The Sun do Move and the Earth am Square

A stirring sermon fills a small Baptist church. Supernatural figures also attend, including dancing angels and a flying devil. The print’s title derives from a famous 19th-century sermon on God’s power. Lawrence Arthur Jones grew up attending a similar church, where he sang in the choir his father directed. Jones studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to New Orleans in 1938 to teach at Dillard University, Louisiana’s first historically Black university. The Federal Art Project in New Orleans got off to a shaky start in 1935 due to its first director’s prejudices. Under new leadership in 1938, more African American artists joined its ranks, including Jones.