Photo By Gail

William H. Johnson (1901 – 1970) created his lively Jitterbugs series of paintings and screen prints from about 1940 to 1942 while teaching at the Works Progress Administration’s Harlem Community Art Center. After long periods spent abroad, the artist returned to the United States in 1938 to record the daily lives of African-Americans in a manner akin to folk art.

In Jitterbugs V (1941–42) , a colorfully dressed couple dances at one of Harlem’s popular night spots. Artist Romare Bearden, who knew Johnson, recalls his own experiences at the time:

“Three nights a week, we were at the Savoy Ballroom. Charlie Buchanan, who ran the place, liked artists to come to the Savoy. The best dancing in the world was there, and the best music. When we left the Savoy, we’d go to the after-hours spot . . .They called us the Dawn Patrol.”

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC