ART
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY LEE DRAKE
Highwayman Hezekiah Baker died in 2007 at the age of 66 and is buried
in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens.
food on the table for herself and her children.
Although the artists knew each other and spent time together,
they didn’t consider themselves a “group.” They gained
the name Highwaymen in a 1995 article written by museum
curator and art collector Jim Fitch, who said he coined it
because of the way they sold their work: along the streets
and highways from door to door in a time when segregation
prevented them from selling in more conventional ways.
“It was a struggle for everything in the beginning,” said
Kelvin Hair, son of original Highwayman Alfred Hair. “It
was a time when most blacks worked in the fields and were
considered second class.” >>
SUSAN BURGESS
Each side of the 20-foot obelisk installed in November contains mosaics of
four Highwaymen paintings.