Hidden Heritage. The roots of Black American painting - ACE210.4

Driskell driving through his birthplace of Eatonton, Georgia; talks about his family, and about the town as he remembers it. He defines a "shot-gun house", one with front and back doors in line with each other. Children playing. Driskell talking to William Driskell, an elderly relative; his VO describes his own feelings and the understanding he shares with William of their collective history. Black and white film of black people working in the cotton fields, crushing sugar cane, laying railway tracks. Douglas’s mural, Idyll of the Deep South. Driskell arriving at derelict one-room school-house. He suggests that Joshua Johnson (or Johnston) (c.1765-c.1832) would have been educated in such a place, and describes Johnston’s career, first as sign painter, and then as portraitist. Portrait of Mrs. Barbara Baker Murphy (Wife of Sea Captain) (c.1810). Driskell’s VO claims Johnson’s work disproved white beliefs that black people "were not intellectually capable of pursuing intellectual endeavours". Various portraits and family groups including James McCormick Family (c.1805). Possible self-portrait, Portrait of an Unknown Man, with Driskell quoting Johnson’s descriptions of himself and his abilities.