Delilah W. Pierce Helped Address Gender & Racial Inequality In Forever Free: Art By African-American Women, 1862-1980 An Exhibition

Delilah W. Pierce not only helped to expand black identity perceptions during her life and career as an artist, curator, educator and advocate, she helped break down the vicious barriers of gender inequality within the visual arts community.

Author Susan Willand Worteck said in the introduction:

 The role of black women in the development of the visual arts in America is a relatively new subject for research and museum exhibitions. Therefore, it was no small undertaking for Illinois State University to organize Forever Free, an exhibition of 118 works by forty-nine artists which features achievements in the visual arts by African-American women. The exhibition is a revelation and a challenge; because historians and critics until recently have overlooked art by women in general, art by black women has suffered a double bias. In response to this oversight, Forever Free is a historical overview of work in all media by black women artists from 1862 to 1980.

Forever Free, published by Feminist Studies, was also accompanied by an exhibition. In 1982 the exhibition was at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from January – February 15, 1982.