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I HAVE OFTEN been asked why I supported "Harlem On My Mind" when it was so controversial and not in keeping with an Exhibition that should have been on display at the Met.

Well the answer to this one is simple. I like "Harlem On My Mind." I liked Tom Hoving, the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who had the nerve to put it on; and I liked the three young men who came to Tom and talked him into doing it.

Now lets get down with it----Being a New Yorker and an Harlemite, I could only remember going in the Met three times in my life before "Harlem On My Mind" was presented there.

Granted that although the Met is the foremost museum in the world one could never accuse it of being ethnic until "Harlem On My Mind" was presented there. By this I mean the Met never did anything to encourage Negroes to come in and view the great Art treasures reposing there, although the folks who started the Museum wrote in their By-law that they wanted everyone to come in.

The first time I went to the Met I was carried there by my high school Art teacher at De Witt Clinton High School. She felt that this Negro boy should be exposed to some culture, so on one of her field trips she invited me to join some white students whom she was taking to see the Broadway show "The Green Pastures" by Marc Connely in which Richard B. Harrsion, the great Negro actor played the part of the "Lord," and Inez Pesard, was one of the little angels--Inez was the prettiest girl I ever saw in my life and she lived on 118th Street between Lenox and Fifth Avenue in Harlem.

Well the plan of the teacher was to take us to see a play one weekend then take us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to sketch some of the statues they had there from Greece. [[/boxed text]]
[[image: monochrome photo of part of facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with people sitting on steps and walking past.]]

[[image: photo with strong side lighting, of man's head]] [[caption]] REGINALD McGHEE [[/caption]]

[[image: photo - headshot of man]]
[[caption ]] FABIAN BACHRACH [[/caption]]

[[image: photo - headshot of woman ]]
[[caption ]] REGINALD McGHEE  [[/caption]]

[[image: photo - headshot of man]] [[caption]] MARGOT NIEDERLAND [[sic]] [[/caption]]

[[image: photo - headshot of young black man]] [[caption]] REGINALD McGHEE [[/caption]]

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Allon Schoener, editor of Harlem On My Mind and exhibition coordinator for the Metropolitan Museum's Harlem exhibition, is Visual Arts Director of the New York State Council on the Arts. He created The Jewish Museum's widely acclaimed Lower East Side exhibition, is the author of Portal to America: The Lower East Side 1870-1925, and produced the New York State Council on the Arts' multi-media exhibition, Erie Canal 1817-1967, presented on a canal boat that toured New York state communities. Born in Cleveland, trained as an art historian at Yale University and the University of London's Courtauld Institute, he prefers to describe himself as an environmental critic -- one who examines how we live and comments on it.

Thomas P.F. Hoving, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, generated a new sense of excitement about urban living during his term as Parks Commissioner in New York City. In his post at the Metropolitan Museum, he is bringing excitement in ideas and presentation as well as awareness of community responsibility to art museums through innovations he is introducing.

Candice Van Ellison is an undergraduate majoring in sociology at the University of Bridgeport. Born in 1950, she has lived in Harlem all her life. In 1967, her last year at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx, she wrote a term paper describing life in Harlem. It serves as the introduction to this book.

Reginald McGhee is director of photographic research for the Metropolitan Museum's Harlem On My Mind Exhibition. He is a professional journalistic photographer whose work has appeared nationally in newspapers and periodicals.

Donald Harper is associate researcher and media director for the Harlem On My Mind Exhibition. He is an electrical engineer who has moved into the field of multi-media communication. He participated in creating March on Selma, a documentary exhibition which coordinated taped-interview portraits with photgraphs by Bruce Davidson.

Transcription Notes:
note that three different people are captioned Reginald McGhee! The article beside it covers 5 people so those may be the correct names.