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Article: ELMA LEWIS
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- January 3, 2004
CopyrightCopyright 2004 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ELMA LEWIS was a mighty hammer - visionary, blunt, determined. She
didn't bother with velvet gloves for her iron fists. She loved the
arts and fought so that people in her community had the chance to do
the same. Her death at 82 on New Year's Day wounds the city's spirit,
but her life throws light into its future.
She was pure Boston: a graduate of the city's public schools,
Emerson College, and Boston University.
There had been decades of talk about the Negro's plight by the
time Lewis was busy bending Boston to her will, opening the Elma
Lewis School of Fine Arts in 1950 and the National Center of Afro-
American Artists in 1968. She soared above the stereotypes and hand-
wringing, building ...