RE LOG Fall 2017

FALL 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 7 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders ’70 spent his earliest Saturday mornings learning to paint and play the clarinet alongside talented African-American children in the first integrated art school in the South – the Fine Arts Conservatory. His mother, Ruth Greenfield, founded the conservatory in the basement of a funeral parlor in Liberty City in 1951. Young Timothy would not have known there was anything unusual about those weekly classes if he hadn’t seen how his parents were treated outside the conservatory doors. Now lauded as a civil rights pioneer, Ruth Greenfield at that time experienced resentment, disdain and worse. Neighbors sued the Greenfields for shuttling African-American kids and musicians to their Palm Island home for conservatory fundraisers (the court ruled in favor of the Greenfields). Several parents at the Cushman School objected to the family’s “radical” views and demanded that Timothy and his three siblings be removed from the campus (Mrs. Cushman stood by the Greenfield family, not an easy decision in the McCarthy era). That vibrant and sometimes turbulent upbringing has stayed with Greenfield- Sanders throughout his life, driving decisions at the Ransom School and beyond. A youth who challenged authority and rarely followed a straight path, Greenfield-Sanders was nearly always compelled by causes larger than himself. His past has shaped his most prominent achievements as a photographer and filmmaker, culminating, perhaps, in the “List” series – groups of portraits and videos designed to illuminate the plight of marginalized groups.