Alfred Warner Hair

Alfred Warner Hair once told people that his paintings would earn him not only enough money to buy a new Cadillac, but to make him a millionaire by the time he was thirty-five. It’s a bold statement for anyone, let alone a young African American artist living in the era of Jim Crow. Though he died at only twenty-nine years old, Hair was well on his way to making his million at the time of his death.[1] He was not just a painter; he was a bold, charismatic salesman, who knew how to harness his creativity to provide for his family, and led what is now widely considered to be the Last Great American Art Movement of the 20th century.[2]

Born on May 20^th, 1941, in Fort Pierce, Florida, Alfred Hair was taken by art at an early age. His high school art teacher Zanobia Jefferson noticed his talent and introduced him to renowned Florida landscape artist Albert ‘Bean’ Backus. Undeterred the racial and cultural climate at the time, Backus agreed to mentor Hair and give him lessons at his studio in Florida.

Over the years Hair developed a distinctive style, rejecting the foundations of color theory utilized by many of his predecessors in the art world. When painting skies, he opted for striking hues of orange, pink, purple, as well as the more traditional blues. The leaves of his trees were often vivid shades of red and yellow. Hair created his landscapes quickly, often lining up several canvases at a time. He would mix a color and add it to each canvas before mixing up the next.[3]

This, however, wasn’t simply his preferred style of working. Backus, as a white artist, could spend months on a single painting as he knew it would be shown in a gallery before being sold for hundreds of dollars. At the time, however, galleries refused to show art created by African American artists. The only way Hair could show his paintings was to load up the trunk of his car with his canvases and go house to house to sell them for a fraction of the price that his white counterparts could. The only way to make money was to work quickly and sell more paintings.

Whilst working as an artist in the 1950s, Hair met another contemporary of Bean Backus and fellow landscape artist, Harold Newton. Newton, also from Fort Pierce, was also selling his paintings at the time in a similar fashion to Hair. Hair and Newton began working alongside each other and, before long, started supporting other self-taught Black artists across Fort Pierce. Hair was soon leading a group of twenty-six young African American artists, much like himself.

Together, the group (later called The Highwaymen) created an unofficial movement, using art to try and break down the racial barriers which had impacted them all as both artists and human beings.

Sadly, Alfred Hair was killed on August 9, 1970, in a barroom brawl, at just twenty-nine years old. He was survived by his wife Dorothea and their four children, Alfred Jr., Sherry, Roderick and Lisa.

Following Hair’s death, The Highwaymen’s notoriety waned somewhat. However, in 1995, Florida art historian Jim Finch revived interest in the group after he wrote an article about their work in Antiques & Art Around Florida. By 2004, all twenty-six members of the group had been inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

Now, Hair’s art continues to sell for tens of thousands of dollars and has been collected by the likes of Michelle Obama and Shaquille O’Neal.

Alfred Hair was not only an artist. He was a salesman, a leader, a trailblazer, and true art hero.

[1] Grigas, Catherine Enns. Alfred Hair [Online] Available https://indianrivermagazine.com/alfred-hair. 2026.

[2] St. Petersburg Times. Painting isn’t Just One Man’s Treasure [Online] Available https://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/20/Northpinellas/Painting_isn_t_just_o.shtml. 2005.

[3] Hurd, Gordon K. Alfred Hair: A charismatic businessman who created a movement for Florida’s black artists [Online] Available https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/alfred-hair-overlooked.html. 2026.