James Dallas Parks

James Dallas Parks was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1907 to Katie and John Henry Parks, a railroad porter. He studied art at Bradley Polytechnic Institute, now Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois, and completed his master’s degree from the State University of Iowa, where he studied under the artists Philip Guston and Jean Charlot. Parks also studied at the Chicago Art Institute.

In 1927, at the age of twenty, Parks began work in the art department of Lincoln University, a historically black university in Jefferson City, Missouri. When he began, the department had only one room, with four or five courses offered. By the time of his retirement nearly fifty years later, the department had expanded to twenty-five courses, with a new art center. As head of the department, Professor Parks mentored generations of young artists, including Anderson Macklin, Lemmie Burden, Adrian Hoard, Jeffery Burns, and Houston Chandler. Parks’ tenure also oversaw the integration of white students in 1954.

In 1934, he married Florence Etta Wright, with whom he had a son and two grandchildren. Together, James and Florence owned and ran the Blue Tiger Café from 1936 to 1946, located across the street from the campus library. In segregated Jefferson City, the Blue Tiger, nicknamed the “Greasy Spoon” by Lincoln faculty and students, was one of the few establishments that served food to blacks. The small restaurant and boarding house was a popular hangout spot, serving hot dogs, hamburgers and fries. After selling the café, Florence ran the campus bookstore for twenty-five years.

Parks was an accomplished painter, sculptor and printmaker, exhibiting widely and winning several awards. His works are in the permanent collections of Lincoln University, Howard University in Washington, D.C., Atlanta University, and the University of Iowa. In 1961, he co-founded the National Conference of Artists, serving as its chair for the first two years. As an art historian, he emphasized the contributions of Black artists, including a biography he authored, Robert S. Duncanson, 19th Century Black Romantic Painter.

James Dallas Parks died in 1983 at the age of seventy-five. He is interred in Longview Cemetery, in Jefferson City.