ABSTRACT
During the colonial period and in the early years of the republic, Philadelphia was also the site of significant activity by African Americans in the arts. After the Civil War and the passage of the so-called Reconstruction Amendments, African Americans were still excluded from most civic institutions in Philadelphia. Overt acts of racial terrorism have diminished in frequency in Philadelphia. Allan Freelon’s artistic practice placed him in the vanguard of the “Negro Renaissance”. He had his first New York exhibition in 1921, showing at the 135th Street Branch of The New York Public Library. A generation of African American artists followed Henry Ossawa Tanner at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), including May Howard Jackson, Julian Abele, Meta Warrick Fuller, Henry Bozeman Jones, and Laura Wheeler Waring. Louis B. Sloan had been a student at the Graphic Sketch Club and Benjamin Franklin High School. In 1952 he matriculated at PAFA, supported by a City Council scholarship.
