BEFORE SETTLING IN ATLANTA in 1968, Richard A. Long (1927-2013) visited Alain Locke’s home and viewed his art collection, sat for portraits in Paris with Beauford Delaney and directed the College Museum at Hampton Institute. In Atlanta, where he essentially became dean of the black arts community, Long founded the African American Studies program at Atlanta University and retired from Emory University where he was the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts. A Fulbright scholar and true renaissance man, he traveled the world and over the course of his career taught English, French and linguistics, curated art exhibitions and wrote about dance. At home, he entertained James Baldwin, Romare Bearden and Maya Angelou, with his prized art collection hanging on the surrounding walls. Artist and professor Amalia Amaki spent many hours in Long’s art-filled home. She recalls meeting him with her father at the annual Atlanta University art exhibition founded by Hale Woodruff. It was the late 1960s and she was nearing the end of high school. After her father passed away and she was pursuing a Ph.D. in 20th century American art and culture at Emory, she says Long was “like […]
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