May Howard Jackson

Why this artist matters now

May Howard Jackson was an African American sculptor who deliberately confronted America's racial problems through portraiture, creating dignified representations of multiracial individuals during a period when such subjects were rarely treated with formal artistic seriousness. Active in the New Negro Movement and central to Washington, D.C.'s African American intellectual circles between 1910 and 1930, she produced bronze portrait heads and full-length figures that examined identity and belonging. Her work remains significant for its unflinching engagement with themes of race and mixed heritage at a moment when most sculptors avoided these subjects entirely.

Source: Smithsonian Institution · Trust score: 95% · Updated 16d ago