MS01.01.03 - Box 02 - Folder 29 - Journal Entry - Fisk University Fine Arts Festival, 1971 April

Driskell notes Aaron Douglas - Exhibition scheduled for Fine Arts Festival - April, 1971. Notes on talk with Aaron - (Bowkemps.?) J. working on Douglas for Master's thesis - Under my guidance and Nebraska Mays - In "An Idyle of the Deep South", Aspects of Negro Life - Significance of people rising up from slavery into the 1930s. The rise of the Klan. The lynchings that were prevelant. "The South was no haven [sketch of a star with rays coming off of it] "Seeking relief- for Negroes. Alta never fully from oppresison- embraced this place. She so many did" was a real cultured woman "not the star of and this thing, the South, Bethlehem". she couldn't deal with it". "O yes, that He and Alta were not Star and in all of the political the ray of mess but they lived light". with those who were at 409 Edgecomb Ave. I had to all but swear to Aaron that I would not speak about its meaning, the star and ray, that is, until after his death. Aaron pointed out the "beam of light coming from the star was from the red star of Russia". "You see", he said, "there were those who (?) - kinder bathed in this here - thing (got a little pink) from this red star, thinking they were going to get relief from opression.

2. Aaron - Fine Arts Festival - But the folks were disappointed - because when they went to Russia, they were treated really bad. Oh yes - they were treated really bad. So, you see, they tried this Communist thing and it backfired on them. They ended up being better off here and - - - and ask me! Didn't they hightail it right back here with the rest of us. (He paused). "You see, this star represents what they thought was going to be enlightment." At that point I asked who these people were? He said they were scattered around. He named Langston Hughes, Louise Thompson, Dorothy West (noting that West was probably too young to know what she was doing and probably went along for the ride). He said - "Of course you know all the fuss about Paul Robetson - - a great artist." They he goes back to the star. "This red star was not strong enough - you see only a few being affected by it. But this is all history. I painted what was real." "They wanted to punish me at WPA, that white woman who felt she couldn't control me. So she fired me." I then asked about the role of the Godmother in all of this. (Charlotte Osgood Mason). "Oh yes, the Godmother, she was really something else. That's a

3 Aaron - Fine Arts Festival whole story to itself - just like the story of Albert Barnes." Douglas asked - "Did I tell you that one? I don't want to bore you. But all of these folks, the rich white folks - you see - they had their own agenda. We were peons to them. They had the money. We weren't for sale, but we needed support. Now Mary Brady - well - you see - she wasn't in the same league as they were. She didn't have much money but she had influence because she had done those little shows, the Harmon Foundation shows, in the 1920s and 30s. That was all there was. They had a little show here and there but the biggest ones were Brady's. Now the Godmother - you see - we kinda lived in fear of her. (Mrs. Mason) She had big bucks. She would boast that she would cut off your water in a minute - meaning your allowance. She and Langston and Hurston got into some kind of squabble - she had them playing each other off for favors. They enjoyed doing that to us. Just watching us squabble and squirm around with each other. We were their puppets. This Mrs. Mason, the Godmother, she liked to wait around until a place was filled and then she would

4 - Aaron come in on the arms of Langston like she owned him. Miss Brady wasn't in that league. She would have been way over her head in deep water. She had Palmer Hayden around to block off things". Aaron went on talking about..."those who bathed in that tiny ray of light seeking something other than the misery of being Negroes in this racist place. They thought things were better in Russia until they went there." He spoke of DuBois and others who lived in his building - some he didn't know well - Mrs. Gardner - it seemingly was the place to be. Douglas went back to the fear of the FBI and others who watche Black people back then, "reporting on their move." He wasn't allowed to finish his WPA assignment because he was accused of being sympathetic to Communism - or what he called - "a little pink." But he noted that everyone Black was tired of being oppressed and was willing to go to great lengths to rid themselves of that misery. Anyway, Aaron talked freely about what all of the symbols, groups, individuals, etc. in the work "Idyle of the Deep South meant. -