Deep in Dixiesome five miles from Atlanta's best residential sectionNegro coeducational Atlanta University this week made double news. The opening of its fourth annual art exhibition (the only U.S. show exclusively for Negroes) was a sociological as well as an artistic phenomenon.
The Atlanta Annual at first (1942) got a lukewarm reception from Atlanta's white citizens. Local newspapers paid it little or no attention. But a few of the city's strong-minded art lovers gave it a good hand. For one, burly Editor Ralph McGill offhandedly plugged the show in his Constitution (which believes in giving Southern Negroes at least their minimum constitutional...