Floyd Lee, Prison Trustee -"If you cut my arm and yours you'll find the same blood.... It's no different.", from a series of drawings documenting the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, AL

Burton Silverman’s drawings from the Montgomery Bus Boycott trials participate in an artistic heritage engendered by realist artists from earlier generations who recorded moments of strife and struggle, from Francisco Goya’s paintings of Napoleon’s invasion of Spain to John Singer Sargent’s depiction of World War I soldiers blinded by a mustard gas attack. However, Silverman argues, “We need to start thinking about art in a different way—it’s not just about how real something looks, but also what it means.” In depicting ordinary citizens, Silverman eschews sensationalized media representations of the protests. Instead, he presents the invisible work done by the Black community in the privacy of their homes, churches, and meetinghouses. Aware of his limitations as a white artist attempting to capture the spirit of these protests, Silverman’s portrait of Floyd Lee actively counters past images made by white abolitionists, such as William O. Blake’s Am I not a man and a brother?.