The Burden of Black Womanhood: Aaron Douglas and the "Apogée of Beauty"

We are possessed, you know, with the idea that it is necessary to be white, to be beautiful. Nine times out of ten it is just the reverse. It takes lots of training or a tremendous effort to down the idea that thin lips and straight nose is the apogee of beauty. But once free you can look back with a sigh of relief and wonder how anyone could be so deluded.¹

Aaron Douglas came to Harlem in 1925, full of dreams and aspirations to work as an artist in New York. He left a secure position as a high school teacher in Kansas City, Missouri and risked coming to a city where he had only one acquaintance. This was characteristic of him. Douglas was an artist who would take risks his entire life: he had entered University of Nebraska ten days into the term as a young student, traveling to Nebraska with no transcripts or letters, just a determination to learn. He was willing to do whatever he needed to do to obtain a college education, despite late enrollment. Douglas had taken similar risks as a young man, when he traveled to Detroit to try to find summer employment in fields of work where he held little or no experience. Douglas was willing to take the risk of accepting a position at a high school in Kansas City which employed only one other black teacher; finally, he was willing to take the risk to leave that position and travel to New York, with little money, but plenty of hope and expectation.

Douglas's amazing success was greatly influenced by two women in his life. His mother, Elizabeth, encouraged his interest in visual arts and provided inspiration for Aaron as a young boy, when he spent hours watching his mother paint and draw. Elizabeth had taken lessons from itinerate artists traveling through Topeka. His second great inspiration came from Alta Sawyer, his high school sweetheart and future wife. Although Douglas repeatedly referred to Alta as his inspiration, she was more than that. His numerous letters to Sawyer reveal her strong role in his creative process and his unique and progressive view of beauty in a time when African American features in portraiture were rarely celebrated. Sawyer would become Douglas's partner in every way; making creative decisions with him, navigating the politics of Harlem, at which she was particularly adept, choosing patrons and commissions that would further his career. Sawyer was a teacher, as was Douglas, and certainly helped provide insight for his very positive images of women, particularly as educators. Their home on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem would provide a central place for the creative elite to meet, plan, and socialize.

Immediately upon his arrival in Harlem, Douglas was introduced to W.E.B. Du Bois, the by-now legendary black intellectual and leader of the time, and editor of the NAACP's The Crisis magazine. Douglas's life-long connection with Du Bois would greatly influence his art, including his images of women. Du Bois was a strong advocate of women's rights, including economic rights, the right to vote, and reproductive rights, which he called the "right of motherhood at her own discretion." He compared some aspects of womanhood to slavery: "Many things still remind us of that stage of culture: the loss of a woman's name by her marriage; the persistent idea that a married woman should not have a career; and the older opposition to women suffrage."² Du Bois recognized the plight of black women was even more difficult than that of their male counterparts, referred to by historian Michael A. Gomez as "triple consciousness."³ Du Bois employed numerous women as visual artists and writers. One of his most important collaborators was Jessie Fauset, who worked with Du Bois when he served as editor of The Crisis magazine. Du Bois's image of women went beyond that of African American woman; as a passionate advocate of the Pan-African movement, he saw the strength in all women of African descent. He celebrated...