African American Artists and Craftspeople in the Collections of The Henry Ford

When Vaudeville artist Mamie Smith (1891-1946) recorded "Crazy Blues" in August 1920, she changed the course of popular music. The record was an instant success, selling more than 70,000 copies in the first month — and compelling other companies to record African American blues singers. Smith's performance helped establish the genre and gave voice to Black Americans during a time of intense racial violence.

In 1921, Vaudeville performer Ethel Waters (1896-1977) recorded "Oh Daddy" (backed by "Down Home Blues") for Black Swan Records — the first record company with African American owners and operators. It was Black Swan's number one record, selling about 500,000 copies in six months. The company's success was short-lived, but Waters went on to achieve success as an accomplished singer and actress.

Isaac Scott Hathaway (1872-1967) is best known for sculpting busts of famous African American figures, but he was also the first Black artist commissioned by the U.S. Mint to design a coin. The Hathaway-designed half dollar depicting educator Booker T. Washington — the first African American subject of a U.S. coin — was sold to help establish and maintain Washington's birthplace as a national monument.

After working the fields of her rural Alabama tenant farm and tending to her family's needs, Susana Hunter (1912-2005) sat down to lavish her creativity on quilt making. On-the-fly inspiration — rather than tradition — guided this quiltmaker's improvisational creations. Hunter made more than one hundred quilts — each of them unique — from the worn clothing and fabric scraps available to her.

Political artist Emory Douglas (b. 1943) created bold imagery that helped define the Black Panther Party's visual identity. As the Panthers' Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture, Douglas designed more than 500 issues of the group's newspaper. His illustrations also appeared on posters, like this one from 1969 — part of an influential campaign calling for the release of then-imprisoned Panthers' co-founder Huey P. Newton.

J Dilla (James DeWitt Yancey, 1974-2006) is celebrated as one of the most important musicians to emerge from Detroit’s underground hip hop scene — as a member of Slum Village, the Soulquarians, and for his innovative solo work. Here, he is pictured with producer and collaborator Madlib (Otis Jackson, Jr., b. 1973) digging for records in Brazil, just months before his untimely death in February 2006.

New Orleans artist Jean-Marcel St. Jacques (b. 1972) creates "wooden quilts" like this one using wood and other debris from his Hurricane Katrina-damaged home. The style of his work honors both his quilter great-grandmother — to whom this piece is particularly dedicated — and his great-grandfather, who was a junk collector and hoodoo practitioner.