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Cook: Dr. Everlena Holmes, race and truth-telling art

An untitled work in Noel W. Anderson's "Blak Origin Moment" exhibit remains on display through Jan. 12 at the Hunter Museum of American Art. / Contributed by the Hunter Museum of American Art
An untitled work in Noel W. Anderson's "Blak Origin Moment" exhibit remains on display through Jan. 12 at the Hunter Museum of American Art. / Contributed by the Hunter Museum of American Art An untitled work in Noel W. Anderson's "Blak Origin Moment" exhibit remains on display through Jan. 12 at the Hunter Museum of American Art. / Contributed by the Hunter Museum of American Art

By David Cook 5 min read

When did you first realize you were black?

“My mother was a principal in a two-room schoolhouse in Eufaula, Alabama,” Dr. Everlena Holmes said. “We had to walk five miles to school to get there early to start the fire in the pot-belly stove.”

This was second or third grade, 77 years ago. Today, Holmes, who lives in Glenwood, is retired – one the most active retirees in the city – yet that Eufaula memory remains present.

“White kids went by on the school bus and threw things at us,” she said. “They had the school bus. We had to walk.”

A few days ago, Holmes and I stood inside the Hunter Museum of American Art, taking in Noel W. Anderson’s powerful exhibit “Blak Origin Moment.” Anderson, Kentucky-born and Yale University-educated, is an African American whose body of work poses vital questions: