K. Nepomniashchii, “Charles White Tells …,” translated from Russian by David Mossop, originally published as “Charl’z Uait rasskazyvaet …,” in Ogonek, 6 (1952): 24–25

In the autumn of 1951, the African American artist Charles White led a delegation of US teenagers on a tour of the USSR as guests of the Soviet Anti-Fascist Youth Committee. The following February, an interview with White, accompanied by a reproduction of his painting labelled Negro Girl Thinking of Her Future, was printed in the illustrated weekly magazine Ogonek (Little Flame), which was founded in 1899 and still exists today. Topics addressed include White’s impoverished childhood in Chicago, his interest in African American history, and the precarious position of Black people in the United States. White’s account and his accompanying portraits of African Americans introduced Soviet readers to the work of Black US artists, while also validating the view promoted in the Soviet press that US claims to moral authority were undermined by its institutional racism.