"Alfred Hair, Heart of the Highwaymen" by Gary Monroe.

A long-awaited testament to the life and work of Alfred Hair, the driving force of the Florida Highwaymen, this book introduces a charismatic personality whose energy and creativitty were foundational to the success of this fellow African American artists during the era of Jim Crow segragation.

Shot and killed in a barfight at the age of 29, Hair lived his short life fully, with zest and intensity that informed his art. In high school he made canvas frames in the Fort Pierce studio of A.E. Backus, the painter who inspired the style of the Highwaymen, and soon became the artist's protege. By the time Hair graduated in 1961, he was painting luminous South Florida landscapes and selling them door to door. One of the few formally trained Highwaymen, he spurred on the collective of artists as they traversed the state in search of the white clientele who would buy their artwork.