Images of Dignity: The Drawings of Charles White

Author: Harry Belafonte, James Porter, Benjamin Horowitz
Publisher: The Ward Ritchie Press
Year: 1967
Pages: 121
ISBN: 978-0822350743

This was for many years the defining publication on Charles White, published in several editions by Ward Ritchie Press, Los Angeles. The first printing was April 1967, the second printing was December 1967 and the third printing was April 1969. 121pp, 95 b&w illustrations, and designed by Joseph Simon, Images of Dignity was an important monograph on Charles White. It was published in conjunction with White's longtime dealer Benjamin Horowitz's Heritage Gallery, it presents a comprehensive survey of over forty years of the artist's moving works on paper, the African American image and experience located at the heart of these wonderful works.

A measure of the significance and importance of Images of Dignity was alluded to in a text on White published in Ebony magazine.  A major eight page feature on the artist, written by Louie Robinson, stated, "The publication of [White’s] Images of Dignity alone is a singular achievement. No other living Negro artist has ever had a book of his works published (a collection of the art of the late Horace Pippin appeared in print after his death)."

With a chronology, exhibition history and bibliography, this was, until at least the time of his death, the go-to publication on Charles White.