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historical notes
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Richard A. Long was a preeminent American cultural historian, author, educator, and art collector. Born in Philadelphia in 1927, he received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Temple University, did doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Paris, and received his doctoral degree at the University of Poitiers. Long founded the department of African-American studies at Atlanta University in 1968 and was appointed as the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University in 1987. Long was best known for his association with artists Beauford Delaney and Romare Bearden and gifted his own portrait by Delaney in oil to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
Richard A. Long was also an avid art collector and his collection of 60 works features pieces by early pioneers of African-American art, such as Henry Ossawa Tanner and Hale Woodruff; modern masters like William Artis and Alma Thomas; and contemporary artists including Amalia Amaki and Radcliffe Bailey. Long received recognition for his contributions to African American culture and served on the Board of Directors of the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, was a life member of the Board of Directors of the High Museum of Art, and served on the National Planner Committee of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival. He was also the author of several books, including Black Americana (1970), The Black Tradition in American Dance (1989), Grown Deep: Essays on the Harlem Renaissance (1998), Revelations: Art from the African American South (2017, co-authored with Andrea Barnwell Brownlee and Lauren Tate Baeza). |
