CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For someone so closely associated with Charlotte and the South, famed artist Romare Bearden spent precious little time here.
In fact, his parents fled the city when a white mob targeted them in 1915 during the Jim Crow era. They took their young son to Pittsburgh, part of the Great Migration of Southern Black families to the North in the early 20th century. Later, they settled in Harlem, where Bearden would be ensconced in the Harlem Renaissance.
He only returned to Charlotte a few times over the years. But the city, along with the South itself, would repeatedly figure into Bearden’s work throughout the decades. By the time he died in 1988 at age 76, Bearden was secure in the firmament of 20th century artists.
