Your life is a book: the artistic legacy of Elijah Pierce - African American folk artist

American Visions, Feb-March, 1993 by John F. Moe

Folk artist Elijah Pierce understood his mission in life: God had given him a talent to carve the messages of the Bible, and it was his responsibility to carry out this mission. Many times he said, in rhythmic tones and with complete conviction, God speaks to me. I know his voice. Elijah, your life is a book, and every day you write a page, and when you are done you won't be able to deny it because you wrote it yourself.'"

Pierce carved with the conviction of someone who understood his mission. A particularly personal work, "Obey God and Live," tells the story of Pierce's conversion to faith in God and Jesus Christ. The carving depicts the time when the artist was a young man, perhaps in his early 20s. His mother had instructed him to read the Bible, but the young Pierce was tempted instead to look at a new Sears, Roebuck catalog that had arrived in the mail. In the images on the right of the carving, Pierce is being punished by God for running away from His teachings. He remembered that God touched him on his head, and something happened that made him appear to be dead. When he confessed his faith in Christ, he was restored to good health.

During his lifetime, Pierce played a central role in his community; he was an articulate and thoughtful interpreter of his surroundings, and his art reflected and told the story of his times. As an artist, a barber, and a lay minister, he lived at the very heart of black community life. He was surrounded by signs and symbols that spoke not only of the hereafter but also of life as an African American in an inhospitable Country. He was constantly dealing with apprehensions about the hereafter and religious salvation and with the anxieties of living in a society in which people like himself were not always welcome. Pierce's oeuvre is replete with works that negotiate these two worlds, the world of the now and the world of the hereafter.

When he died in 1984 at age 92, Pierce had carved his impressions of the major events of African-American history as well as - and distinct from -American history. He carved images of slavery, work gangs in the South, U.S. presidents, black community leaders, and important events, such as ale integration of the U.S. armed forces. He also carved the personal stories of his youth in the South and his adulthood in Ohio. He carved important universal messages for the community that concerned sacred and secular themes, such as the importance of neighborliness in community behavior.

Pierce's story began in Mississippi, where he was born on March 5, 1892. He grew up not far from Tupelo, on a cotton plantation outside of Baldwyn, in a part of Mississippi that was known for its logging industry. Early on, Pierce was surrounded by woods and acquainted with the business of timber cutting, and he became well accustomed to both.

He often carved images from his boyhood depicting scenes of his family, especially his mother. He tended not to sell family pieces, because when he did, he generally regretted the sale. Once he sold a carving in which the subject was his mother, and he tried to buy it back. He was genuinely surprised and disturbed that the purchaser would not sell it back to him. It was, after all, his own depiction of his own mother.

The painted wood relief "The Place of My Birth," which depicts Pierce's home in Baldwyn, is perhaps the most significant of the family pieces and is certainly one of the most striking. It shows a typical plantation house of the area, a dogtrot or turkey-trot house. There are nine people in the carving, of which probably seven or eight are Pierce's brothers and sisters.

Pierce recognized early that he wanted independence and a trade that would allow him to work anywhere. "I needed a trade where I could be independent," he said. "I didn't need to work for nobody. And I liked barbering. I knew a barber in town, and I was just fascinated by. cutting hair. That man would allow me to learn barbering from him, and so I did."

He decided that barbering would be the most practical profession for an aspiring young black man in the early part of the century. It was also an important occupation in the African-American community, because whites would not barber for blacks.

After the death of his first wife, Zetta, Pierce decided to follow the migration of thousands north to the cities. He traveled first to Illinois. "I never had any problem getting a job |cause every town needed a barber. So I worked wherever I stopped," he recalled. It was in Illinois that he met his second wife, Cornelia Houeston. She was from Columbus, Ohio, and he followed her there; they were married September 8, 1923.

Pierce established his barbershop on Long Street, one of Columbus' major thoroughfares from the 1920s to the 60s and one of the black community's business, social and religious hubs. He thrived in this environment. Before urban renewal eliminated much of the walk-in barber trade, his barbershop was one of the places for people to stop by and catch up on the news of the neighborhood.