Welcome, bright viewers, to today’s Enlightenment Entertainment. Throughout history, wherever the African people settled in the world, they brought their talents and their heritage, while participating in the greater progress as members of their communities.

The Cabarrus County Museum of Fine Art & African American History, located in the city of Concord, North Carolina, USA, honors this fact. It provides its visitors a window into the rich world of African American artists and the contributions of African American heroes to human history. Mr. Bernard Davis, Jr. is the founder of the museum.

Halo Supreme Master Ching Hai and all the global viewers around the world. My name is Bernard Davis. I’m here at the Cabarrus County Museum of Fine Art & African American History. Welcome to Concord.

Mr. Davis, as a poet and someone who greatly appreciates fine art, could you tell us what inspired you to do this museum?

I was primarily inspired to do the museum, because there are many African American stories out there in Cabarrus County that needed to be told. Aside from that, we also globally wanted the world to know about the history of our culture, so that we could become an intricate part of the universal culture.

We asked Mr. Davis if he would show us some of the museums paintings and sculptures by some of the country’s best contemporary artists of African heritage.

I’d be pleased to do that. Follow me. One of the pieces that I’m very proud of is a piece by Jacob Lawrence. Jacob Lawrence, his family was from South Carolina. One of the things that fascinate me about Mr. Lawrence’s work is the way that he incorporates the colors, just a universal feel. By the way, this particular piece is entitled, “The Library.” His paintings are very much loved around the world as well as here in the United States.

Jacob Lawrence became nationally famous when he painted his “Migration Series” telling the story of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North from 1916-1919. The paintings were featured in “Fortune” magazine.

John T. Biggers is from the Ashville area, which is a mountainous area of North Carolina. And he is not only a painter, he’s a painter, a sculptor, known the world over.

He was also known as the gentleman who started many, many art courses in major colleges around the United States and the world. The piece that I like most is called, “In the Upper Room.” In “the Upper Room,” we see three ladies. It tells us that in the African American culture, the weight of the home is carried on the shoulders of its females. The strength of the church is carried on the back of the female.

The home is kept neat and orderly and clean by the female. We have all of these things that the female helps improve in our lives, and that being the church, education, spiritualism, and those are things or qualities that are universal. They’re not just culturally diverse, they’re universal. And – very good message. I love this piece.

This piece is by Henry O’Tanner. Henry O’Tanner is one of the premier African American artists in America and known throughout the world. He is the first African American artist to sell a painting for US$200,000 or more. People like Bill Cosby, and several other people, own his art. He is the only African American artist who is a universal artist as well. He has two paintings hanging in the Louvre in Paris. He has a painting hanging in the White House.

And this particular piece, which is “The Banjo Lesson,” is found in most schools, courthouses, and it’s well-known. One of the reasons why I like this piece most of all is because of the story that is tells us about warmth and caring and sharing with each other.

This gentleman and his grandson or his relative, and we know that because of the closeness, the proximity of closeness they have with each other, are sitting in front of a fireplace. And many people will ask me, “Well how do you know it’s a fireplace?” Because the artist has allowed us to see the shading of warmth on the front side of his art.

We see that the warmth on the leg, on the chair, on the arm, on the side of the face. We also notice that there is a window in this room; it’s not a closed-in, enclosed world. It’s a open caring world because here the artist has placed light on this side of the older figure’s arms and legs. So we know that there’s a window there. We know that there’s a fireplace.

At our first glance, we think that this is a painting of poverty. But it’s not. It’s a painting of warmth and caring and love. And we can tell this by looking in the face of the two figures. It’s a very good piece. It’s a very good artist, a very great artist, and one of my favorites.

We’ll continue our visit to the Cabarrus County Museum of Fine Art & African American History when we return. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Enlightenment Entertainment on Supreme Master Television.

This is a piece of sculpture from Zimbabwe in South Africa. It is made from what’s called soapstone. The stone itself when it comes out of the ground is black in hue, and the only way we get this coloring is when we start to sand it down and smooth it, it turns a white. This piece weighs I would say about twenty, twenty-five, or twenty-six pounds. There’s an iron pigment in the ore so it’s very heavy. So, it’s a very beautiful piece. It’s called “The Family.”

The Cabarrus County Museum contains a gallery called the African American History Hall of Fame, an exhibition that highlights all the admirable deeds of African American poineers in the region. Here, their true legends of creativity, strength, and heroism offer an eye-opening experience for visitors.

Very first and most notable gentleman is Warren Clay Coleman. Mr. Coleman was born a slave here in Concord, Cabarrus. Yet he rose to be a little bit of everything. He rose to be both the first entrepreneur, the first philanthropist, the first person to sell stock, the first person to buy and rent properties and real estate, the first person to build a textile mill from the ground up, employ all African Americans. He was quite a gentleman. And from here throughout the United States he was known as the first African American to master such a feat.

Mr. Coleman is one of my heroes because he became very warm, very receptive to other people’s needs, he contributed a lot of money to Barber-Scotia College, to area churches. He started as a slave who was set free and who became at peace with everyone who he came in contact with. And that’s an admirable quality for all of us to emulate. He’s quite a man and truly one of my heroes.

The next gentleman is Dr. Watkins. In the early 1900s, he came to this area, the very first African American doctor to practice in this area. And that was God-sent because prior to him coming, it was a root or remedy, or some kind of extract that you took to help, because there were no doctors. There were no hospitals.

So he was very important to the vitality and to the life and to the growth of the area because we did need medical care. And he came at about a time when the area was growing and definitely needed that. Next we have Mrs. Wallace, Zenobia Wallace-Lawing, who is the first registered nurse in Concord, Cabarrus.

Mr. Charles Alexander Senior. Mr. Alexander had no formal education. But he’s a prime example of what we can do with the natural things that we absorb from this universe we’re in. He was a musician. He was the first African American in this area to have his own orchestra. Of course, he played about three or four different instruments fluently. He also had the first brick plant, the concrete bricks that we see. He was the one who had a plant who made those bricks, in fact, right down the street here.

But he’s most noted for building the first African American rest-home. He dug out the foundation, and he laid the bricks, and he built a unit for about 20 people. It was a state-certified rest-home, the first in this area. And he’s noted most for that. And we’re grateful for that. Next we have Mr. L. C. Evans, who is the first African American law enforcement officer here in Concord, Cabarrus County. The lesson we learn from this person, this historian, is that he persevered.

He took whatever was thrown his way, and turned it into something positive, and thereby set the example for all those who followed after him. Next we have the very first person who was elected to public office, Mrs. Eddleman. Mrs. Eddleman was the first African American in Cabarrus County, and she was elected by the public to the Board of Education. She went on and had a long, illustrious career as a politician and as a public servant.

Mr. Griffin was the principal of Logan School. He began to go blind because of diabetes. But he didn’t stop serving the public that he loved so much. He did so, so many things. He went on to Cannon Mills Industries, which were known pretty much around the world as Cannon Mills towels.

Even though he was blind, he decided that he would go and help them hire qualified African Americans, which he did. And so a lot of people, African Americans, got their start at local banks and jobs that they otherwise would not have had, had they not had someone who would step up and recommend them highly for the talent that they possess. So he’s a great man.

I’d like to just say in closing that the museum is a way for me to enlighten younger minds, to get them in harmony with the rest of the world. So, the museum is a microcosm of all the things that our culture entails, and it is the beginning to our growth and our understanding of not only ourselves, but the rest of the people in this world around us. And I thank you again for the opportunity to let me show you what we have to offer in this wide, spacious universe. Thank you.

We thank Mr. Bernard Davis and the Cabarrus County Museum of Fine Art & African American History for sharing your artistic and historic treasures with us. May you continue to illuminate the minds and hearts of people, thus helping to create a more harmonious and gentler humanity.

For more information on the Cabarrus County Museum of Fine Art & African American History, please visit

Thank you for being with us on today’s Enlightening Entertainment. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for more constructive progams. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. May Heaven bless you with love and courage every day.