Roland Freeman

Roland L. Freeman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 27, 1936. As a youth, his future life's work was inspired when he discovered the Depression-era photography of Gordon Parks and Roy DeCarava, which focused on raising social consciousness, as well as the work of Farm Security Administration photographers. When Freeman was 14, he met author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who would also be a great influence on his subsequent career.{{cite web |url=https://arts.gov/honors/heritage/roland-freeman |title=Roland Freeman: Photo Documentarian, Author, and Exhibit Curator |author= |date=n.d. |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 10, 2021}}

Freeman served in the US Air Force from 1954 to 1958.{{cite book |editor-last=Riggs |editor-first=Thomas |date=1997 |title=St. James Guide to Black Artists |location=Detroit, Michigan |publisher=St. James Press in association with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture |pages=201–202 |isbn=9781558622203 |lccn=97-3068 |oclc=36470125}} He began taking photographs in the Washington, D.C. area in 1963, inspired by the March on Washington.

In 1968, he not only participated in but also documented the Poor People's Campaign and the Mule Train{{cite news |author= |title=Photographer Roland Freeman is keynote speaker April 9 |url=http://asunews.astate.edu/InsideASU040710.htm |work=Inside ASU |location=Arkansas State University |date=April 7, 2010 |access-date=January 12, 2021}} trip from Marks, Mississippi, to the nation's capital.

Freeman worked as a stringer for Time and Magnum Photos, including coverage as a White House photographer. In 1997, Freeman was named the Eudora Welty Visiting Professor of Southern Studies at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.{{cite news |last=Ramsey |first=Bets |date=March 20, 1997 |title=Freeman exhibit to travel |work=Chattanooga Times Free Press |location=Chattanooga, Tennessee |page=D6}}

In 1970, he co-directed the Mississippi FolkLife Project for the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. In 1972, he became a research associate there.

In that capacity, Freeman photographed staff at the White House, including Mrs. Lillian Rogers Parks, who worked there for 30 years. Several of Freeman's photographs of African Americans at the White House were included in official White House webpages{{cite web |url=http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_exhibits/working_whitehouse/d3_working-family.html |title=A Working Family |author= |date=n.d. |website=The Working White House |publisher=WHHA Exhibits |access-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004150641/http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_exhibits/working_whitehouse/d3_working-family.html |archive-date=October 4, 2009 |url-status=dead}} and in a Smithsonian Institution exhibition.{{cite web |url=http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/white_house_workers/main.htm |title=White House Working Family |author= |date=n.d. |website=Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service |access-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822065336/http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/white_house_workers/main.htm |archive-date=August 22, 2006 |url-status=dead}}

Freeman retained close ties to his hometown of Baltimore, a frequent subject of his work. The Arabbers of Baltimore, published in 1989, documents the work of fruit and vegetable vendors and their horse drawn carts, including Freeman's uncle.{{cite news |last=Murphy |first=Brian |title=Roland L. Freeman, whose photos chronicled Black life, dies at 87|date=August 17, 2023 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/08/16/roland-freeman-photograher-black-dies/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 16, 2023}} He also led the Jonestown Community Photo Documentation Project from 1994-1996. Sponsored by the Baltimore City Life Museum, Freeman trained 19 children how to use cameras and develop their own film; the children documented their families, their lives, and their neighborhood of Jonestown, Baltimore.{{cite web |title=Biographical / Historical |url=https://mdhistory.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/923 |website=Jonestown Community Photo Documentation Project Collection |publisher=Maryland Center for History and Culture |access-date=29 March 2024}}

Freeman worked for years on a self-assigned project "While There Is Still Time," a study of Black culture throughout the African Diaspora. He used the camera as a tool to research, document and interpret the continuity of traditional African-American folklife practices. This work is generally done in close collaboration with folklorists, historians, sociologists and community activists, often in methodologically innovative ways that have been integral to his contributions to the work of photographers of his generation.{{cite web |url=http://www.tgcd.org/tgcd.cfm?a=rf |title=Roland L. Freeman |author= |date=2002 |website=The Group for Cultural Documentation |access-date=January 12, 2021}}

Freeman spent more than 20 years photographing African-American quilters and guilds. He collected biographic information about the quilters' lives and their motivations for quiltmaking. He also documented collectors of African-American-made quilts.

A Communion of the Spirits was a landmark American quilt history book, as no one else prior to Freeman had performed a national survey of Black quilters. The book covered 38 states and the District of Columbia. Quilt guilds documented in A Communion of the Spirits include: The African American Quilters of Baltimore, the Freedom Quilting Bee of Alberta, Alabama, the African American Quilters of Los Angeles, and more. Quilt collectors included Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall.

An exhibit of Freeman's quilt photographs are in the permanent collection of the Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.

In 2008, he organized a quilt exhibition at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama. The exhibit was supposed to run from January 11 to January 31, 2009, but it was extended until July 2009.{{cite web |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/photos09/quiltsphoto.html |title=Beltway Happenings |author= |date=January 21, 2009 |website=George Washington University |access-date=January 12, 2021}}{{cite web |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/chrninau08/quiltsforobama.html |title=Quilts for Obama: An Exhibit Celebrating the Inauguration of Our 44th President |author= |date=n.d. |website=George Washington University |access-date=January 12, 2021}}

Freeman died at his home in Washington, D.C., on August 7, 2023, at the age of 87.

• Folkroots: Images of Mississippi Black Folklife, 1974–1976 (1977){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland |date=1977 |title=Folkroots: Images of Mississippi Black Folklife (1974–1976) |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=Mississippi Department of Archives and History |oclc=4014482}}
• Roland L. Freeman, a Baltimore Portfolio, 1968–1979 (1979){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=1979 |title=Roland L. Freeman, a Baltimore Portfolio, 1968–1979: A Black Photographer Looks At His Hometown |location=Catonsville, Maryland |publisher=University of Maryland Baltimore County Library |lccn=79-64296 |oclc=6916224}}
• Southern Roads/City Pavements: Photographs of Black Americans (1981){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=1981 |title=Southern Roads/City Pavements: Photographs of Black Americans |location=New York |publisher=International Center of Photography |isbn=9780933642041 |lccn=81-80577 |oclc=7776297}}
• The Arabbers of Baltimore (1989){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=1989 |title=The Arabbers of Baltimore |edition=1st |location=Centreville, Maryland |publisher=Tidewater Publishers |isbn=9780870333972 |lccn=88-40561 |oclc=19353600}}
• Margaret Walker's 'For My People': A Tribute (1992){{cite book |last=Walker |first=Margaret |others=photographs by Roland L. Freeman |date=1992 |title=Margaret Walker's 'For My People': A Tribute |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1724786M/Margaret_Walker's_For_my_people |url-access=registration |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=9780878056132 |ol=1724786M |lccn=92-28492 |oclc=26353197}}
• A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories (1996){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |others=foreword by Cuesta Benberry |date=1996 |title=A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1898677W/A_communion_of_the_spirits?edition=communionofspiri00free |url-access=registration |location=Nashville, Tennessee |publisher=Rutledge Hill Press |isbn=9781558534254 |lccn=96-26202 |oclc=34943313}}
• The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered (1998){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |editor-last=Levine |editor-first=David B. |date=1998 |title=The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered |location=Nashville, Tennessee |publisher=Rutledge Hill Press |isbn=9781558536609 |lccn=98-23252 |oclc=39157624}}
• A Tribute to Worth Long (2006){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=2006 |title=A Tribute to Worth Long: Still on the Case, a Pioneer's Continuing Commitment |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; Group for Cultural Documentation |lccn=2013-432360 |oclc=183190495}}

• City Pavements, Country Roads (1978, Antioch University){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=1977 |title=City Pavements, Country Roads |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=Antioch University |lccn=78-53508 |oclc=5128697}}
• Something to Keep You Warm (1981, Mississippi State Historical Museum){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=1981 |title=Something to Keep You Warm: the Roland Freeman Collection of Black American quilts from the Mississippi Heartland |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=Department of Archives and History, Mississippi State Historical Museum |isbn=9780938896319 |lccn=81-620010 |oclc=8452156}}
• More Than Just Something to Keep You Warm (1988, Bergen Museum of Art & Science){{cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Regenia A. |last2=Freeman |first2=Roland L. |date=1988 |title=More Than Just Something to Keep You Warm: The Afro-American Folk Art Tradition |location=Paramus, New Jersey |publisher=Bergen Museum of Art and Science |oclc=181349505}}
• Stand By Me: African American Expressive Culture in Philadelphia, (1989, Smithsonian Institution, Office of Folklife Programs){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland |date=1989 |title=Stand By Me: African American Expressive Culture in Philadelphia |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Smithsonian Institution, Office of Folklife Programs |lccn=90-119086 |oclc=21153880}}
• Some Thing of Value: Images of African and African-American Folklife (1992, APEX Museum){{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Roland L. |date=1992 |title=Some Thing of Value: Images of African and African-American Folklife |location=Atlanta, Georgia |publisher=APEX Museum |oclc=52473903}}
• Journey of the Spirit: the Art of Gwendolyn A. Magee (2004, Mississippi Museum of Art){{cite book |editor-last=Barilleaux |editor-first=René Paul |others=essay by Roland L. Freeman |date=2004 |title=Journey of the Spirit: the Art of Gwendolyn A. Magee |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=Mississippi Museum of Art |isbn=9781887422093 |lccn=2004-55923 |oclc=55947973}}

• Piney Woods School: an Oral History (1982){{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Alferdteen |others=photographs by Roland Freeman |date=1982 |title=Piney Woods School: an Oral History |edition=Print-on-demand |location=Jackson, Mississippi |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=9781578068760 |lccn=82-11150 |oclc=769850593}}
• Inside Out: Photographs from Lorton (1986){{cite book |last=Ruckman |first=Karen |others=curated by Roland L. Freeman |date=1986 |title=Inside Out: Photographs from Lorton |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Lorton Photography Workshop |oclc=79153880}}
• Drawing Our Worlds Together (1998){{cite book |last=Plotkin |first=Joel |others=collaborators David B. Levine, Judith H. Katz and Roland L. Freeman |date=1998 |title=Drawing Our Worlds Together: an Overview of the Young Person's Cultural Exchange Program and a Gallery of Artwork from the Exhibits |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Group for Cultural Documentation |oclc=57398896}}
• Fire In My Bones (2000){{cite book |last=Hinson |first=Glenn |others=photographs by Roland L. Freeman |date=2000 |title=Fire In My Bones: Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=9780812235289 |oclc=247143942}}

• In 1970, Freeman became the first photographer to be awarded a Young Humanist Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
• He has received two Masters of Photography Visual Arts Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, one in 1982 and another in 1991.
• He received the Living Legend Award for Distinguished Achievement in Photography from the National Black Arts Festival in 1994.
• In 1997, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Millsaps College.
• In 2001, the book Fire In My Bones, to which Freeman contributed the photographs, earned the Chicago Folklore Prize, an annual award which represents the most outstanding book in folklore.{{cite news |author= |title=Folklorist wins international book prize |work=The Chapel Hill News |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |date=February 11, 2001 |page=A7}}
• He was a recipient of a 2007 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the NEA, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2007 |title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2007 |author= |website=arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521114719/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2007 |archive-date=May 21, 2020 |url-status=dead}}

The Roland L. Freeman Collection was acquired in 2023 by the Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The collection, a gift from the Kohler Foundation, is part of the Southern Folklife Collection and consists of Freeman's papers, nearly 24,000 slides, 10,000 photographic prints, 400,000 negatives and 9,000 contact sheets.{{cite web |title=Library acquires archive of Roland L. Freeman, photographer of Black life in Southern U.S. {{!}} UNC-Chapel Hill |url=https://www.unc.edu/posts/2023/03/20/library-acquires-archive-of-roland-l-freeman-photographer-of-black-life-in-southern-u-s/ |website=The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |access-date=10 August 2023 |date=20 March 2023}}

Also in 2023, the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson acquired 131 quilts collected by Roland Freeman illustrating quilt-making by African-American women, many from Southern American communities, from Liberia and South Africa. The quilt collection was a gift from the Kohler Foundation.{{cite web |last1=Velie |first1=Elaine |title=A Photographer's Love Affair With Black Southern Quilt-Making |url=https://hyperallergic.com/808099/a-photographers-love-affair-with-black-southern-quilt-making/ |website=Hyperallergic |access-date=10 August 2023 |date=16 March 2023}}{{cite web |title=Mississippi Museum of Art Announces Acquisition of Major Collection of Quilts |url=http://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/4508-mississippi-museum-of-art-announces-acquisition-of-major-collecti |website=ArtfixDaily |access-date=10 August 2023 |language=en}}

In 1991, the Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired ten black and white prints by Roland L. Freeman as a gift from George H. Dalsheimer.{{cite web |title=Roland Freeman Artworks {{!}} Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery |url=https://americanart.si.edu/search/artworks?content_type=artwork&persons[]=6670 |website=americanart.si.edu |access-date=10 August 2023}}

Roland Freeman’s African American Expressive Culture in Philadelphia Project is housed at the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division and includes 737 enlarged contact sheets full of images of African-American everyday life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1980s.{{cite web |last1=Orbach Natanson |first1=Barbara |title=Reflecting on Roland Freeman's African American Expressive Culture in Philadelphia Project {{!}} Picture This |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2020/08/reflecting-on-roland-freemans-african-american-expressive-culture-in-philadelphia-project/ |website=The Library of Congress |access-date=13 August 2023 |date=28 August 2020}}{{cite web |title="Freeman, Roland L., 1936-" - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress) |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=name&q=Freeman%2C%20Roland%20L.%2C%201936- |website=www.loc.gov |access-date=13 August 2023}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://aaqb.org/ African American Quilters of Baltimore]
• [https://www.tgcd.org/ The Group for Cultural Documentation]
• [http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=98 African American Visual Artists Database: Roland L. Freeman]
• [http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n80-110215 World Catalog: Works by or about Roland L. Freeman]
• [http://blackthreads.blogspot.com/search/label/roland%20freeman Black Threads Blog: Roland Freeman]
• {{imdb name|10823027}}
• {{discogs artist|Roland Freeman}}
• [https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/70147/ Roland L. Freeman Photograph Collection, circa 1963-2006] at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Category:1936 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:21st-century African-American people

Category:African-American photographers

Category:American art historians

Category:Historians from Maryland

Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners

Category:Photographers from Maryland

Category:Writers from Baltimore