Bill Traylor

Bill Traylor was an African American self-taught artist born into slavery who spent most of his life working as a sharecropper in Alabama. After moving to Montgomery in 1939 at the age of 85, he began documenting his observations and recollections on scraps of cardboard. Working on city sidewalks between 1939 and 1942, Traylor produced nearly 1,500 pieces of art.