Charles Henry Alston ( November 28, 1907 – April 27, 1977 ) was an African-American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem.

Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance ; Alston was the first African American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project.

Charles Henry Alston was born on November 28, 1907 in Charlotte, North Carolina to Reverend Primus Priss Alston and Anna Elizabeth Miller Alston, and was the youngest of five children.

Reverend Alston met his wife when she was a student at his school.

As a child Alston was inspired by his older brother Wendell's drawings of trains and cars, which the young artist copied.

Alston graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, where he was nominated for academic excellence and was the art editor of the school's magazine, The Magpie.

For the years 1942 – 1943 Alston was stationed in the army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.

While obtaining his master's degree, Alston was the boys ’ work director at the Utopia Children's House, started by James Lesesne Wells.

In 1938 the Rosenwald Fund provided money for Alston to travel to the South, which was his first return there since leaving as a child.

This group served as the 1960s version of 306, and Alston was described as an " intellectual activist.

" About the artwork, Alston is quoted " The idea of a march was growing ... It was in the air ... and this painting just came.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a major influence on Alston.

In 1943 Alston was elected to the board of directors of the National Society of Mural Painters.

When creating the murals Alston was inspired by the work of Aaron Douglas, who a year earlier had created the public art piece Aspects of Negro Life for the New York Public Library, and researched traditional African culture, including traditional African medicine.

The Householder transformation was introduced in 1958 by Alston Scott Householder.

In 1788 he became Member of Parliament for the borough of Bere Alston in Devon, and in 1791 he introduced the important bill for the relief of Roman Catholics, which was passed into law.

Alston entered the pre-architectural program only to lose interest upon seeing the lack of success many African American architects had in the field.

Alston became staff artist at the Office of War Information and Public Relations in 1940, creating drawings of notable African Americans.

Originally hired as an easel painter, in 1935 Alston became the first African American supervisor to work for the WPA's Federal Art Project in New York, which would also serve as his first mural work.

In the late 1940s Alston became involved in a mural project commissioned by Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company which asked the artists to create work involving African American contributions to the settling of California.

" Romare Bearden described Alston as "... one of the most versatile artists whose enormous skill led him to a diversity of styles ..." Bearden also describes the professionalism and impact that Alston had on Harlem and the African American community: "' was a consummate artist and a voice in the development of African American art who never doubted the excellence of all people's sensitivity and creative ability.

More importantly, he attended classes at the Harlem Art Workshop, taught by the African American artist Charles Alston.

In his first at-bat, despite chants of " We want Slaughter ", he belted a home run against the Cubs ; in the same game Tom Alston became the first African American to play for the Cardinals.

During the 1940s Alston also took occasional art classes studying under Alexander Kostellow.

During this time Alston founded the Harlem Artists ’ Guild with Savage and Elba Lightfoot to work towards equality in WPA art programs in New York.

Alston continued to explore the relationship between monochromatic hues throughout the series which Wardlaw describes as " some of the most profoundly beautiful works of twentieth-century American art.

The artworks, which are considered " priceless contributions to American narrative art ", consists of two panels: Exploration and Colonization by Alston and Settlement and Development by Woodruff.

Patron Lemoine Pierce said of Alston's work: " Never thought of as an innovative artist, Alston generally ignored popular art trends and violated many mainstream art conventions ; he produced abstract and figurative paintings often simultaneously, refusing to be stylistically consistent, and during his 40-year career he worked prolifically and unapologetically in both commercial and fine art.

Charles H. Alston, his first art teacher and cousin, in 1944.

Experimenting with the use of negative space and organic forms in the late 1940s, by the mid-1950s Alston began creating notably modernist style paintings.

In 1970 Alston was commissioned by the Community Church of New York to create a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. for $ 5, 000, with limited copies produced.

ISBN 0-295-97920-8 Features work by Alston.

These exhibitions featured work by Charles Alston.

Alston urged him to also attend the Harlem Community Art Center, led by the sculptor Augusta Savage.

Low floor double-ended trams built by Alston Ferroviaria.

The Square Deal by David Drake in 1992, Double Jeopardy: Car Warriors 2 by Aaron Alston in 1994, and Back from *** by *** Farren in 1999.

In the Manual of Pteridology, the following classification was used by Walton & Alston:

Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction ( ISBN 0-201-55048-2 ) by Melissa Fay Greene narrates the events surrounding the civil rights movement in McIntosh County, particularly the demise of white Sheriff Thomas H. Poppell and the 1978 election of black rights activist Thurnell Alston to the county commission.

Clatskanie is surrounded by many small unincorporated communities, including Alston, Delena, Clatskanie Heights, Inglis, Kerry, Marshland, Mayger, Quincy, and Woodson.

At Alston station there is a cafe and gift shop both operated by the railway company.

Confirmation was received in November 2009 that a grant of £ 100, 000 had been awarded by the Groundwork UK Community Spaces programme which will be used to fund the restoration of three historic railway bridges on the former Haltwhistle to Alston line.

There are four all-steel open-ended gallery coaches built by a contractor in Alston, two wooden-bodied coaches and two brake vans constructed in the railway workshops.

Additions to the fleet in 2011 were an all-steel buffet coach, originally built by Gloucester Carriage and Wagon for Sierra Leone Railways, and re-gauged from 750mm to 610mm for use at Alston, and a re-gauged former Romanian steel coach now converted to be fully accessible for disabled passengers.

Employing his skills as a mechanical engineer, he devised a water engine for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1761 and a watermill at Alston, Cumbria in 1767 ( he is credited by some for inventing the cast iron axle shaft for waterwheels ).