“Alfred Hair was a young African American
artist who wanted to be wealthy at a time when
black people had little opportunity to rise above
the economic and social limitations of the times,”
Monroe said. “His is a unique story, in which
art and commerce were complimentary, even
synergistic. He did not need a moral compass;
morality came naturally to him, and during his
short life his conscience guided some and affected
many, most of whom were unconscious of his
infl uence. As soon as Hair graduated from Lincoln
Park Academy High School in 1961, he began
painting luminous South Florida landscapes and
selling the paintings door to door. Though racial
tensions were rising
all around him, he
focused on his goal.
In the aftermath
of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, the
pushback against
integration by
southerners, and the
resulting outbreak of
regional strife, Hair,
in a peaceful zone
of concentrated
effort, painted and
sold landscapes to
consumers of all
degrees and racial prejudice.”
Gary Monroe lays out Alfred Hair’s life in clear
prose with great detail. This story takes the reader
on an all-encompassing journey that spans where
he grew up, how he developed as an artist who
inspired a movement of Highwaymen, romantic
exploits, his marriage and experiences as a father,
and fi nally his death and the tragic scene that
ended his life too soon.
Alfred Hair wanted to live richly; money itself
meant little, if anything, to him. His goal of being
a millionaire by his thirty-fi fth birthday is best
viewed less as a target than as a metaphor. He
lived life fully, always in the moment. He was on
top of the world when he died. But it was like
that every day and night for Alfred Hair. He was
also on top of his game, the father of six and living
his dream.
“He didn’t know when to come home,” his wife
Doretha lamented about the nights he would not
come home at all.
Monroe explains the signifi cance of Hair’s death.
“Things indeed died with Alfred Hair then, but the
painting enterprise continued.”
Highwayman Hezekiah Baker said, “There was
nothing to shoot for when Alfred Hair died. He
was the glue holding things together.”
Monroe said, “There was momentum with the
enterprise, and painting and selling at that point
were in high gear. Life changed, but went on,
and their paintings continued to sell for another
decade. Then the landscapes disappeared as
quickly as they had appeared. As the paintings
seemed to lose their appeal and fade from
view, the anonymous artists were rendered
inconsequential. Their
names did not merely
fade from public
consciousness; rather, it
was as if they had hardly
existed and ever painted.
Yet, many paintings
continued to hang in
homes and offi ces, their
bright colors losing their
edge to sunlight and
nicotine. Like so much
decorative art, they
became fi xtures on the
wall, taken for granted,
like white noise.”
Focusing on self-taught vernacular art, Gary
Monroe began his literary pursuits in 2001 with
The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American
Landscape Painters. He has been awarded grants
for his work from the National Endowment for
the Arts, Florida Department of State’s Division
of Cultural Affairs, Florida Humanities Council, and
Fulbright Foundation. Through his writing, Monroe
has given voice to the disenfranchised creative
people, and in doing so he has enriched readers’
lives by introducing new ways of
thinking about art and culture.
You can purchase Alfred Hair: Heart of the
Highwaymen on the University Press of Florida
website upf.com, amazon.com and in
bookstores.
Jonathan Herbert is an award-winning writer who grew
up in Englewood. His novels, Banyan Street & Silver
King, have won multiple literary awards, including
recognition from the Paris Book Festival.
You can follow him on Twitter @herbertnovels
or online at herbertnovels.com
/upf.com
/amazon.com
/herbertnovels.com
