Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals. - Review - book review

Black Issues Book Review, May, 2001 by Regina L. Woods

Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride' African American Murals James Prigoff, Robin Dunitz, Floyd Coleman, Michael Harris, Edmund Barry Gaithers Pomegranate Communications Inc., October 2000, $60.00, ISBN 07649-1339-5

Grab your keys, a map of U.S. cities and pack your children or your sister's children into the minivan. Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals invites you on an exciting and educational road trip through the alleys and avenues of our various communities to discover the vibrant, larger-than-life presence of African American murals.

James Prigoff and Robin Dunitz are mural enthusiasts who have been helping to preserve and catalogue American murals for years. In Walls of Heritage they've done a splendid job of mapping out African American murals across the United States. Along with an invaluable time-line which starts in 1850, this treasure-map-of-a-book includes insightful essays that provide a historical and social context for these murals. Edmund Barry Gaithers' forward is an essential overview of African American mural making trends from the 19th century to the present. The essays discuss in greater detail specific murals and trends. Coleman focuses on murals from the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance such as Aaron Douglas' 1934 cycle of paintings titled Aspects of Negro Life at Harlem's Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. Opening his essay with a discussion of the famous (although no longer existing) Chicago Wall of Respect (1967), Harris guides us through the charged, in-your-face visual statements in murals from the late 1960s to those of the present day.

The numerous full-color images of these great painted walls, accompanied by artists' commentary are exhilarating. In Walls of Heritage, we enter the quiet of the Savory Library at Talladega College in Alabama to view Hale Woodruff's magnificent Amistad Mural: Mutinity Aboard the Amistad (1939) and drive down Olson Memorial Highway in North Minneapolis to experience John Diggers' Celebration of Life (1996). Wherever it is--Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, NYC, Houston or Hampton--you will love where this book takes you.