Tom Loftin Johnson

Who is Tom Loftin Johnson?

Major Tom Loftin Johnson was an American painter and an art teacher at West Point. He created public murals – the largest of which was 70 feet long. His American Pietà painting, which won $1,000 in the 1941 Carnegie International contest, was intended to highlight the race problem in the United States. A Pietà is meant to show the Virgin Mary holding the crucified Jesus. In Johnson's American Pietà, the black mother holds her lynched son whilst others hide his tortured body.