Painting the Passion of Civil Rights
Spiritual, captivating, and haunting are words that come to mind as you take in “Icons of the Civil Rights Movement,” a series of paintings by Pamela Chatterton-Purdy ’66 MFA. The twenty oil paintings on gold leafed wood panels are a tribute to the people whose tremendous sacrifice influenced the history of this country. “Every time I see someone tear-up as they look at the show, I have a real sense of accomplishment,” she says, “because I’ve succeeded in honoring these people and all they accomplished through non-violence.”
“Icons” has traveled to over 20 colleges, universities, and museums, including UMass Amherst. The exhibit was also in Washington D.C. for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama and will be at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on January 18 in conjunction with the annual Martin Luther King Breakfast.
The Civil Rights Movement has always played a major role in Chatterton-Purdy’s life. “When I was about fifteen years old, my father, who was an agent of Allied Van Lines, got a phone call from baseball legend Jackie Robinson. He wanted to move to the nearby town of Stamford, Connecticut and my dad said, ‘Of course, I’ll make all the arrangements.’ The very next day we started getting threatening phone calls from neighbors in Stamford who said things like, ‘Mr. Chatterton, do you care about the safety of your four little girls?’ This was around the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Little Rock Nine, so I was always conscious of the movement and its impact on our lives,” she says.
After graduating from the University of New Hampshire in 1963 with a degree in art, Chatterton-Purdy met and married David Purdy, a Methodist minister. The couple moved to the west side of Chicago, where he worked at The Ecumenical Institute and she landed a job as an art editor at Ebony Magazine. “I was one of two whites in a company of 150 employees,” she recalls. “That September, the Sixteenth St. Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham, killing four little girls.”
Throughout the 60s and 70s the couple was active in many marches for civil rights and protests against the Vietnam War. In 1971, they adopted an African-American boy, who joined their two biological daughters. Four years later after the fall of Saigon, they adopted a second boy; an Amerasian child of a Vietnamese mother and a black American soldier. “We have gut-wrenching stories to tell about the racism we experienced as a family,” says Chatterton-Purdy.
For 30 years, Chatterton-Purdy taught art at various schools and colleges in Massachusetts, including a stint at UMass Amherst. In 2004, inspiration for the “Icons” series came as she and her husband took a trip through the south, visiting memorials that marked milestones in the Civil Rights Movement. It wasn’t until 2007 though, that life granted her the time to start the project.
Next on the horizon is a book of personal accounts from people who knew the Civil Rights leader in each painting or had some experience related to the events depicted in the series. “I don’t even have a publisher,” she says,” but I’m very excited about the book. I already have a number of submissions and so many people are willing to share their memories and experiences.”
For more information on the works of Pamela Chatterton-Purdy and to see a photo gallery of “Icons of Civil Rights”, visit http://www.chatterton-purdyart.com.
By Elena Lamontagne
January 5, 2010