page_title: Henry Jackson Lewis
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Jackson Lewis / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Race Problem Again"
context_page_description: Henry Jackson Lewis was the first African-American political cartoonist.
context_section_description: After Lewis's death, obituaries lauded him and his work.  The Indianapolis Journal wrote of him, " He [had] no education, except that he could read and write yet his proficiency with the pencil and burin was something remarkable. His idea of form was excellent, and he had little trouble to rapidly reproduce anything that came under his observation. He was far from being attractive in personal appearance...Yet he was a genius, and with proper direction might have made his way in the world."  The Indianapolis News remarked that he "stood toward the head of the colored artists of the country."  The Freeman’s tribute of him concluded with:
  "Mr. Lewis, in many respects, was a remarkable man, and had his lines been cast in different places, and his earlier years been spent under different skies, surrounded by other influences and aids, the space he would have filled in the world’s notice might have been one that biography would not have spurned, and without the record of which, future encyclopedias would be incomplete. As a portrayer of southern Negro life and a certain phaze of “white trash” existence, he had no living master. In this respect he was a genius, and when his equal shall come to us again, we do not know. Indeed, the only fault that could be found with Mr. Lewis’ work in this line, was that he builded too well, for so realistic were his sketches that the fine sensitiveness of the race was frequently aroused and offended...It were but simple charity to hope that it is well with him today, and that death was but an aperture through which his feverish and worn spirit took its way to spheres of higher mysteries, and a completer life, where conditions may not interfere, or man’s narrowness or unfair hatred prevent the full expression of his unique and striking gifts."
  Despite his inclusion at the Smithsonian, mention of Lewis is absent from most art history knowledge.  However, more of his work has been unearthed by today's artists.  Noted African American sculptor, Garland Martin Taylor, said of Lewis's work:
  "...every single inch of the canvas has meaning. There's not a wasted stroke. It's like he's documenting something and there's a reason for each drawing....Art, as Lewis knew so well, is never just about style but meaning."
caption: "The Race Problem Again" by H.J. Lewis. June 2, 1889
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