"Jeff Donaldson"(December 15,1932-February 20,2004).

Was a pioneering visual artist whose work helped define the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.He was born in Pine Bluff Arkansas in 1932 receiving a BA in Studio Art from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 1954.He went on to complete his MFA at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology of Chicago in 1963.In 1974,Donald earned the degree of P.h.D from Northwestern University becoming the first African American to do so in the nation.He was a pivotal member of the Black Power movement.Jeff espoused themes of transAfricanism and African American liberation ideology with his work with the Organization of Black American Culture on The Wall of respect,his founding of African American art collective Africobra,and his position as art museum head of Howard University.Shown through the paintings wives of Shango and A La Sango,He employed mythology to add visual expression to the black power movement of the 1960s and 70's.Jeff filled his work with sociopolitical ideals.During the 1960s these ideas reflected those of the Black Power Movement.By mixing African icons with African American and American Culture,he helped to create a uniqely black aesthetic.Images and ideas from African mythology were crucial to eatablish paintings that were distinct from parts of society he was rebelling against.Both wives of Shango and A La Sango frame the message of the Black liberation movement with a powerful African protector in mind.For Jeff getting a message was of Black Power and liberation.