MS01.01.03.B02.F23.092

events of importance in the fine arts
^can be seen^ in a letter she wrote to John Walker,
Director of the National Gallery of Art ^in April, 1966.^
The [strike: letter] subject of the letter is James
A. Porter who took the Foundation
to task for its lack of standards
in its exhibition program in the 1930s.
The letter reads thusly:
My dear Dr. Walker:
I noticed recently at the time of the 25th Anniversary
activities at the National Gallery the list of medals that were given in
connection with outstanding service to the arts. The name of Mr. James
Porter, Director of the Department of Fine Arts at Howard University
was listed.
Thinking back over the years that I have known of
activities in the Art Department at Howard, I could not help but feel a
pang of regret that an honor of this sort could not have come to Mr. James
Vernon Herring, who in my opinion really got the Art Department going at
Howard in spite of great difficulties and discouragements. He not only
organized the courses, but was responsible for the organization and
development of the art gallery work there, first in the little old building,
and then later in the new library. It was regretful to me that his retirement
came before the new school of fine arts building was erected, because I believe
that many adjustments would have been made in the plans for the fine arts
section of which you art experts would have approved, and would have been
included, had he been there with his courage to struggle through.
Almost singlehanded I know that Mr. Herring worked long and
hard to get better art programs started in many of the colleges in the south
where the enrollment is of Negro origin. He had a great deal to do with the
development of the Barnett Aden Gallery, making available his own home for
the purpose. Since his retirement, now in his middle eighties, he has
continued to function as a replacement professor of art in a number of the
colleges in the south where the regular usually one-man art department individual
was off on a furlough. I believe that Mr. Porter would not be where he is today
if it had not been for the efforts of Mr. Herring to build him up. I regret that
Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson who was the president for so many years during Mr.
Herring's tenure at Howard, is in retirement because I believe he would bear me out.
I do not know Mr. Herring's exact age, but I have a feeling
that he is now about eighty-six years old. It is my understanding, even though
I am not in touch with him, that he is not occupied this year, but is living in
his home at 127 Randolph Place North, Washington, D. C.