IT WAS A HOT DAY IN GEORGIA WENT JACK JOHNSON DROVE INTO TOWN (2002)

RIDING ALONG IN MY CADILLAC is a wildly vivid ride by artist James Andrew Brown. It is a tribute celebration of Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion of the World. In the top left corner of this stupendous ethnological chronicle, Brown appropriates the simple but very famous 1964 lyrics of Chuck Berry`s song “Riding Along in My Automobile,” intentionally replacing “Automobile” with “Cadillac.” Why? We’re talking about The Champ, flaunting his white mistress across state lines, driving his rich man’s Cadillac, while giving the PIG, the white cop that symbolizes America, the middle finger. In the glaring spotlight with hands up the PIG declares, “I can’t look in the mirror.” Emphatically due to a wickedly blind reflection of self-righteous imposed authority that is indeed self-destructive. Despite early 20th century society, with all its egregious ugliness towards the “other,” Brown liberates the heavy weight champ, even in jail. The Black faced serpent with a smirk sporting chain gang attire frames a humored Johnson, who mocks this PIG infested place called America. A place that tried to deprive The Champ of a valiant life. Johnson, who was crowned the champ in 1908, represents Brown’s knockout punch. He paints a baby in the womb holding a spear, suggesting that Johnson, having grown up during Jim Crow has been ducking and dodging the poison darts and spears of a rabid racist society, for all his life. The power-hungry white man. Brown sees the world through the lens of racial injustice, black and white, greed and power. In all this chaos and disenfranchisement, he radiates a glimmer of hope in the delight of a little Black girl frolicking along as if it’s all going to be ok.

Interpretation by

Gilda Rogers