The Florida Highwaymen

Florida Highwaymen Artists, Original and 2nd Gen Diane Roberts, Alzheimer's members, Isaac Knight, Gertrude Walker, Sheriff Ken Mascara, Willie Reagan, AJ Brown, Al Black, Charles Walker, Jimmy and Johnny Stovall, 2009 May 2009, Legendary Highwaymen Art Show in Anna Maria Florida, AJ Brown Al Black, Carnell Smith, RL Lewis, Willie Reagan, and Isaac... Knight The Florida Highwaymen Art Movement: The most famous of the group for their significant contributions are Alfred Hair, Harold Newton, Roy McLendon, Livingston Roberts, James Gibson, Sam Newton, Willie, and Johnny Daniels, their sales crew, and Al Black are legends and scholars of their time. The young African-American men pioneered an early art movement, amid racial tones, and journeyed through difficult times, of a segregated era of the deep south, during the 1950s and 60s. Twenty-six innovators, evolved out of necessity, in search of a better life than picking oranges to keep food on the kitchen table. All men and the only woman Mary Ann Carroll, of the original group, began to paint. They originated from the historic Lincoln Park neighborhood, in the city of Fort Pierce, Florida. A few of the men are from Vero Beach and surrounding areas of Florida's Treasure Coast. With no formal training, they created makeshift materials and taught one another to paint, authentic Florida. Museums and galleries would not showcase the work of these black artists, during the segregated times of the Jim Crow South. Florida's highways of A1A and by-ways of US 1, were the old stomping grounds, where twenty-six men who are of equal importance to the movement, made ends meet. As tourists visited the sunshine state and the locals lived, they encountered the future legends of the road, along the side of the road. From the trunks of their cars, revealed timeless Florida. Oil paintings that sold then, for $25 or $35 dollars, are now global nostalgic national treasures. It was out of necessity when the men traded goods for services, a motel room to lay their head at night, or for ...Read More