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COLEMAN 7

and also a student of the Dean of Afro-American artists, Henry Ossawa Tanner, certainly prepared him to be mentor of young artists who came to Atlanta University and who would later establish themselves as artists and teachers.  Prominent among these young artists were William Hayden (1916-1987), Fred Flemster (1916- ), Wilmer Jennings (1910- ), Eugene Grigsby (1918- ), Hayward Oubre, Lawrence Jones (1910- ), Vernon Winslow, Jenelsie Walden, John Howard (1912-c. 1970's), Mattie Greenwood and Alma Simmons.  A number of Woodruff's students helped him to paint commissioned works such as the Amistad Murals for the Savery Library at Talledega [[Talladega]] College, Talledega [[Talladega]], Alabama, 1937-38.  Woodruff's students were to found college art departments and teach art in the public schools throughout the South.  Lawrence Jones established art programs at Fort Valley State College (now University) and at Jackson State College (now University).  John Howard developed the art department at Arkansas State College (now University) at Pine Bluff.  Jenelsie Walden (now Holloway) headed the art department at Spelmen College.  Alma Simmons and Mattie Greenwood became art coordinators in the Atlanta Public Schools.  Before Woodruff left Atlanta University, he, along with then president Dr. Rufus E. Clement, established the highly influential Atlanta University Annual Art Exhibition in 1942.  For years Woodruff was to continue to have an impact on art in the South, because many young Black artists, such as Leo Twiggs, made their pilgrimages to New York University