Young Artists Celebrate Black History

Four middle school students were the winners in an art contest celebrating Black History Month and sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

“The young artists being honored are tomorrow’s leaders. Young people have to understand that African American history is not confined to the pages of history but is a living, vibrant thing,” Lautenberg told an audience gathered at the Paul Robeson Gallery on the campus of Rutgers University.

A Paterson native, Lautenberg recalled attending school with many African-Americans, including Larry Doby, who broke the color line in professional baseball’s American League.

Lautenberg also recalled the first time he encountered Jim Crow laws, during a visit to Atlantic City with his mother and grandmother when he was about 10 years old. The young Lautenberg was shocked to see signs over water fountains reading “Whites Only” and African Americans being forced to take the rear seats on buses.

“It stuck with me. I couldn’t believe it, right in Atlantic City,” Lautenberg said, adding that there was a “great deal of shame attached to that period.”

But Lautenberg also noted the progress made in the ensuing decades, from the March on Washington in 1963 -- 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation -- to the election of “the great” Barack Obama, the first African American president, who took office exactly 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

The winning entries in the contest were chosen by Newark artists Evonne Davis and Kevin Darmanic.

“It’s interesting to see the perspective the kids have,” Darmanic said. “We looked at the pieces and tried to pick them on the basis of formal qualities like color and depth of meaning. We tried to look for pieces that went beyond common knowledge of the African American experience.”

First place went to 14-year-old Darah Bagby-Prosser, whose entry included collage elements as well as a three-dimensional quality, with the back end of a bus protruding from the canvas.

The other winners were Shelby Ouellette, second place; Holli Burben, third; and honorable mention winner Rachel Wong. The students’ artwork will hang in Lautenberg’s offices in New Jersey and Washington, DC.

Also honored today were the founders of Positive Community, a magazine spotlighting encouraging news in New Jersey’s African American neighborhoods. Next year, the magazine plans on honoring the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation.