Against All Odds: The Art of the Highwaymen September 24, 2010

The Highwaymen began as a group of African American artists who, against all odds, managed to prosper selling their paintings in the segregated South of the 1950s and ‘60s. One charismatic man, Alfred Hair, dreamed big and developed a fast method of painting that he generously shared with 25 others, and they collectively produced more than 200,000 paintings over a 30-year period. Learn their fascinating story and see paintings by each of the 26 artists, together in one exhibit for the first time at the History Center. This is also the first time paintings by Robert Butler and John Maynor, as well as a painting by A.E. “Bean” Backus, an accomplished white Florida landscape artist who encouraged and inspired them, have been shown at the History Center.