October 30, 2025
The college sold four of six of Black American Artist Hale A. Woodruff’s murals.
Alabama’s first private historically Black college, Talladega College, has sold its historic collection of works by Black American artist Hale A. Woodruff amid financial troubles.
The college has sold four of six of Woodruff’s murals after Board Chair Rica Lewis-Payton told the New York Times that the college was having difficulty meeting payroll soon after she took the role.
Over the past year, she said she oversaw the sale of the college’s most prized possessions: Woodruff’s murals.
“The result of more than a year of careful consideration and due diligence resulted in an unprecedented coalition that benefits Talladega College in extraordinary ways and honors those who came before us, including Hale A. Woodruff, whose paintings will now be seen by millions across the United States and around the world.” Lewis-Payton said a statement.
What To Know About The Sale Between Talladega College and Art Institutions
The Smithsonian American Art Museum describes Woodruff’s 1930s figurative style as “bold” and “muscular.” Lynchings of Black people weighed heavily on his conscience and inspired him to design a series of his most iconic and impressive block prints.
According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, his best-known and most widely acclaimed works at the time were the Amistad murals, painted between 1939 and 1940, which were installed in the Savery Library at Talladega College. Talladega commissioned a group of six murals from Woodruff, painted between 1939 and 1942.
The murals had a few meanings. First, the Amistad murals celebrated the 100th anniversary of the mutiny by enslaved Africans aboard the Amistad in 1849, their trial in New Haven, Connecticut, and return to West Africa following acquittal. His other iconic mural is The Underground Railroad.
According to a news release on the college website, the Toledo Museum of Art acquired The Underground Railroad. The Art Bridges Foundation and The Terra Foundation for American Art have jointly acquired three paintings that depict the Amistad uprising and its aftermath. Woodruff’s two paintings that depict the founding of Talladega and the building of the school’s Savery Library will remain on campus, the college confirmed.
“This unprecedented coalition has formed a strategic partnership that will jointly steward the paintings and maintain their connection to Talladega, including reuniting all six murals at the College on an agreed-upon schedule,” a statement reads on the college website.
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