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Richard Overton (1913-2010) was a visual and performing artist whose work elaborated key themes of the Black Arts Movement. The artist was a jazz musician and Ella Fitzgerald’s longtime musical director. Overton also worked at the Milwaukee Public Library. Overton’s long artistic career evidences the roots of the Black Arts Movement in Milwaukee before the 1960s, its persistence into the 21st century, and its national and international connections. The sense of "inner movement" which animates Overton's two abstract compositions reappears in Frankie B. Cole's "Red Tropical Circle (Milwaukee Conservatory)," and especially in the puzzle pieces of Edgar Jeter's "Girl Reading." Overton's artwork has not been widely shown, and evidences an unsung local luminary.