Fort Pierce - Fort Pierce is set to make history on May 20th with the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the City of Fort Pierce Florida Highwaymen Museum, a long-awaited tribute to one of the most remarkable and resilient chapters in American art history.
The museum, located at 1334 Avenue D, will open its doors at 2 p.m., welcoming the public to experience 26 original paintings — one from each of the Hall of Fame Highwaymen — in a single, dedicated space for the very first time.
The Highwaymen were a group of 26 Black artists from Fort Pierce who, beginning in the late 1950s, captured the sweeping beauty of pre-development Florida — its golden sunsets, windswept coastlines, and moss-draped marshes — in vivid, fast-painted scenes they sold from the trunks of their cars along U.S. Route 1 and Florida's A1A.
Working during the Jim Crow era, when professional galleries refused to exhibit the work of Black artists, they found their own path to commerce and created an estimated 200,000 paintings.
In 2004, all 26 were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame alongside legends such as Ray Charles and Ernest Hemingway.
The 26 Hall of Fame Highwaymen whose work will be represented at the museum are: Curtis Arnett, Hezekiah Baker, Al "Blood" Black, Ellis Buckner, George Buckner, Robert Butler, Mary Ann Carroll, Johnny Daniels, Willie Daniels, Rodney Demps, James Gibson, Alfred Hair, Isaac Knight, Robert Lewis, John Maynor, Roy McLendon, Alfonso "Poncho" Moran, Sam Newton, Lemuel Newton, Harold Newton, Willie Reagan, Livingston "Castro" Roberts, Carnell "Pete" Smith Sr., Charles Walker, Sylvester Wells, and Charles "Chico" Wheeler. Of the 26, Mary Ann Carroll stands as the only woman in the group.
Leading the charge to bring the museum to life is Doretha Hair Truesdell, president of the Original Florida Hall of Fame Highwaymen, Inc. — and the widow of Alfred Hair, widely regarded as the driving force and founding spirit behind the entire movement.
"It's a joy unimaginable," Truesdell said. "Having one in the museum and being able to have one are two different stories. There was a want, and there was a need. And now we have it — a museum, right here in our neighborhood."
Alfred Hair, who was killed on August 9, 1970 at just 29 years old, grew up just a few blocks from where the museum now stands. Truesdell noted that the museum's opening date of May 20th is, fittingly, his birthday — a detail she says came about organically rather than by design.
"He lived right off on 13th Street, right where the museum is," she said. "The way it is, it's the way it was meant to be."
Under the mentorship of renowned Fort Pierce landscape painter A.E. "Beanie" Backus, Alfred Hair developed a rapid, expressive painting style and organized a community of artists around him — setting up a backyard studio, recruiting salespeople, and inspiring others, including Truesdell's own brother, Carnell Smith, to take up the brush.
Though the group's momentum waned after Hair's death, several members — most notably Al Black, who continued painting until his death on May 12th of last year — carried the tradition forward through the decades.
Truesdell says the landscapes these artists created are more than art. They are preservation.
"They captured what I call now old Florida scenery," she said. "They were able to use their art to keep the landscape of Florida alive to this day and on into the future — Florida's landscape before all of the development. It was exceedingly beautiful."
The museum is the fruit of years of partnership with the City of Fort Pierce, and Truesdell was effusive in her gratitude.
"I thank the city of Fort Pierce, Florida, for helping us, giving us this opportunity," she said. "They have been a great partner in showing this for us."
The City of Fort Pierce Florida Highwaymen Museum grand opening and ribbon cutting is May 20th at 2 p.m. at 1334 Avenue D, Fort Pierce, Florida. Admission details and more information are available on the Original Florida Hall of Fame Highwaymen Facebook page.