"Charles Clarence Dawson" (1889-1981)

An illustrator and painter who used his talents to share with the world the beauty of the Black American culture and experience.He is best known for his illustrated advertisements for beauty schools and products,such as Annie Malone's Poro College and Valmor Products,which were targeted to the city's growing black population.Enterprising and confident Charles made powerful contributions to the efforts of black artists in the city to achieve recognition.Charles life story is told in great detail in an unpublished-and rarely cited-autobiography,which is now in the Dusable Museum Museum of African American History in Chicago.Born in Warrington,Georgia,he would grow up to become of  one of the most enterprising African-American artists of his time.Charles learn the basics of illustration at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee,Alabama After two years during which he studied drafting with architect Walter Bailey,Charles left Tuskegee for New York in 1907,where he became the first African-American to be admitted to the Art Students League.While working odd jobs (elevator operator, etc.) to pay tuition expenses,he toiled in George Bridgman's evening antique and then life-drawing classes,eventually receiving the artist's approval.During that period,there were only five known African-Americans Art students in the entire city of New York.Many believe Charles was the only African-American to ever attend the Art Students League.While working odd jobs (elevator operator, etc.)to pay tuition expenses,Charles toiled in George Bridgman's evening antique and then life-drawing classes,eventually receiving the artist's approval.During that period,they were only five known Black Art students in the entire city of New York.Many believe he was the only African-American to attend the Art Students League.With money earned in the summer of 1912 working in a Pullman buffet club car,Charles was able to fulfill his dream of attending the Art Institute of Chicago.In contrast to the Art Students League,where he experienced overt racial hostility,the policy of the Art Institute,In Charles words was"entirely free of bias."In addition to spending summers as a Pullman out of Chicago,Charles was helped by Art Institute staff to find a number of interesting jobs to help him with tuition.While in Chicago, Charles would find much of his success.In 1917,the Arts and Letters Institute sponsored an exhibition of Black Artist and featured some of his work.His portrayal of rural workers and depictions of Black children helped to make a name for himself in Chicago.After graduating from the school of Art Institute in 1917 (with special honors),only weeks after the U.S. entered World War I,Charles was accepted for officer training in the segregated armed forces.He saw combat in France as a lieutenant in the all-black 36th Regiment of the 92nd Infantry Division,the Buffalo Soldiers.He returned to a changed Chicago.Tensions between the growing black community and a white working-class population in search of jobs after the war resulted in the Race Riot of 1919,which left 35 dead and hundreds injured over a two-week in late July and early August.At the same time, African-Americans in Chicago were beginning to gain economic and political power;they also took part (as did African-Americans in New York) in the program of cultural modernization ,known as the New Negro Movement.Charles opened a graphics design and illustration studio on the South Side of Chicago.There he established himself by specializing in depicting African-Americans as they were-not drawing them with features generally seen on people of other races.His illustrations and drawings were widely embraced and Charles was called on to design advertisement for many of the leading African-American cosmetic and hair care companies.Charles ended back at Tuskegee,as curator of the Museum of Negro Art and Culture and the George Washington Carver Museum,from 1944 to 1951.Charles retired to New-Hope,Pennsylvania.