This Day in History: 1925-03-28

Award winning sculptor and teacher Edward N. Wilson, Jr., is born. His work was featured in the landmark 1976 exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art. Mr. Wilson produced some two dozen sculptures, working variously in bronze, aluminum and red hickory. He became chairman of the department of art and art history at the State University of New York in Birmingham, NY, in 1964. Among his acclaimed works are a memorial to John F. Kennedy, a piece titled “Falling Man,” “Second Genesis,” “Jazz Musicians,” “Middle Passage,” subtly depicting the horrors of slave ships, and a memorial to Ralph Ellison, the author of “The Invisible Man,” that stands at the Ralph Ellison Library in Oklahoma City. In their book, “A History of African-American Artists” (Random House, 1992), Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson devoted a chapter to Mr. Wilson, ranking him as a significant artist. Learn more.