Mean Eyes
Black men from all around the far WNC region worked at the tannery in my small mountain town. When I entered the Andrews Colored/Negro school in the early 1950s, many of them had moved North to find work because the tannery had shuttered. Work was as scarce as hen’s teeth, causing men to be forced to do humiliating work like babysitting, cooking, and housecleaning for pennies in White homes. When the men left to find work in northern cities, the women took on the feeding of their families until the men could send for them. Women like the one represented by the painting “Mean Eyes” were forced to hunt animals, roots, herbs, and wild greens to feed their families and to protect them from ever-present harm.