Rufus Lewis
Date1956
Artist
Burton Philip Silverman
(American painter, illustrator, born 1928)
MediumGraphite and pastel on gray laid paper
Dimensionssheet: 11 7/8 × 17 15/16 in. (30.2 × 45.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Rex Foundation, 1993
Object number1993-112
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextIn 1956, New York artist Burton Silverman and his fellow artist Harvey Dinnerstein recorded events of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, initiated when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat to a white man on the racially segregated city bus system. Together Silverman and Dinnerstein made over 90 reportorial drawings of the activities and people involved in the Boycott, including the twenty‑six year old Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Several of the drawings were published in magazines and exhibited in museums. The artists stated: “Our decision to record the events, as artists, was motivated in part by the virtual absence of photographic recording of the Boycott. We felt that this was the first real opportunity to show the efficacy of the artist's eye in evoking the emotional as well as factual realities of an important human event.”Rufus Lewis was a pioneer in advancing the voting rights of black citizens. He nominated the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to become the spokesman for the Montgomery Improvement Association and served as chair of the Transportation Committee during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
