How Did Henry Johnson Promote African Americans

Slavery has been around since 1619; African people were captured and forced to be servants for the Europeans and then became the primary source of labor. Slavery lasted for about 245 years, President Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, issued the Emancipation Proclamation which proposed to abolish slavery in the United States, the 13th Amendment also gave the same demand. Even though slavery was prohibited, African- Americans were still treated unfairly and had no freedom of expression; the Jim Crow Laws in the south would discourage African- Americans for their culture by not allowing them to express their emotions through their art, music, and stories. The Great Migration was the result of black culture being disrespected; during 1915 through 1960,

Johnson was born in Florence, South Carolina on March 13, 1901. Alice Smoot and Henry Johnson are the parents of Johnson, sadly his father became disabled while working as a railroad fireman. Johnson dropped out of school high school to support his parents and four other siblings. His dream career was to become an artist. Seventeen year old Johnson moved to New York to pursue the dream without being disrupted by the Jim Crow laws. In New York, he enrolled into the School of the National Academy of Design. Charles W. Hawthorne was a realist painter, Hawthorne was also known as Johnson's mentor, noticed that Johnson's talent would be limited due to racism. In 1926, Johnson moved to Paris with the help of Hawthorne. The environment of Paris inspired him to create modernism art. Holcha Krake, a Swedish textile artist and wife of Johnson, returned to New York in 1930. Exhibitions of their art was shown around the globe and in the Harlem Community Art Center. Sadly, Johnson spent 23 years in the Central Islip State Hospital and also died there on April 13, 1970 from