Walls of Prophecy and Protest: William Walker and the Roots of a Revolutionary Public Art Movement

by Jeff W. Huebner

Overview

Chicago is home to more intact African American street murals from the 1970s and ’80s than any other U.S. city. Among Chicago’s greatest muralists is the legendary William “Bill” Walker (1927-2011), compared by art historians to Diego Rivera and called the most accomplished contemporary practitioner of the classical mural tradition.

Though his art could not have been more public, Walker maintained a low profile during his working life and virtually withdrew from the public eye after his retirement in 1989. Author Jeff W. Huebner met Walker in 1990 and embarked on a series of insightful interviews that stretched over the next two decades. Those meetings and years of research form the basis of Walls of Prophecy and Protest, the story of Walker’s remarkable life and the movement that he inspired.

Featuring forty-three color images of Walker’s work, most long since destroyed or painted over, this handsome edition reveals the artist who was the primary figure behind Chicago’s famed Wall of Respect and who created numerous murals that depicted African American historical figures, protested social injustice, and promoted love, respect, racial unity, and community change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810140585
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2019
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Jeff W. Huebner is an arts journalist, freelance writer, and longtime contributor to the Chicago Reader and Public Art Review. His articles and reviews have also appeared in ARTnews, Sculpture, Chicago magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and elsewhere. He is the author of Murals: The Great Walls of Joliet and the coauthor of Urban Art Chicago: A Guide to Community Murals, Mosaics, and Sculptures and Chicago Parks Rediscovered. Huebner has received many arts writing grants and awards. In 2017, he was an inaugural recipient of the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation award for arts criticism and journalism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: William Walker in Mural History 1

1 The Making of a People's Artist 23

2 Jammin' the Blues: Walker in Memphis 36

3 Before the Wall of Respect, 1955-1966 43

4 More Than Painting a Wall: The Wall of Respect and the Street Mural Revolution 54

5 Detroit's Walls of Dignity, Pride, and Freedom 82

6 Tellin' It Like It Is: The Wall of Truth 100

7 Peace and Salvation: Bridging the Racial Divide 115

3 Murals for the People: The Movement Comes to a Museum 129

9 All of Mankind: The Cabrini-Green Years 136

10 A Place Where There's No Hating: The School Murals 151

11 In the Spirit of Hyde Park, 1973 158

12 Walker's History of the Packinghouse Worker and the Labor Mural 165

13 Stories of the Truth Tellers: Man's Inhumanity to Man 179

14 The Rise and Fall of International Walls 190

15 Save the Children 202

16 Fight Back!: The Anti-Reagan Murals 214

17 Images of Conscience: Walker in the Studio 223

18 The Burroughs House Murals 234

19 The Final Tribute Murals 238

20 The Paul Robeson Mural 245

Epilogue: Heart of a Lion 249

Notes 255

Bibliography 329

Index 361

Color photographs follow pages 114 and 178.

Editorial Reviews

Without a doubt this book is the most important work written on William Walker. It illuminates how living and caring on the South Side of Chicago shaped Walker and how deep his national impact on mural making as a social practice was in the second half of the twentieth century.” —Kymberly N. Pinder, author of Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago

"Jeff W. Huebner’s meticulously researched, clearly written book, Walls of Prophecy and Protest: William Walker and the Roots of a Revolutionary Public Art Movement . . . elucidates Walker’s life and the historical, political and social environment on the South Side of Chicago where many of his murals were painted. Huebner parses the murals, most no long extant, and narrates the building of community among collaborating artists and in the streets as Walker painted . . . Huebner has a journalist’s gift for narrative, and while he hits all of the important art historical points, compelling stories give his account a sense of human drama . . ." —Janina Ciezadlo, New Art Examiner

"Jeff W. Huebner’s important, well-researched and affectionate Walls of Prophecy & Protest: William Walker & the Roots of a Revolutionary Public Art Movement goes a long way toward making sure that Walker and the origins of the community mural trend don’t get lost in the fog of the past." —Patrick T. Reardon, Third Coast Review

From the Publisher