.
“Kehinde Wiley Studio—Works: Rumors of War.” Kehinde Wiley Studio. Accessed August 10, 2022. https://kehindewiley.com/works/rumors-of-war/.
Notes from Kehinde Wiley’s website that accompany images of the paintings from his
2005 series of equestrian portraits, Rumors of War.
Lewis, Sarah Elizabeth. “The Cut: The Conceptual Work of Hank Willis Thomas.” In Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal, edited by Lesley A. Martin, 26-33. New York: Aperture, 2018.
The exhibition catalogue for the first retrospective exhibition of Hank Willis Thomas’s career, All Things Being Equal, that opened in 2019.
McGlone, Peggy. “‘Pretty Sharp,’ Says Obama of His Presidential Portrait: Hundreds Join Former First Couple at Portraits’ Unveiling.” WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post, February 12, 2018.
An account of the unveiling of the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama, the first of a president and first lady to be painted by Black artists.
Molesworth, Helen, ed. Kerry James Marshall: Mastry. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 2016.
The exhibition catalogue for a major retrospective exhibition, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, that opened in 2016.
Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” In The Soul of a Nation Reader: Writings by and
about Black American Artists, 1960-1980, edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, 85-87. New York: Gregory R. Miller, 2021.
Neal describes the Black Arts Movement in terms of Black cultural nationalism and surveys the movement’s contemporary literary texts.
“Notes on Willem van Heythuysen.” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 21, 2019.
https://vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-227285744/#:~:text=Kehinde%20Wiley.
Background information about the painting provided by the museum.
P. A. “Modern Culture and Our Destiny.” Presence Africaine: Cultural Journal of the Negro
World 1, no. 8-10 (June-November 1956): 3–6.
A journal article stemming from the first international conference of Black writers and
artists held in Paris in September 1956; the group sought a socially conscious and
inclusive world culture.
Pollard, Sam. Black Art: In the Absence of Light. HBO, 2021.
A documentary on Black art in America that begins with David Driskell’s 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950,” and continues through
accounts of the careers of several contemporary Black artists.
Ringgold, Faith. “Untitled Interview (September 10, 1984).” In The Soul of a Nation Reader:
Writings by and about Black American Artists, 1960-1980, edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, 609-12. New York: Gregory R. Miller, 2021.
An informative interview that addresses Ringgold’s influences, artistic development, political activism, and feminism.
Scholes, Robert. “On Reading a Video Text.” Protocols of Reading (New Haven: Yale UP, 1989).
Scholes models the critical analysis of a television advertisement, revealing the damaging
ideologies these texts can communicate.
Severo, Richard. “Kenneth Clark, Who Fought Segregation, Dies.” New York Times, May 2,
2005, national edition, sec. A.
Dr. Kenneth Clark’s obituary surveys his many impressive accomplishments in the fields
of psychology and education and describes his work to integrate American schools and improve the quality of public education.
Stetson, Melanie. “What If Curators Were Teens? Museums Try It.” Christian Science Monitor,
April 15, 2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2020/0415/What-if-curators-were-teens-Museums-try-it.
The article describes programs at several, major US museums that enable urban teenagers to guest curate exhibits, increasing the relevance of the museum space to teens and educating teens about potential museum careers.
Studio Museum. “AfriCOBRA: Art for the People: TV Land Special.” Review of AfriCOBRA:
Art for the People. Studio Museum in Harlem. https://studiomuseum.org/article/africobra-
art-people-tv-land-special-sunday-february-27th-8-pm-etpt.
The Studio Museum of Harlem’s positive review of the AfriCOBRA documentary, AfriCOBRA: Art for the People, posted on its website.
Sturdivant, Toni D. “Racial Awareness and the Politics in Play: Preschoolers and Racially
Diverse Dolls in a US Classroom.” International Journal of Early Childhood 53, no. 2 (June 2021): 139-157.
A study of racial awareness in pre-school children and an analysis of the racialized and gendered play of Black girls.
Sturdivant, Toni D. “What I Learned When I Recreated the Famous ‘Doll Test’ that Looked at
How Black Kids See Race.” The Conversation. Conversation Media Group, February 22, 2021. https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-when-i-recreated-the-famous-doll-test-that-looked-at-how-black-kids-see-race-153780.
A presentation of Sturdivant’s research to a mainstream, news audience. Sturdivant urges parents and community members to provide Black children with positive messages about racial difference in diverse contexts.
Sturdivant, Toni D., and Iliana Alanis. “‘I’m Gonna Cook My Baby in a Pot’: Young Black
Girls’ Racial Preferences and Play Behavior.” Early Childhood Education 49 (2021): 473-82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01095-9.
Sturdivant and Alanis observe pro-White bias in the play of Black, pre-school girls and argue that “anti-bias adult intervention” during early-childhood education is essential to the disruption of racism (internalized or interpersonal) that small children both perceive and communicate.
Thomas, Hank Willis. “Artist Statement.” Callaloo 37, no. 4 (2014): 957-960.
doi:10.1353/cal.2014.0141.
A collection of several statements by Hank Willis Thomas about his artwork from various sources.
Ugwu, Reggie. “That’s No Robert E. Lee.” New York Times, September 30, 2019, C1(L). Gale
Academic OneFile (accessed August 10, 2022). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ A601197706/AONE?u=29002&sid=summon&xid=80d6bc8a.
An account of the circumstances behind Kehinde Wiley’s first public artwork, the sculpture, Rumors of War (2019).
Zorach, Rebecca. “Introduction: The Black Arts Movement in Chicago.” In Art for People’s
Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965-1975, 1–29. Duke University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn14j.5.
An essay on Chicago’s Black Arts Movement that opens with a detailed account of the production of the Wall of Respect (1967), including the analysis of several photographs that document the activities of community member
1 Studio Museum, “AfriCOBRA: Art for the People: TV Land Special,” Review of AfriCOBRA: Art for the People (Studio Museum in Harlem. https://studiomuseum.org/article/africobra-art-people-tv-land-special-sunday-february-27th-8-pm-etpt).
2 AfriCOBRA: Art for the People, Group Interview with AfriCOBRA Founders, 2010 (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/items/detail/group-interview-africobra-founders-22051#transcript).
3 Studio Museum, “AfriCOBRA: Art for the People: TV Land Special.”
4 Reggie Ugwu, “That’s No Robert E. Lee” (New York Times, September 30, 2019, C1[L], Gale Academic OneFile [accessed August 10, 2022], https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A601197706/ AONE?u=29002&sid=summon&xid=80d6bc8a).
5 IBID.
6 “Kehinde Wiley Studio—Works: Rumors of War,” Kehinde Wiley Studio, Accessed August 10, 2022, https://kehindewiley.com/works/rumors-of-war/.
7 “Notes on Willem van Heythuysen,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (June 21, 2019. https://vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-227285744/#:~:text=Kehinde%20Wiley).
8 Peggy McGlone, “‘Pretty Sharp,’ Says Obama of His Presidential Portrait: Hundreds Join Former First Couple at Portraits’ Unveiling” (WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post, February 12, 2018).
9 Jeff Donaldson, “AfriCOBRA Manifesto: Ten in Search of a Nation” (Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 2012, no. 30 [spring 2012]: 76-83), 80.
10 IBID, 80.
11 Jeff Chang, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 65.
12 Jeffreen M. Hayes, curator and contributor, AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People (New York: North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and Gregory R. Miller, 2020), 48.
13 Mark Godfrey, “Introduction,” The Soul of a Nation Reader: Writings by and about Black
American Artists, 1960-1980 (edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, 16–39. New York: Gregory R. Miller, 2021), 33.
14 Rebecca Zorach, “Introduction: The Black Arts Movement in Chicago,” Art for People’s Sake: Artists and Community in Black Chicago, 1965-1975 (Duke University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn14j.5), 1.
15 Donaldson, “AfriCOBRA Manifesto,” 81.
16 AfriCOBRA: Art for the People, Interviews of AfriCOBRA Founders.
17 Ralph Ellison, “Prologue,” Invisible Man, 3-14 (Random House, 1952), 3.
18 Helen Molesworth, ed., Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 2016), 19-20.
19 IBID, 20.
20 Sam Pollard, Black Art: In the Absence of Light (HBO, 2021).
21 IBID.
22 Molesworth, ed., Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, 25.
23 IBID, 25.
24 Pollard, Black Art: In the Absence of Light.
25 Teju Cole, “Shadow Cabinet: On Kerry James Marshall,” In Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time, 124-137 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022), 129.
26 IBID, 121.
27 Faith Ringgold, “Untitled Interview (September 10, 1984),” In The Soul of a Nation Reader: Writings by and about Black American Artists, 1960-1980 (edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, 609-12, New York: Gregory R. Miller, 2021), 609.
28 IBID, 609.
29 IBID, 612.
30 Hank Willis Thomas, “Artist Statement” (Callaloo 37, no. 4 [2014]: 957-960. doi:10.1353/cal.2014.0141), 957.
31 IBID.
32 IBID.
33 Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, “The Cut: The Conceptual Work of Hank Willis Thomas,” In Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal (edited by Lesley A. Martin, 26-33, New York: Aperture, 2018), 27.
34 Melanie Stetson, “What If Curators Were Teens? Museums Try It” (Christian Science Monitor, April 15, 2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2020/0415/What-if-curators-were-teens-Museums-try-it).
35 Scholes, “On Reading a Video Text.”
36 IBID.
37 IBID.
38 bel hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992), 2.
39 IBID, 20.
40 IBID, 10.
41 IBID, 18.
42 Jill Billante and Chuck Hadad, “Study: White and Black Children Biased toward Lighter Skin” (CNN. Cable News Network, May 14, 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/13/ doll.study/index.html).
43 Toni D. Sturdivant and Iliana Alanis, “‘I’m Gonna Cook My Baby in a Pot’: Young Black Girls’ Racial Preferences and Play Behavior” (Early Childhood Education 49 [2021]: 473–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01095-9). Online publication occurred in 2020.
44 Sturdivant and Alanis, “‘I’m Gonna Cook My Baby in a Pot,’” 480.
45 Sturdivant and Alanis, “‘I’m Gonna Cook My Baby in a Pot,’” 474-75.
46 Toni D. Sturdivant, “What I Learned When I Recreated the Famous ‘Doll Test’ that Looked at How Black Kids See Race” (The Conversation. Conversation Media Group, February 22, 2021. https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-when-i-recreated-the-famous-doll-test-that-looked-at-how-black-kids-see-race-153780).
47 Toni D. Sturdivant, “Racial Awareness and the Politics in Play: Preschoolers and Racially
Diverse Dolls in a US Classroom” (International Journal of Early Childhood 53, no. 2 [June 2021]: 139-157), 154-55.
48 Obituary of Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, New York Times, May 2, 2005, national edition.
49 Lorraine Hansberry, “The Negro Writer and His Roots: Toward a New Romanticism” (The
Black Scholar 12, no. 2 [1981]: 2-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.1981.11414169), 6.
50 IBID, 8.
51 IBID, 3.
52 P. A., “Modern Culture and Our Destiny” (Presence Africaine: Cultural Journal of the Negro World 1, no. 8-10 [June-November 1956]: 3–6).
53 IBID, 4.
54 IBIS, 5.
55 Larry Neal, “The Black Arts Movement” (In The Soul of a Nation Reader: Writings by and
about Black American Artists, 1960-1980, edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, 85-87, New York: Gregory R. Miller, 2021), 85.
56 IBID.
57 Godfrey, “Introduction,” 28.
58 IBID.
59 IBID, 30.
60 Donaldson, “AfriCOBRA Manifesto,” 80.
61 AfriCOBRA: Art for the People, Interviews of AfriCOBRA Founders.
62 Godfrey, “Introduction,” 27-28.
63 Neal, “The Black Arts Movement,” 86.
64 IBID, 87.
65 Godfrey, “Introduction,” 29.
66 IBID.
67 IBID, 30.
68 IBID.
69 IBID, 31.
70 Colette Gaiter, “The Art of Liberation: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Artists in 1968” (The South Atlantic Quarterly 119, no. 3 [July 2020]: 567-86), 568-69.
71 IBID, 572.
72 Godfrey, “Introduction,” 32.
73 IBID, 32-33.
74 IBID, 35-37.
75 Juan Delcan, dir., AfriCOBRA: Art for the People (Excerpt) (Paramount Global—TV Land, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1suQqWYYJBg).
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