Today in celebration of Black History Month, we are highlighting the work of Alphonso Willums (b.1932). Self-taught painter Willums uses his paintings to reflect on scenes from his early life as a migrant laborer working on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. His formal education ended at age seven, when he went to work on farms and tobacco fields with his parents and seven siblings. In this painting entitled “The Strawberry Checkout,” berry pickers with full baskets line up at the booth where the field boss, “Mr. Cigar” exchanges their hauls for “strawberry tickets” as payment for their day’s work. In the background, more individuals fill their baskets with berries from the field underneath a clear blue sky. Until the late 1930s, Maryland’s Eastern Shore was one of the largest hubs for exporting strawberries in the United States. Image: “The Strawberry Checkout,” by Alphonso Willums, acrylic on board, c.2001. Maryland Center for History and Culture, 2001.29. See this painting in our Digita...