I completed this etching portfolio as a tribute to the military career of Colonel Charles Young over 32 years ago at the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus. The first time the portfolio was displayed in its entirety was at the Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison in 1975 when it hung as my Master of Fine Arts exhibition, and - ironically - it has never been exhibited in its entirety anywhere else since.

Since my MFA Exhibition appeared at the Wisconsin State Historical Society instead of at the University of Wisconsin, I am forever grateful to my professor, Warrington Colescott, for encouraging me to exhibit it at such a prestigious institution. In addition, I continue to be extremely grateful to the officials of the Wisconsin State Historical Society who recognized the historical significance of my portfolio and the scholarly merit of my work on Colonel Charles Young.

I worked for excellence while I developed both my MA and MFA projects on Colonel Young in not only in the areas of Fine Arts but also in academic areas of American military history and theatre. That is why professor Colescott suggested that I take my portfolio to the Smithsonian for consideration as an exhibition, so I did.

Unfortunately, after leaving both my portfolio and some research materials on loan at the Smithsonian for approximately six months, it was returned to me by Smithsonian curator Janet Flint, who said that they had no place to display it. So in the Smithsonian's 19 museums and 144 affiliate museums, there was no space to exhibit the work of an African American woman artist paying tribute to an historic African American military figure - who had become a legend in his own time. How very unfortunate.

Well, it's said that "timing is everything," so after decades of waiting, perhaps someone viewing this website will help me to find appropriate funding and a place to produce my heartfelt dramatization and artistic tribute to Colonel Charles Young as a television mini-series and educational packet to be distributed into schools nation-wide to begin a national dialogue on racism. For I believe that this is the type of media event that we need to promote racial tolerance as one major step toward making racial equality a reality in today's America.