by Jock Reynolds

He was born in 1945, black and poor, in the rural town of Cuthbert, Georgia. Abandoned by his father and given away by his mother, who could not afford to care for him, he was adopted as an infant by his Aunt Lillian, who lovingly raised him as her own. By the time he was four, "Mama" Lillian was taking Winfred with her into the local cotton fields, where she labored from sunrise to sunset to earn a meager living as a picker.

By the time Winfred was seven, he, too, was picking cotton and "shaking" peanuts. For the small quantities of crop he could harvest on his own, he earned 50 cents a day. The seasonal fieldwork, however, kept Winfred from attending school regularly. Nevertheless, he soon taught himself to make his own toys and became very handy with tools and materials of all kinds.

Winfred Rembert at Twelve

Relief from hard work came Winfred's way every Saturday morning, when he would go into town and take delight in the bustling activities of "Colored Folks Corner." There, within the otherwise strictly segregated town, black neighbors and friends could meet to shop and talk amidst a rich variety of stores, goods, and services. In this magical place, Winfred loved to behold and engage the dancers, store owners, delivery boys, jokesters, pool players, midwives, and others who greatly enlivened his youth and imagination. Together with the many pleasures of his rural youth, Winfred also experienced racism in constant and sometimes terrifying ways. At a very young age, he came upon the aftermath of a multiple lynching in the Georgia countryside, one that a number of families he knew had been forced to witness. The experience left a searing pain and sorrow in the young boy. Later in life, Winfred would recall this experience through a painting titled The Burial.

When Winfred became a teenager, he heard of the teachings of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and traveled to Albany, Georgia, to hear the civil rights leader. Winfred listened to King urging African Americans to demand their proper civil rights and encouraging non-African Americans to support them in their quest for full liberties. The young minister's words stirred Winfred deeply and changed his view of the world forever. He was soon branded a troublemaker by the white leaders who ruled his hometown of Cuthbert with firm authority. Shortly thereafter, Winfred ran afoul of the local police force and, after resisting a beating, was almost lynched. Sentenced to a long prison term, Winfred ended up doing time on the county chain gang, where, for eight years, hard physical labor again became a constant way of life. It was during this time that a fellow inmate showed him how to hand-tool leather and make a wallet, a craft he learned and then put aside until deciding to become an artist much later in life. In Winfred's painting Chain Gang, people are working together in rhythmic labor. The black and white stripes of their prison clothes also convey the powerful, throbbing repetition of their tasks and the work songs.

After Winfred was pardoned and released from jail, he married Patsy Gammage, a woman he had met during his imprisonment. To escape further trouble in Cuthbert, the couple moved to New England. There, they found work and started a family. Patsy later encouraged Winfred, at age 52, to begin visually recording the many events and stories of his youth. The Remberts have eight children and now live in New Haven, Connecticut. Winfred today presents workshops for young students. His art has been exhibited at the Yale University Art Gallery and is widely collected by many individuals.

Jock Reynolds is the director of the Yale University Art Gallery.

Don't Hold Me Back: My Life and Art by Winfred Rembert
Available October 2003 from Cricket Books