“The Boy Who Painted Christ Black” John Henrik Clarke, moved to Harlem and committed himself to a lifelong pursuit of factual knowledge about the history of his people and creative application of that knowledge. Over the years, Clarke became both a major historian and a man of letters. Although he is probably better known as a historian, his literary accomplishments were also significant. He wrote over two hundred short stories. "The Boy Who Painted Christ Black" is his best known short story. Being a black young fellow, Aaron Crawford was the smartest boy in Muskogee County School for colored children. His teacher always looked upon him as a “star student”. He heard to compliment “one day he might be the president of the United States of America”; but the only problem was, he was not white. He was the brightest of them all, but not one of the best looking as described in the story, “both his nose and his lips seemed a triffle too large for his face…to say he was ugly would be unjust and to say that he was handsome would just be grossly exaggerating.” Among the students of the school, he often startled his teachers with his astonishing talents such as drawing and writing. He’d draw holiday themed pictures around the season’s turn, such as turkeys and pumpkins around Thanksgiving, and flags and little hatchets on George Washington’s birthday. But one day, on his teacher’s birthday, he drew a picture that would make him the most talked about colored boy in Columbus, Georgia. He drew a painting of Jesus Christ black. It caused an uproar in the county school system. Aaron’s gift to his teacher soon reached the principal’s office of the school after being displayed in the assembly room. Administrators that often visited the school saw the picture. It was a white tall man. “Who painted this sacrilegious nonsense?” demanded the Negro principal when he realized that