'O, Write My Name'

'O, Write My Name' Carl Van Vechten, Richard Benson
O, write my name, O, write my name: O, write my name... Write my name when-a you get home... Yes, write my name in the book of life... The Angels in the heav’n going-to write my name. —Spiritual, Underground Railroad Ralph Waldo Emerson thought that some individuals lived with such purpose, intensity, and commitment that their lives would come to exemplify the grandness and beauty of the human spirit. He called such persons “Representative” because they stood for the achieved human potential. The faces you are about to see are of men and women who would comport well with Emerson’s idea. Each has stamped a personal style and character on life and circumstance; so much that the rest of us can experience the world they touched by seeing it through their lives. Each face will evoke in us a shock of recognition, not merely of a personal art or achievement but of an entire people’s struggle against great odds. Each face reassures us that it is in the human spirit not merely to survive, even to prevail, but to transcend. “These photographs were taken by Carl Van Vechten. He saw himself as celebrating black Americans—many his personal friends—in whom he sensed unique and compelling character. He believed that a camera could communicate their qualities. He sought to create a photographic record. Richard Benson has translated Van Vechten’s images into the permanent tribute of hand gravure prints.” —Nathan I. Huggins (1927-1989), W. E. B. DuBois Professor of History and Afro-American Studies, Harvard University
Bessie Smith 1895-1937 ...It’s Mighty strange without a doubt, Nobody knows you when you’re down and out, I mean when you’re down and out. —Jimmie Cox (from the song “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”) Appearing in tent shows throughout the South as a young woman, she spent much of her life on the road performing for mostly black audiences. Universally recognized as the “Empress of the Blues,” her influence on American music has been profound and lasting.		Bessie Smith, 1936
Richard Wright 1908-1960 The differences between black folk and white folk are not blood and color, and the ties that bind us are deeper than those that separate us. The common road of hope we have traveled has brought us into a stronger kinship than any words, laws, or legal claims. Look at us and know us and you will know yourselves, for we are you, looking back at you from the dark mirrors of our lives. —Richard Wright (from the book 12 Million Black Voices) During his impoverished youth in Mississippi, he schooled himself in public libraries and became a distinguished author and poet. His novels and other writings describe in a challenging way the personal and political aspects of black social experience in the South, Chicago, New York, and Europe.		Richard Wright, 1939
Leontyne Price 1927- This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, Ev’ry day, Ev’ry day, Ev’ry day. —Traditional A noi si schiude, si schiude il ciel... si schiude il ciel e l’alme errante volano al raggio dell-eterno di. Heaven is opening, is opening for us... heaven is opening, and our errant souls will soar to the light of the eternal day. (from Verdi’s opera Aïda) One of the world’s greatest mezzo-sopranos, she was born in Laurel, Mississippi, and graduated from Central State College. She later attended Juilliard and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1961. She retains her love for the music produced by the black culture of her region.		Leontyne Price, 1952
Portraits of
Lottie Allen Marian Anderson James Baldwin Romare Bearden Mary McLeod Bethune Arna Bontemps John W. Bubbles Ralph Bunche Countee Cullen Ossie Davis Ruby Dee W. E. B. DuBois Katherine Dunham	Ruby Elzy Ella Fitzgerald Althea Gibson Dizzy Gillespie W. C. Handy Roland Hayes Altonell Hines Nora Holt Lena Horne Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston Mahalia Jackson Charles S. Johnson	J. Rosamond Johnson James Weldon Johnson Jacob Lawrence Alain Locke Joe Louis Rose McClendon Claude McKay Mildred Perkins Vera Peterson Horace Pippin Dorothy Porter Leontyne Price Paul Robeson	Bill Robinson Edith Sampson Bessie Smith Maxine Sullivan Howard Swanson Sarah Victor Margaret Walker Fredi Washington Ethel Waters Josh White Richard Wright
Grants and support from the Eakins Press Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the J. M. Kaplan Fund, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund have made possible the completion of the plates and the printing.		‘O, Write My Name’ was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Photographs © Estate of Carl Van Vechten; Gravure & Compilation © Eakins Press Foundation.
H O M E - B O O K S - S I T E M A P - O R D E R F O R M