Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) was an influential painter during the Harlem Renaissance and the first African American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration. Alston was also the first African American to teach at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Art Students League and, in 1969, to have been appointed a member of the Art Commission of the City of New York.
Alston was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was related to renowned artist Romare Bearden through his mother's second marriage. He attended Columbia University as an undergraduate and graduate student, receiving a B.A. from Columbia Collegeand an M.F.A. from Columbia University's Teachers College. After graduating, he worked at the Harlem Arts Workshop, and when the program required more space, he secured an additional facility at 306 W. 141st St. The space, known as "306," became a center for the Harlem art community.
Alston’s gift was not limited to painting. He also worked as a sculptor, and his cartoons and illustrations were published in popular magazines such as The New Yorker and Fortune. In 1990, Alston's bust of Martin Luther King Jr. became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House. He also taught at the City University of New York from 1970 to 1977. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.