Black First of the Day

1937

William Edmondson (1874-1951)

William Edmondson (1874-1951) was the first black artist to be featured in a solo exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art from October 20 to December 12, 1937. Edmondson, an untrained sculptor, grew up on the Compton plantation near Nashville, Tennessee, and later moved to that city. To help sustain himself and his family during the Depression, he began to fashion cheap tombstones, religious folk items and other works to sell to black customers. In 1935 white artists from nearby Peabody College discovered Edmondson and helped to promote him and his work. In recent years his works have been promoted in exhibitions at the Tennessee State Museum and at the Cheekwood Museum in Nashville. A small park on Charlotte Avenue in Nashville and a plaque on his home site now commemorate Edmondson.

Sources: Smith, Notable Black American Men, pp. 359-61; Fuller, Visions in Stone: The Sculpture of William Edmondson; Jones, Ever Day in Tennessee History, p. 28; Lovett, The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930, pp. 103-04.

From Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Events by Jessie Carney Smith, © 2013 Visible Ink Press®. A celebration of achievement, accomplishments and pride.