In considering this day, I want to share Evaline Sellors’ terra-cotta sculpture of a young African American girl titled Blue Hyacinth, dated 1940. In a 1989 interview recorded at Evelyn Siegel Gallery in Dallas, the artist talked about the young girl who posed for the sculpture. Sellors said the seven-year-old came by the back door of her studio repeatedly looking for work, so she paid her 50¢ to model for the sculpture. When asked about payment, it is unclear if it was 50¢ a day or for the entire time, as the conversation is cut off. Sellors also indicated that the title reflects not the girl’s name, but the blue hyacinths that decorated her summer dress.

 

While today is a holiday that bears the name of and honors civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., it is also important to recognize the countless individuals whose names remain unknown to us—those who face the same long-established racial discriminations and carve out lives for themselves despite it.

 

Amy Kelly

Registrar

Evaline Sellors, Blue Hyacinth, 1940, polychrome on terra cotta. OJAC Collection, Gift of Mary Eleanor Witherspoon. 1995.013