The Pyramid Club was formed in November 1937 by African-American professionals[1] for the "cultural, civic and social advancement of Negroes in Philadelphia.
It hosted parties, social events, concerts by noted musicians such as Marian Anderson and Duke Ellington, speakers including Martin Luther King Jr. and J. Robert Oppenheimer, and an annual art exhibition (1941–1957) featuring both local and national artists.
The club played an important role within the African-American community by connecting artists with middle and upper-class professionals able to support their work.
[8] Among those instrumental in establishing the Pyramid Club were Woodley Wells, Alton C. Berry, George Drummond, Wilbur Strickland, Lewis Tanner Moore, Scholley Pace Alexander, Oscar James Cooper, Theodore O. Spaulding, Thomas Powell, and Walter Fitzgerald Jerrick.
His strategy was not always popular: in 1949 Howard and an anonymous critic in the Philadelphia Afro-American debated the inclusion of white artists whose works were shown in discriminatory galleries.
[5] Artists whose works appeared at the Pyramid Club included Morris Blackburn, Julius Thiengen Bloch, Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr., Claude Clark, Beauford Delaney,[15] Joseph Delaney, Allan Randall Freelon, Rex Goreleigh, Humbert Howard,[16] Paul F. Keene Jr., Ralph Taylor (1896–1978), and Dox Thrash.
The exhibition “Fifty Seven Artists,” held February 20 – March 20, 1948 at the Pyramid Club, was dedicated to Laura Wheeler Waring (1887–1948) who had just died.
Eleven women artists were listed in the program, which included Selma Burke,[18] Elizabeth Kitchenman Coyne, Hilde Foss, Etelka J. Greenfield, Reba Klein, Naomi Lavin, Maude C. Lewis, Beatrice Claire (or Clare) Overton and Elsie Reber.