Reginald Gammon was an African American painter from Philadelphia who faced many obstacles in pursuing his art career. He lost his scholarship, worked various jobs to support himself, and could only paint at night. In 1971, a friend helped Gammon get a teaching position at West Michigan University, where he later became a full-time professor until retiring in 1992. One of Gammon's most iconic works was "Freedom Now", a black and white painting depicting the civil rights movement, which conveyed the intensity and urgency of the movement through shouting faces in the crowd.

1. Reginald Gammon and “Freedom Now”
Weiwei Lei

2. Reginald Gammon
• Reginald Gammon was an African American painter from
Philadelphia. He graduated from high school when he was twenty years
old and got a scholarship at Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial
Arts. However, he lost his scholarship the following year due to his job
as a ship painter at a naval factory. He worked there for the next year
and a half before being drafted to the navy in 1944. For his time in the
navy, he served at an all-black unit in Guam. He continued his art career
when he returned to Philadelphia in 1946.

3. • In 1948, he turned a scholarship offer from Tyler School of Fine Arts
down and continued his work and study career for two more years. After
the two years he moved to New York City and worked as all sorts of
jobs, related and unrelated to art. He worked to support life in the
morning, and dedicated his nights to art. This was the second time that
he was only able to work on his art works at night after he accepted the
job at the naval factory back in Philadelphia before he served in Guam.

4. • In 1971, his friend Hugh Lee-Smith got him a better opportunity to
pass on his ideas and skill of art by introducing him to West Michigan
University. Gammon first signed a 10-day art lecture contract with the
university, but later the department asked the dean to extend his contract
to a one-semester teaching contract due to the popularity of his
workshop, and the request got approved. The story of Gammon and
West Michigan University did not end just there. He later got hired as a
full-time professor by the school and taught there until 1991.

5. • He retired as a full time Professor Emeritus of West Michigan
University and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1992, where he
quickly got engaged in local art learning teaching and communities.
Gammon joined the New Mexico African American Artist Guild and
worked there until his death. His job was the treasurer of their
exhibitions. He is also the local artist in Albuquerque and had a studio
where he lived the last part of his artist career and life.

6. • Freedom Now

7. • This is a piece of work he completed during his time in Spiral, and it is
part of the exhibition “Black and White” so the artwork does not have
any colors other than black or white, which are also the major colors
mentioned in the ongoing racial conflict. The popularity of art then
was chromatic, but Gammon insisted on black and white and
successfully used the limited colors to complete one of his most iconic
work, and it became very well known as one of the best black and
white paintings.

8. • The work is a vivid narrative painting of the civil right movement. Although
it only covers part of the crowd and does not have an intact sign covered with
readable words, the faces included in the drawing show the forceful shouting
of the crowd which clearly expressed the intensity of their request for equal
rights. The request was not only the crowds’, but it was also the request of
Reginald Gammon. He used the shouting crowd to vividly describe the
intensity of the movement and the urgency of the request. Gammon also used
a smart way to make the work look balanced. Instead of putting in as many
faces as possible, he put some legs and shoes in the upper half of his drawing.
This not only did not affect the intensity of the theme and the density of the
crowd, but made the picture not look messy with the dense crowd.