Architect of An Art Movement: Alfred Hair of the Civil Rights Era Florida Highwaymen
Without his vision, creativity and his dream there would never have become an African American group of artists from the 50s who eventually became an art movement. Alfred Hair is credited with being the spark that made it all happen. He was one of those creative, forward thinking individuals that had an idea and persevered with his dream. He had no idea his ambition would be important to anyone but himself. He chose to break societal norms in the Jim Crow south by creating Florida Landscape paintings, so as to free himself from a life of menial labor. Triggering a chain of events that would make him one of the most important artists of his era.
As in any success story a lot had to do with timing and luck. He simply had an idea and he had a dream and no one was going to stop him on his road to success. Here's how he did it and how it all happened. It's an almost impossible story of rockets into space, palm tees swaying in the wind, sunsets burning up the sky and paint brushes flying in the night. The colorful saga of Alfred Hair and the birth of an art movement, the Florida Highwaymen.
????????Eddie's Place Painting by Highwaymen Artist Harold Newton, where Hair was shot.???
It was like Alfred Hair was some kind of comet streaking through the night sky. Fast, brilliant, and gone in the blink of an eye. Shot dead in Fort Pierce, Florida's Eddie's Place a juke joint in a tragic lover's triangle. The year was 1970 and Alfred Hair was only 29. His death would not kill his dream, for it had been planted in the hearts of others and they would carry it forward to present day. But in Hair's too short life he had formulated an artistic style, a production process and created a sales and marketing method that would make the Florida Highwaymen stuff of legend. Make no mistake, he was not setting out to do any of this. All he wanted to do was become a millionaire by the time he was 35. No small task for anyone, right? Especially if you were a young Black man in the South in the 50s. The tool for his bold ambition? His art. But what ended up evolving from his dream was a completely unique art movement. Even that concept, of him being involved with or being the creator of an "Art Movement" is broiled in controversy, tainted in some ways by similar prejudices that Alfred would challenge in real life. But challenge them he would, and attracted by this young man's ambition, a group of other African American artists would gravitate to him. Together they would create the art phenomenon that would become known as the Florida Highwaymen. But first it was just Alfred and his dream.
There was just one real roadblock to any of what Alfred and his fellow artists were contemplating on doing. They would need to test and defy social structure, unwritten laws, overcome generations of hate and the culture conventions of the time. You see Alfred, and his group were Black. Simply because of the color of their skin they would be denied opportunity and the freedom to do as they pleased. The thought of them actually becoming artists would be unheard of and the potential for success in Florida in 50s would be very limited. Undaunted, and unfazed they forged ahead and simply did things their own way. Perhaps in today’s world this would not be the stuff of legend and discussion. But back then in the South, in Florida, they were doing something totally unheard of. There was no template for what they were doing as of all unimaginable things, artists. Those bold brush strokes that they would lay to board and canvas would also be a stroke for Civil Rights and freedoms. The Highwaymen would end up demonstrating their freedom by creating a legacy of dynamic and vividly beautiful landscape paintings that would stand as a statement of their accomplishments, long after Alfred Hair was gone and long after even the scenery that they depicted might have been bulldozed and paved. But in that magic moment in time, he and they were standing up for their rights and freedoms. He and his group were inadvertently becoming part of a bigger picture and a different landscape. They were painting themselves into history as America’s most unique Art Movement, and it was Alfred Hair and his bold and creative ambition that was to make it happen.
Photo: Alfred Hair, Harold Newton, Al Black, James Gibson & Mary Ann Carroll
The Highwaymen saga began to unfold in the mid 50's in Florida, in the deep south. It was a time in sleepy and hot Fort Pierce, Florida and the rest of the South that was hot with hatred and boiling with tension. It was a world that was deeply entangled in prejudice, racism, discrimination, and danger. If you were Black, each day was a struggle and it was a battle just to find what we would consider to be simple human freedoms and equality. The Nation was literally been torn in half down racial lines. Civil Rights protests were constantly in the daily news. Nothing was more fixating in the Nation than this struggle for freedom and equality for all. Attached to this struggle were the horrors of Ku Klux Klan lynchings, racial violence and murders. Florida had in place Jim Crow laws, they mandated the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, as well as the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains between whites and blacks. These laws would continue until 1965 and the passing of the Civil Rights Act. Some would say that even now, some of these struggles still continue. Back then, though, there was a cruel divide and African Americans were treated as second class citizens by the law and by many in a white dominated society. This cruelty was not only physical, but it was also psychological. Oppression has many ways of demoralizing individuals, after generations it becomes incessant and truly evil, it changes visions and destroys dreams and too often it would close the doors to hope and self respect. In Florida life for African Americans was sadly preordained, opportunities were limited and few, hope was but an illusion. For must Blacks there was no alternative but to do menial poor paying labor in fields and factories or as domestic help. Pay was minimal?at best, often casual, and benefits were none. Against this backdrop a young aspiring and talented Alfred Hair and his loosely attached group of artists set out to change that landscape for themselves and on their own terms. They did so by painting scenes of the lush beautiful and primordial tropical scenery that was all around them in the Florida. The Highwaymen would change the landscape of oppression by painting landscapes. Such a sweet, beautiful and romantic irony. Thankfully they also left us behind a gift, an amazing legacy of hundreds of thousands of magnificently created pieces of Floridian landscape art that shall forever cement the Highwaymen and their dreamlike scenes of Florida into history.
??Everglades Florida Highwaymen Painting by Livingston Roberts circa 1965
Alfred Hair was a talented art student while in High School at Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce, Florida where he took lessons from art teacher Zenobia Jefferson. She considered him to be one of her best students. So she decided to take him to meet A.E, “Bean” Backus, also a Fort Pierce resident and considered to be the dean of Florida Landscape artists in that era. Backus was white, but he had no issues in tutoring Hair, who he took a liking to. He encouraged Alfred to paint Florida Landscapes similar to the ones that he was creating. Mind you, Backus was doing commissioned works and making a very good living. Alfred was however a keen observer and a quick study. He emulated Backus’ styles and methods. He sensed an opportunity that he too could make a living by painting. Yes, it was somewhat farfetched, for being an African American, it was something that just wasn't done. It would be doubtful if anyone would want to buy any of his art. But for these two men of different colors painting one landscape none of that mattered, they bonded because of their common interest, art. Hair learned many valuable lessons that would later come in handy. Backus’ art was highly sought after, he was well known and respected. His reputation meant he usually had a backlog of?commissioned works to do. He could set the price and in the 50s there was a steady demand for his works. Alfred wanted to do what Backus was doing, paint for a living. But being young and Black, and an unknown, there would be no market for any works that he might create. African Americans were considered only to be laborers, not artists, Jim Crowe laws were in affect. Society consisted of two tiers, one white, one black and segregation and prejudice abounded. If Alfred was to follow his dream he would be doing so against the cultural and societal accepted norms of the time. Thankfully there was change in the air and it seemed that Hair was in the right place at the right time. The U.S. was about to take off into space, and so too was the opportunity that Alfred Hair needed.
?????????????????????????An Early 50s Rocket Launch At Cape Canaveral
The race into space was all part of the cold war and man's adventure into space was just beginning in the early 50s. It was taking off just up the road from Fort Pierce, the home of the Alfred Hair and the Highwaymen at Cape Canaveral. Under President Eisenhower’s national highway plan new expressways were opening up America and Florida was a big beneficiary of that. Air conditioning had finally being perfected and it was going into many new homes and helping to create a post-World War 11 economic boom, especially in Florida because it made living in sub tropical swelter tolerable. New homes and business were going up all over the state, but especially on the "Space Coast". The post war boom had brought with it a new enthusiasm and a new way of thinking. Combined with the rapid expansion brought on by man’s beginning adventures into space, Florida’s “Space Coast” was a nation’s hot bed for growth and opportunity. It was the “perfect storm” for Alfred Hair’s dream and it would open door the to opportunity. He saw that opening and he was going act. There were fresh naked walls everywhere around him. They needed art, specifically his art and Hair was devising a plan to fill that need and all those walls.?
?????????????????????????Alfred Hair "Rio Mar" Painting Circa 1963
Just as Backus had taught, Hair used upson board for his canvases (upson board was a 4' X 8' wall sheathing used locally in home construction). He cut the large sheets with a box knife into varying sizes. Then he’d frame them by using window casing cut to size. The frames would be painted white and then lightly brushed with gold paint to give the art a “classy” look. All of these materials could be found at construction supply stores and were inexpensive, it helped keep production costs down, all of this was key. Harold Newton (another member of the group who had met Backus the year before and was painting on his own) was already doing something similar and doing his own Florida landscapes. Newton's works were on a skill level close to that of Backus, his works took more time, and consequently his paintings were more expensive than Alfred's. Rumors say that Hair and Newton had disagreements about how to sell and how much to charge for paintings. They were both doing their own "thing" though, they applied the lessons they received from Backus differently and for the legacy of the movement this was important. Indeed their goals were similar but their processes were different. Hair wanted a fast fortune, he devised a plan that was simple and ingenious and easy to implement. After all he was attempting to do something that was unheard of and no one had even tried or contemplated up until now.
??Signed A. Hair Painting Circa 1964, painted perhaps by his friend Livingston Roberts
Hair devised a plan to do a form a kind of production line style of painting. He had devised a way and a style to do fast painting. The intent was to keep costs low and sell at prices that were accessible to young families and businesses. He would begin by tacking multiple boards of upson in a row along trees or fence line. First he'd prep all the boards for paint. Once he started to add color he would move quickly from piece to piece working in unison while he created backgrounds, or panoramic skies, graceful palm trees, he'd fill the bottom of paintings with what he'd call "fast grass" in the foregrounds. By using the same color on multiple boards, he could work on 10 or more paintings at once. He reasoned that since there was no market for him creating paintings that he might have to charge $300 to $500 paintings, like Backus, he would have to sell less expensive works. In order to do this he'd paint quickly and sell his work for cheap. The artistic quality of the art would be less, but the price would be less too. This did not sit well with Backus, but it was Hair's life and he saw it as his only way to success. He reasoned that if he sold 10 to 15 or even more paintings at $15 or even $30 each in the same time that it took Backus to paint just one. By following this method he could earn as much as Backus was making. While Backus took his time, Alfred would not. In essence though what he was doing was creating for a market that had previously not existed. He designed a method to paint, at a price point that had never been contemplated or touched before.. He was providing for a marketplace that would not normally by art, because they simply could not afford it. Alfred was filled with young dreams, aspirations and he was a born entrepreneur, full of charisma he would engineer his own highway to fame and fortune. Ironically it was his plan to sell his art on those very highways to anyone who had a few dollars to buy it, and he would succeed, wisely he had perceived a market and a way to take advantage of it.
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???????????????Alfred Hair Portrait by Artist Peter Shmelzer 2016
Alfred’s fast painting created a very impressionistic style. It was created by the necessity of his end goal, which was to sell art at affordable prices. It entailed fast movements of his brush and palette knife, his strokes was confident and bold and alive. His hand flowed, he moved gracefully, almost like a dancer, music and rhythm were part of the flow and the creativity. Much like his personality, he was dynamic by nature and very charismatic. Indeed he had many friends and he attracted a few ambitious ones that also close wanted to do what he was doing. Making money from art sure beat the heck out of doing hard labor in the fields and other menial work that would have been the lot of he and his young artistic friends. Alfred helped them learn to paint. But they would also help each other, mentoring and encouraging and experimenting. They would get better and better at what they were doing and confidence would improve the works they created.. They were a cottage industry and their leader, their Pied Piper was Alfred.
?????????????Alfred Hair Royal Poinciana Tree Painting 2' X 4' Circa 1963
Lots of energy, speed and stamina were required on a daily basis, there were long hot hours every day to keep up the pace and produce all of this work. Often they painted through the night because it was cooler. He was constantly pushing himself, his ambition to succeed was a constant motivator, he was young and very fit and he intended to stay that way. In school he had been an athlete and he continued to work out to stay in shape, doing push ups and lifting weights. One of his High School buddies and fellow Highwaymen artist, was James Gibson (1938), they were high school friends and were always competitive by nature in a friendly way, now they would compete and challenge, each other with art. They'd try to outdo each other competing with each other as to who could create the most works in a day or in a week. Gibson once claimed that he made 100 paintings over a 2 day period while working with just 2 colors. You can paint lots of paintings, but they still had to be marketed, the Highwaymen had a motto, "a painting was not finished until it was sold!".
James Gibson Monochrome Painting with "Fast Grass" Foreground Circa 1965
Obviously each of of the artists would develop their own style, but it was Hair's?marketing and production process that they all bought into and emulated in one way or another. Understandably the artists that continue to paint today have slowed down and their skill levels have decades of knowledge. No longer do they sell works of their art for a mere $25 to $50, today's prices are in the range $1000 to $2000 a painting. But in the beginning it was all about speed and producing as many marketable paintings as possible. If Hair was to be a millionaire by 35, he would have to sell 20,000 paintings at $50 apiece!
???????Alfred Hair Seascape Painting Circa 1965 Used in Movie "Hoot"?????????????????
"A painting is not finished till it is sold" the Highwaymen motto meant that Hair needed a plan to sell paintings too. Originally the artists would paint for a few days then head out on the road to sell for a few days until the paintings were all sold. Sometimes the art was still wet. The way that the upson board was framed, enabled them to stack 10 or more paintings on top of each other without the paint touching. They'd fill their back seats and trunks with art. Dentist offices, Lawyers offices, Doctor's offices, businesses of all types were common stops in around Fort Pierce. Mary Ann Carroll would sell to a real estate company that gave a painting to each new home purchaser, there were lots of new homes with lots of Mary Ann paintings on the walls. Sometimes they'd have to drive further up or down the coast simply because they'd saturated an area with art. For Hair time was money, he reasoned that he was wasting valuable time selling, when he should really be painting. He hired people to prepare upson boards for painting or to build and paint frames. More importantly he hired a group of salesmen to sell his art on the road. Their incentive was a cut of each sale. Few would doubt that the best salesman was Al Black. He would later become a painter, but in respect to Alfred he would not paint until after Alfred's death. He also helped some of the other artists out and sold for them too. He had a gift of the gab, was a smooth talker and some have said even that he was a bit of a con man. One of the Highwaymen artists, Mary Ann Carroll says of Al Black, "he could snatch your breath away and sell it back to you", she laughs at the what else she says of Al Black, "he could sell a jacket to a mosquito in the summer." Sometimes Al Black would sign his name to paintings that were left unsigned, just so the purchaser might see the work signed right in front of them. Alfred?would leave paintings unsigned and sometimes his friend Livingston Roberts would do a painting and then Alfred would sign it. Hair often used other names he'd chosen to sign his works, not always "A. Hair", sometimes it was "Freddie" his nickname or even "A. Hare", some others were signed "A. Hir". Mary Ann?used Al Black to sell her paintings, she had 7 children to raise on her own, so caring for them and painting was more than a full time job. Although she said recently that she'd sometimes put all of the children in the car and head off on the road to sell. She was strong and tough and a true woman's liber in her own right. She says that she was a bit of a Tom Boy when she was growing and she could "wrastle", even boys, she jokingly warned that if you weren't careful she could, "whip your ass", I believe her!
Super Salesman and artist Al Black shown in Prison Attire the mural on the prison wall behind him was one of many he painted while in jail in Florida.
There was a group of aspiring African American men, and one women that were gathering to work alongside and copy the efforts charismatic Hair and the promise, the potential and the fun of creating and selling art for a living. It was much more appealing than the thought of working long hard days under the relentless Florida sun for just a few dollars a day. This core of young artists mentoring and working together or in close proximity to each other numbered 9 or 10 artist "friends". Harold Newton, predated Alfred Hair and was a few years older, as was Roy McLendon. Harold's younger brothers Samuel (Sam) and Lemuel (Lem) had learned how to paint from Harold. James Gibson and Livingston "Castro" Roberts were friends of Alfred from High School. Mary Ann Carroll had met Harold and was starting to paint as well. Willie Daniels found the group and his younger brother Johnny would join in and was making frames and prepping boards to paint. The Buckner brothers, George and Ellis both joined in as well, they had seen Harold Newton painting and they were motivated to try their luck at using their artistic talents too. The motivation was simple. Creating art was a way out for all of these young African American artists. It was a form of freedom and a chance for self determination and pride. It was an economic escape from racism and inequality and the injustices of that time. Amazingly it not only provided these artists with all of these things, but it also provided the United States with a unique art history story.
???Mary Ann Carroll, Al Black, Robert Lewis and James Gibson Circa 2012
The Highwaymen had been a group of artists who had toiled in relative anonymity for almost 40 years. There was no name given to them and they were only known locally or in whatever part of Florida they may have traveled to sell art. They were simply a group of individuals who for the most part tended to their craft on a day to day basis, sold their art and worked in to pay their way. Some would venture further than others for sales, Harold Newton was known to be active painting and living in various parts of the State. The name Florida Highwaymen did not come about until 1995, when a Florida Art Historian and acquisition agent, Jim Fitch started to investigate rumors he'd heard about a group of African American artists who had been painting on the east coast of Florida since the mid 50s. After numerous trips to the Fort Pierce area, Fitch realized that there were upwards of 20 or more artists, who were loosely associated and painting Florida Landscapes. He realized that what they were doing and what they had already accomplished in the previous 40 years was extremely important. He defined that some of the artist were extremely well gifted in talent and skill. The years and the death of Alfred Hair had caused the members to drift apart. The compelling catalyst, Alfred Hair, was long dead and it seemed that time and the marketplace had for the most part passed them by. But Fitch had a great sense that they were in fact an unknown and unheard of art movement. Jeff Klinkenberg a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times wrote of Fitch's archaeological and art history research in the first known article about the group in August of 1995. By then Fitch had given them the name of "Florida Highwaymen", Alfred Hair had been dead for 25 years and Harold Newton was gone too. The name suited perfectly, not quite a group of vagabonds, but young African American artists who took to the road to make a living. As Mary Ann Carroll says, "we were doing an honest day's work for an honest day's pay". The decades have provided a lot to the Highwaymen and for the owners of over 250,000 Highwaymen works that are out there. For the artists themselves they were able to have life long careers and feed and care for themselves and families, they attained a level of self respect and pride that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise. They had changed the social and cultural landscape from the moment they committed paint to board. Alfred Hair's work continues to this day through the hands of the remaining artists.
?????????????????????????????Mary Ann Carroll February 2016
In 2004 the State of Florida recognized 26 artists as being Florida Highwaymen. That number would remain fixed even though others might paint in their style of hang around with the artists doing their own works. Their induction to the Florida Artist Hall of Fame that year put them alongside others in the Hall such as Tennessee Williams, Ray Charles and Ernest Hemingway. The eye of history sees differently than does today's perspective. Alfred Hair's vision was simply to follow his dreams and become rich. In reaching for this dream, he spawned an art movement. History will say that the Florida Highwaymen were America's most compelling and unique Art Movement of the 20Th Century. Few would deny that a body of work of 250,000 or more paintings created by one small group of artists over 7 decades of time is a monumental expression of creativity. That those same artists did so against a backdrop of prejudice and intolerance while they strove for their own freedoms and self expression is irresistibly compelling and moving. The Florida Highwaymen are a living example of the American Dream. They represent a lesson to us all to believe in ourselves and our dreams and to persevere. As Mary Ann Carroll says, "A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins". Uniquely crossing the intersection of Civil Rights, Art, History, Environmental Protection and Determination, the Florida Highwaymen are still following the road that Alfred Hair set them on 60 years ago. Their legacy of art and social activism is unlike any we have known. Their iconic dreamlike works depicting a primordial Florida that once existed somewhere in time and may still be found down some quiet lost meandering river, may soon be a lost or endangered?challenged by the progress of man. That too will be a lesson that the Florida Highwaymen have taught us. For the Florida Highwaymen who's brushes will soon become still, their's is a story for most America to still discover. Alfred Hair's dream lifted himself and the other Florida Highwaymen artists to a place where they will be etched in American History and Culture. The destination may have changed, but the road still lays ahead for the Highwaymen. Little did Alfred Hair know that his dreams and aspirations would spawn an amazing art story and America's most unique art movement.