Front Cover: "The Barrier" © Samella Lewis

Pioneering artist and art historian Samella Lewis is renowned for her contributions to African American art and art history. She was born on February 27, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and her heritage led her to view art as an essential expression of the community and its struggles.

Lewis began her art career as a student at Dillard University, where she was instructed by the African American sculptor Elizabeth Catlett. At one of her instructor’s suggestions, she transferred to Hampton Institute, where she earned her B.A. in art history in 1945. She completed her graduate studies at the Ohio State University, earning an M.A. in 1948, and in 1951 Lewis became the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in fine arts and art history. In order to publish Black Artists on Art (1969), she founded the first African American-owned art publishing house, Contemporary Crafts.

From 1969 to 1984, Lewis worked as professor of art history at Scripps College in Claremont, California, becoming the college’s first tenured African American professor. She also helped to found the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles in 1976 and established the scholarly journal International Review of African-American Art that same year. It has become the leading forum for educating scholars and others about the many contributions of African Americans to the visual arts. Currently Dr. Lewis is Professor Emerita of art history at Scripps College of the Claremont Colleges.

Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

In this Issue

Editorial Board

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Editors in Chief

John A. Powell
Mac A. Stewart

Associate Editors

Georgina Dodge
Andrew Grant-Thomas
Ming Shi Trammel

Managing Editor

Eavon Lee Mobley

Editorial Board

Robert Bullard, Clark Atlanta University
Duane Champagne, University of California, Los Angeles
Rey Chow, Brown University
Timothy Choy, University of California, Davis
Nancy Denton, State University of New York at Albany
Lewis Ricardo Gordon, Temple University
Ed Guerrero, New York University
Ramón A. Gutiérrez, University of California, San Diego
Hassan Jeffries, The Ohio State University
Richard Kittles, University of Chicago
Kevin Kumashiro, Center for Anti-Oppressive Education
Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin
Mari Matsuda, Georgetown Law
Lisa Nakamura, University of Illinois
Jessica Gordon Nembhard, University of Maryland
Michael Omi, University of California, Berkeley
Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California
Juana María Rodríguez, University of California, Davis
David Roediger, University of Illinois
Wendy Smooth, The Ohio State University
Claude M. Steele, Stanford University
Rodolfo Torres, University of California, Irvine

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