Augusta Fells Savage, African American Sculptor
Born in Florida in 1892, Augusta Fells Savage arrived in New York in 1921 to study and remained to take part in the Harlem Renaissance. Widowed at a young age and struggling to support her parents and young daughter, Savage faced both racism and poverty. Much of her work has been lost because she sculpted in clay and could not afford to cast in bronze. Savage began to speak out for racial justice after she was denied, on the basis of her race, a fellowship to study in Paris. In 1923, she married a close associate of UNIA leader Marcus Garvey. Augusta Savage with her sculpture Realization, c. 1938/Andrew Herman, photographer. Federal Art Project, Photographic Division collection, Archives of American Art/Smithsonian Institution.