Ye Shall Inherit the Earth by African American Artist Charles W. White (1918 - 1979)

I was scrolling through Facebook today when I came across this amazing work of art to the left featuring a black woman that was seemingly protecting and comforting her baby. From my point of view, the baby was wrapped in his mother's arms with the mother holding him very closely and firmly. Her hand covered his head, perhaps as a sign that he would be protected both physically and spiritually.

This art piece is a lithograph entitled "Ye Shall Inherit the Earth." It was created in 1953 by an important African American 20th century artist named Charles W. White (1918-1979).

If I am honest, I thought this portrait of mother and child was just a simple image of a random farm worker and her child until I took some time to learn more about it's history. Initially the lithograph captivated me, but as I explored it further, I became captivated by the story behind it as well.

This artwork depicts Rosa Lee Ingram, a Georgian widow and mother of 12 who served as a sharecropper during the mid-20th century. I found Ms. Ingram and her sons' story of life in the southern United States during a time marked by deep racial atrocities against black people by white southerners to be both heartbreaking and inspiring.

In 1948, Ms. Ingram along with three of her sons were tried in court for the murder of a white neighbor who they recently killed. The trial was relatively short and in the end Ms. Ingram and two of her sons were sentenced to death by an all white jury. Her third son was acquitted due to lack of evident.

While Ms. Ingram consistently reported that she and one of her eldest sons had killed their neighbor when each struck him on the head with a rifle, she maintained that they had no choice but to do so due to need for self-defense. Ms. Ingram reported that on the day he died, her neighbor became confrontational due to her livestock making their way to his property. She further explained that she and her son struggled with this neighbor after he brandished both a knife and a rifle and threated to harm her. Ms. Ingram emphasized that her and her sons had no choice but to apply force to save her life.

Ms. Ingram and her sons plight attracted the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a communist-led group called Civil Rights Congress (CRC). Through legal battles with the Georgian court system, the two organizations were able to have Ms. Ingram and her sons death penalty sentences commuted to life in prison. Through diligent ongoing legal advocacy by several organizations on state and federal levels, all three family members were paroled after over 10 years of time served each.

Mr. White, who was a renowned artist at the time, sent the "Ye Shall Inherit the Earth" lithograph to Ms. Ingram in 1954 as a Mother’s Day gift. At the time, Ms. Ingram was still imprisoned. Mr. White's hope was that the artwork piece would serve to reinforce Ms. Ingram and her family's faith that they would be released from prison soon due to solidarity within the black community and beyond related to fighting for their freedom.

To learn more about Mr. White's lithograph masterpiece, you can visit https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2023.87.4.

In addition, here is a short, five minute YouTube video about Mr. White: https://youtu.be/kFGpV47s8TA?si=g6R7_S28EEELvlMm.