Frankie Muse Freeman
In this portrait, Chris Green depicts Frankie Muse Freeman (1916-2018), known for being the first woman to be appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1964. Although she was born in Danville, Virginia, she lived out much of her life in St. Louis after serving as the legal counsel to the NAACP legal team that filed a lawsuit against the St. Louis Board of Education in 1949. She was also the lead attorney for the landmark case Davis et al. v. the St. Louis Housing Authority with the NAACP, which ended the legal racial discrimination in public housing in St. Louis (Baker 4). Green paints Freeman directly onto a vacant house that represents the lasting impacts of racial discrimination in St. Louis housing, effectively etching her into the history of efforts to end this kind of institutional oppression, providing a reminder of the work that still needs to be done, and offering a role model for future movements. Like his other paintings of figures who have worked or are working for the government, Green’s mural of Frankie Muse Freeman features a partial American flag in the background. This simple additional detail symbolizes volumes. Although the United States government has historically, institutionally oppressed people of color, Green offers hope for redemption by depicting government workers like Freeman who have done monumental civil rights work. The flag also emphasizes the rightful position of powerful black women like Freeman in the government and the need for more representation of minorities in positions of power.
Maudette and Willie Jefferson
Sam Moore
Leon & Michael Spinks, Dr. Lee Blount, Marvin Neals, and Jo Ann Wayne
Leon and Michael Spinks, as shown in this mural, are brothers and professional boxers born and raised in north St. Louis. Leon is best known for one of the biggest upsets in boxing when he won unanimously against Muhammed Ali for the heavyweight championship of the world on February 15, 1978 (Lipping 343). Michael also had an incredibly lucrative career, with a record of thirty-one wins, including a heavyweight championship, and only one loss (344). Despite their success later in life, the brothers had a rough childhood growing up in the Pruitt-Igoe housing project, an urban-renewal project that had promised to mark the end of the urban slum in 1954 (Florio and Shapiro 1). Instead of fulfilling this promise, the developers had been “skimping on materials” and the Priutt-Igoe was already falling apart before tenants moved in. The project also heightened the racial conflict in St. Louis, and the apartments were segregated—with Pruitt for Black residents and Igoe for whites (2). For the men living in this project, “there seemed to be only two means of survival: join a gang or learn how to box” (5). Luckily for them, Leon and Michael Spinks took the second route, and they became local heroes. This redemption arc serves the purpose of Chris Green and Better Family Lifes’ mural project perfectly. The brothers experienced firsthand one of the racially prejudiced policies that has contributed to the vacancy of houses on Page and decline of neighborhoods in St. Louis, but they were able to make their way out of the poverty and pain of the Pruitt-Igoe project. The original picture used by Green as a reference for this mural can be found on the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame website. In the original photograph, the Spinks brothers are shirtless and posing with their boxing gloves, but Green chose to instead dress them in suit jackets with matching red ties.
Dr. Kelvin Adams, Dr. Art McCoy, and Hank Thompson
Dr. Kelvin Adams, painted on this yellow backdrop, is currently in his 11th year as the Superintendent of Schools for the St. Louis Public Schools for the 2018-2019 school year. Again, he is more of a lesser known figure, but he has been incredibly influential in the St. Louis community. In his role as Superintendent, Adams has helped the St. Louis Public School system take tremendous strides. When he first took on the position in 2008, the district had just lost its accreditation and was dealing with skyrocketing dropout rates and failing test scores. While the SLPS district still has a long way to go, Adams has largely helped to remedy the situation by turning around the financial situation, consistently increasing attendance and graduation rates, improving test scores, creating an African-centered curriculum school and a nationally recognized school for new Americans, designing an educational therapeutic support school, expanding early childhood classrooms, and much more (“Dr. Kelvin Adams Named”). While Dr. Adams himself does not have quite the same kind of story of personal redemption that a figure like Halbert Sullivan does, he represents the ongoing redemption story of the St. Louis Public School district and offers hope for other communities, organizations, and systems that have suffered from racially discriminatory policies and practices. The color yellow used in the background of this painting is truly a representation of the hope offered by this story to the North City, and the harsh lines of Dr. Adams’s suit jacket against this backdrop signifies the strength that Adams and other heroes have demonstrated in their redeeming actions. This contrast also contributes to the three-dimensional illusion of the portrait, bringing the subject closer to the viewers.
Halbert Sullivan and Arthur Ashe
This bright mural features Halbert Sullivan, the founder and CEO of the Fathers’ Support Center in St. Louis. The mission of his nonprofit is to “provide noninvolved fathers the support they need to get back into the lives of their children as positive, productive parents” (“Chief Executive Officer Halbert Sullivan”). Sullivan’s backstory is one that perfectly embodies the redemption narrative produced by Chris Green in his murals. In 1993, he had been suffering from drug addiction for almost twenty years, had been to prison three times—one time receiving a life sentence for selling drugs that he eventually appealed, and was finally ready to make a change. After going to a rehabilitation center, he went to community college and eventually gained a Masters in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. After working as a social worker in the St. Louis Public Schools, he decided to address the issue of absentee fathers and created the FSC (Murphy). On the mural of Halbert Sullivan, like in some of his other murals, Green paints the emblem of the subject’s organization. Clearly positioned directly over Sullivan’s heart, the logo for the Fathers’ Support Center is painted with distinct white lines—impossible to miss on the backdrop of his black suit jacket. The positioning of this symbol is undoubtedly purposeful, representing the heart and soul Sullivan and other prominent Black leaders pour into their communities. Additionally, the vibrant, high-valued, solid-colored orange for the background of the portrait is a great example of the important contrast of textures and color between Chris Green’s murals and the houses on which they reside. This further emphasizes the importance of the issue he wants to reveal.
Jamilah Nasheed and Lawrence Walls & Richard Perry
Chris Green’s portrait of Jamilah Nasheed hangs directly next to his mural of Lawrence Walls and Richard Perry on a vacant duplex. Senator Jamilah Nasheed is a Democrat representing Missouri’s 5th Senatorial District in the City of St. Louis. She is a legislative leader and advocates mainly in regards to education, criminal justice, human rights, and urban economic development, which makes her an important subject for this mural project. Her backstory is fascinating: at the age of nineteen, she opened an inner-city bookstore called Sankofa Books and Gifts, with the purpose of promoting important discussions. After running this small business for ten years, she ran for office and was elected into the Missouri House of Representatives. In 2014, as a senator, she passed Senate Bill 731, that would help preserve St. Louis neighborhoods by “expanding the definition of ‘nuisance’ to include absentee landlords who allow vacant properties to harm the value of neighboring properties” (“Senator Jamilah Nasheed”). In this way, like Frankie Muse Freeman, she becomes physically etched into a history that she is changing, offering hope to the community. Nasheed has also been an important activist in the community and has gained visibility for her strong stance against the handling of the case of the police officer Darren Wilson’s murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. The positioning of Jamilah’s portrait directly next to the portrait of Lawrence Walls and Richard Perry, both former football coaches at Sumner High School, perfectly exhibits the range of heroes Green wants to paint. The contrast of color between the two paintings—with the portrait of Nasheed featuring bright shades of red, white, and blue and the portrait Walls and Perry only featuring shades of black, brown, and white—emphasizes the vast differences between the heroes while bringing them together in a beautifully complementary way to emphasize the many kinds of aspirations available to community members and different ways that a community can be served.
Walle Amusa and Hildred & Dale London
Maya Angelou and Mavis Thompson
In this mural, Chris Green paints a widely known subject—Maya Angelou. However, her birthplace of St. Louis may be lesser known. While Angelou was born in St. Louis in 1928, she moved away to Arkansas at age three and then returned when she was seven (Mickle 263). In St Louis, during her formative years, Angelou learned about urban degradation, violence, political power, and political corruption—all of which informed who she became as an adult, according to her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Heims 59). Maya Angelou is known for her written work, but she is featured in Chris Green’s mural project and in this exhibition because of her activism—both in and outside of her poetry and memoirs. Angelou worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., becoming the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and helping to create the Cultural Association for Women of African Heritage (Graves 6). Her poem “Still I Rise” embodies many of the redemptive, hopeful themes highlighted by Better Family Life and Chris Greens’ mural project. While she dealt with painful experiences growing up as a child in St. Louis, including a sexual assault and trauma following the assault, she became an important hero for many and an activist who changed lives—and continues to change lives. In Green’s portrait, Angelou’s expression and overall demeanor is one that feels intimate, warm, and familiar. This is also reflected in the warm-tone colors he uses in her red shirt and the bright orange background. Green’s depiction of Angelou in this way is important because it makes her someone with whom community members can identify, someone whom they can aspire to become. However, these bright, saturated, warm colors also continue to express the importance of this project and of the figures demonstrated, as well as reflect the fiery activist spirit within Angelou that should not be subdued.
