- Augusta Savage (1892-1962), sculptor and art teacher, left Florida for New York in 1922, where she attended Cooper Union. Savage helped shape American art through her influence on her contemporaries, including Riva Helfond and Charles Alston, and on her students, including Norman Lewis, Elba Lightfoot, and Gwendolyn Knight. One of the earliest African American artists consistently and sympathetically to use Black physiognomy in her work, she was named the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center in 1937. In addition, she opened an art gallery devoted solely to the works of African American artists. Her best-known work is The Harp, more popularly known as Lift Every Voice and Sing, which was inspired by the Negro National Anthem written by her longtime friend, James Weldon Johnson, and exhibited at the 1939 World’s Fair.
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