In Search of Minnie Evans’s Gardens

Nested in the theoretical framework of Alice Walker’s 1974 essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” this research analyzes the life and work of North Carolina artist Minnie Evans (1892–1987) to contemplate causations for the lost potential of female African American artists. Evans’s exposure to white violence as a survivor of the 1898 Wilmington massacre and coup d’état is considered, as are the deleterious effects of white supremacy and the ways it intertwined with capitalism to exhaust Black women. Evans toiled as a domestic laborer for decades in the depths of the Jim Crow South. Eventually, she secured employment as the gatekeeper of Wilmington’s Airlie Gardens, one of the South’s most magnificent green spaces. Evans utilized this inspirational setting and more restful role to unlock her artistic talent. As her rest increased, so did the production of her art. This study of Evans sheds light on obstacles that African American women faced in exploring their creativity and realizing their artistic dreams in twentieth-century America.