Samella Sanders Lewis (February 27, 1923 – May 27, 2022) was an American visual artist and art historian. She worked primarily as a printmaker and painter. She has been called the "Godmother of African American Art". She received Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association (CAA) in 2021. “Art is not a luxury as many people think – it is a necessity. It documents history – it helps educate people and stores knowledge for generations to come.” – Dr. Samella Lewis Early life and background Samella Sanders was born to Samuel Sanders and Rachel Taylor Sanders in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 27, 1923 and raised in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. Her father worked as a farmer and mother along other jobs worked as a domestic worker. Widely exhibited and collected as an artist herself, Lewis was better known as a historian, critic, and collector of art, especially African-American art. Lewis completed four degrees, five films, seven books, and a substantial body of artworks which have received critical respect. She pursued an art degree starting off at Dillard University in 1941, but left Dillard for Hampton Institute in Virginia, earning her master's degree in 1947. She earned her B.A. degree at Hampton University, then completed her master and doctorate in art history and cultural anthropology at the Ohio State University in 1951. Lewis was the first female African American to earn a doctorate in fine art and art history. While finishing her doctorate, Lewis taught art at Morgan State University. Lewis became the first Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Florida A&M University in 1953; that same year Lewis also became the first African American to convene the National conference of African American artists held at Florida A&M University. She was a professor at the State University of New York, California State University, Long Beach, and at Scripps College in Claremont, California. She co-founded, with Bernie Casey, the Contemporary Crafts Gallery in Los Angeles in 1970. In 1973, she served on the selection committee for the exhibition BLACKS: USA: 1973 held at the New York Cultural Center. Lewis's grandson is Bay Area artist and musician Unity Lewis. He plans to create a contemporary version of Samella Lewis's catalog Black Artists on Art, which featured black artists not typically showcased in mainstream art galleries and sold thousands of copies. "I wanted to make a chronology of African American