The Legacy Beneath Our Feet: The Story of the Childers Hall Basement Mural
By Chad Eric Smith, Director of Marketing and Communications, Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts
Ever been curious about the story behind the mural in the header of each issue of the What’s Happening at CABCoFA newsletter?
Tucked within the basement of Childers Hall is one of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts’ most expansive visual archives — a mural that does more than decorate a wall. It tells a story. It carries memory. And for those who pause long enough to study it, it reveals the living lineage of music at Howard University.
Completed in 2000, the 7-by-24-foot acrylic mural, The Legacy of Our Sound (the sound that you see), transforms a transitional hallway into a historical journey. Installed in the very building where generations of Howard artists have rehearsed, practiced, and discovered their voices, the work stands as both tribute and testimony.
A Legacy Rooted in Howard’s Earliest Years
The mural’s narrative begins long before Childers Hall itself. Music instruction at Howard dates back to 1870, when vocal music was first taught by J. Emma Griffin, followed shortly by the introduction of art classes in 1871. These early efforts laid the foundation for what would become one of the nation’s most influential centers for Black artistic education.
As Howard grew, so too did its artistic expression. Performances in Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel inspired large-scale visual storytelling through stained glass and architectural artwork — part of a broader tradition of murals as storytelling devices, historically used to preserve collective memory through imagery attached permanently to walls and shared spaces.
The Childers mural continues that tradition, translating sound, struggle, excellence, and cultural evolution into visual form.
A Student Vision Becomes Institutional History
The mural originated in 1996 when MFA students Mike Easton and John Trevino shared a painting studio inside Childers Hall. Both gifted portrait painters and devoted jazz enthusiasts, they were encouraged — following a visit from then-University President H. Patrick Swygert — to undertake an ambitious project that would benefit the Music Department.
What began as a proposed celebration of jazz quickly expanded. The artists realized that Howard’s musical history demanded something broader: a visual chronicle of the people, movements, and moments that shaped the University’s artistic identity.
Over nearly two years, the artists researched archival imagery, sketched extensive compositions, and transferred drawings onto masonite panels before completing the acrylic painting. The process itself became an academic and artistic milestone, with preliminary drawings later exhibited as works in their own right.
Seeing Sound, Painting Movement
Inspired in part by John Coltrane’s pursuit of translating sound into color, the mural unfolds like a musical composition. Its imagery moves viewers through migration, education, protest, performance, and celebration — mirroring the evolution of Black musical expression in America and at Howard.
Faculty pioneers appear throughout the work, including Charles Douglass, Warner Lawson, Hazel Harrison, Lula Childers, and Louia Jones, whose teaching helped shape Howard’s Conservatory of Music in the early twentieth century.
At the center, a radiant visual “sunburst” connects eras of artistic activism and achievement, including the 1964 Fine Arts student protest and the iconic Cramton Auditorium — reminders that artistic excellence at Howard has always been inseparable from social consciousness.
Operatic legend Jessye Norman appears as Jocasta, extending what the artists described as “operatic blessings” across the composition, while alumni Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack represent innovation and musical influence across generations. Jazz pioneer Donald Byrd anchors the tradition of experimentation and scholarship that continues to define Howard musicians today.
The Spirit of Showtime
The mural’s concluding movement celebrates one of Howard’s most visible ambassadors: the Showtime Marching Band. Depicted in motion as it marches onto the football field, the ensemble embodies the energy, pride, and communal spirit that unite generations of Bison.
The artists rendered uniforms representing five eras of the band, symbolizing continuity across time. The image resonates even more deeply knowing the band later performed in the 56th Presidential Inaugural Parade and received recognition from President Barack Obama — a reminder of how Howard artistry continually reaches national and global stages.
A Living Archive
Today, students pass the mural daily, often unaware that they are walking beside a visual syllabus of Howard’s artistic heritage. Yet its presence remains intentional. The mural situates current students within a continuum — not as isolated artists, but as inheritors and future authors of a legacy still unfolding.
In many ways, the mural reflects the mission of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts itself: to honor history while preparing artists to shape what comes next.
Beneath Childers Hall, color becomes sound, history becomes movement, and legacy becomes visible — reminding us that at Howard, artistry is never separate from memory.