Robert Pious

[1][2][3] In 1929, Pious's pen-and-ink portrait of Roland Hayes won the prestigious Spingarn Black and White prize from the William E. Harmon Foundation.

Pious's portraits of African American celebrities, including Paul Robeson, Richmond Barthé, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Marian Anderson, appeared on the covers of Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life.

[1] In 1940, Pious won first prize in a national poster contest for the American Negro Exposition, a world's fair held in Chicago to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Pious beat out a hundred entrants and received a $100 prize from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at New York City Hall.

[4][3] During the 1940s, Pious produced cartoons for the United States Office of War Information and illustrated stories in pulp magazines and comic books.