Corietta L. Mitchell: The First Black Artist Featured at the Birmingham Museum of Art

Third of Three Parts

By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times

In March 1963, Corietta L. Mitchell (1910-1982) made history as the first Black artist to exhibit work at the Birmingham Museum of Art. But this was just one of her many achievements that advanced the city’s Black arts community.

Born in Birmingham, Mitchell attended local public schools before earning her Bachelor of Science from Alabama State University and her Master of Arts from Teachers College at Columbia University. A longtime public school instructor, Mitchell taught art at Ullman and Philips High Schools.

Eventually Mitchell established the Birmingham Art Club to support the city’s art teachers. The A.M. Brown Memorial Community Center — the former medical offices and home of Dr. Arthur McKimmon Brown, which was built by Black architect Wallace A. Rayfield in 1908– was donated to the Birmingham Art Club, and the center became a vital hub for the arts within Birmingham’s Smithfield community. As director of the A.M. Bown Center, Mitchell oversaw programming for children in Birmingham who were often otherwise denied cultural opportunities.

Mitchell, a multitalented artist, singer, pianist and educator, became a leader in the cultural life of Birmingham’s Black middle class communities. In 1957, she gave a talk to “a large audience at the Art Museum,” according to a report by The Birmingham News. This was no small feat considering the time period.

The Birmingham Museum of Art, which was established as a department of the City of Birmingham and originally located in City Hall, opened to the public in 1951. Because of the segregationist laws upheld by Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety, and sustained by other local leaders and law enforcement, the museum permitted Black visitors only one day a week. And until 1963, the BMA also didn’t exhibit any work by Black artists.

But Mitchell broke through this barrier. Mitchell’s 1963 solo exhibition, held on a Sunday evening, was a modest show of seven oil paintings and five prints, but attracted nearly 600 people. And with her show, she blazed a path for hundreds of Black artists whose work would be exhibited at the museum in the years to come.

Though she was the first Black artist to have a solo exhibition at the BMA, the museum never acquired Mitchell’s work for its permanent collection.

This year, the BMA is not only celebrating its 75^th anniversary but also honoring the works of more than 250 Black American artists now included in the museum’s permanent collection.  Opening on September 26, 2026, Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art is a major exhibition and publication project that examines the legacy of the Black artists who helped shape the museum’s history.

Meanwhile, the institution’s pursuit to find and include Mitchell’s art continues, as the museum is determined to honor her legacy too.