Can a Negro Study Law in Texas from the collection of AGBS at The University of Texas at Austin

Can a Negro Study Law in Texas, 1946

Charcoal and Ink on paper

24 x 16 in

Attribution: Collection of Art Galleries at Black Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Purchase, 2016.014

Inv: 2016.014

Charles White’s Can a Negro Study Law in Texas references the historic Sweatt v. Painter (1950) Supreme Court case in which Herman Sweatt, an African American applicant to the law school at The University of Texas at Austin, sued for having been denied admission because of his race. White depicts Sweatt as a heroic figure in a defiant stance. Represented here larger than his counterparts, Sweatt dwarfs the iron fence around the courthouse and his cartoonishly round opponents clustered on its steps.
White, a draftsman and painter, is best known for his charcoal drawings of African American figures. He was also good friends with Drs. Edmund W. and Susan Gordon, the parents of Dr. Edmund T. Gordon, the Founding Chair of the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at UT Austin. The Gordon-White Building was named in recognition of the friendship between these two families after the Gordons donated part of their collection of Charles White works to the university.

- Kailyn Harris

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From AGBS at The University of Texas at Austin

Edith Kaplan

Voices of the Revolution [1/36], 1967

woodcut, in portfolio, taupe paper

15 x 18.8125 in
John Biggers

Study #2A, 1965

pencil drawing on paper

23 x 17 in
Lois Mailou Jones

Coin de Marche a Kenschoff, 1954

gouache on paper

18 x 25 in
Samella Lewis

Tortured Image, 1951

oil on board

15 x 11 x 5 in
Norman Lewis

Untitled, 1951

oil on canvas

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Norman Lewis

Untitled, 1946

oil on canvas

30 x 24 in
Romare Bearden

The Toreador, 1946

watercolor/gouache on paper

19 x 27 in
Eldzier Cortor

Man with Sickle, 1945

color pencil, watercolor, pen, ink on paper

10.5 x 14 in

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Additional Artworks

Voices of the Revolution [1/36], 1967

Study #2A, 1965

Coin de Marche a Kenschoff, 1954

Tortured Image, 1951

Untitled, 1951

Untitled, 1946

The Toreador, 1946

Man with Sickle, 1945