In “The Cultivators” Washington depicts a traditional gang labor arrangement, in which field workers were typically divided into three gangs, the first gang reserved for the strongest and fittest workers, and the third reserved for the weakest. These groups included African American children, teenagers, old people, and even those who were sick.

In “They Were Very Poor, But Loved,” Washington intricately depicts the plight of the sharecropper family.  Sweeping clouds are invoked by Washington to indicate turbulent times.  The hard, backbreaking work of the sharecropper led to stooped, physically destroyed, and mentally blighted black people who could seldom envision escape for themselves or their children.  Their lives were an endless round of poor diet, fickle weather, and the unbeatable figures at the company store. However, the family bond was rarely broken by such dire circumstances. 

“They Were Very Poor, But Loved,” depicts a father figure with exaggerated hands that are symbolically big enough to provide for and protect his family. The young men stand out in the front, learning from their father. The daughter, her father’s jewel, stands off to the side and in a guarded posture -- a position emphasizing a father’s love for her that is undeniable.

The mother gazes upon the family protectively from the house, dressed in her apron. The house, held together with sweat, love and a few boards -- is home to this family and no doubt dreams of a better life for their kids are buried in a bible inside.

The outhouse, and the buckets and barrels, rendered in high detail, are an attempt by the artist to bring the viewer into this time in American history, complete with the emotions and pain that were inescapable.

In “Kin Folk,” Washington depicts a sharecropper family completing a typical day’s work on the land.  The father, protector of the family, is prominently featured in the foreground. He holds a stoic gaze that not only indicates his worries for the well-being of his family, but also a steely resolve for a better life. The mother stands in the back by their child, who has stayed home from school to help work the land.

Given the circumstances of the time and the poor resources available to sharecroppers, infant mortality amongst sharecropper newborns was extremely high. Washington acknowledges this horrid fact in “Kin Folk,” depicting a cross-shaped grave in the distant background of the field -- which houses a deceased member of the family that was tragically lost at birth.

In “To The Disinherited Belongs The Future,” Washington depicts a sharecropper father and his son, embarking on a day’s work on the land. The son, his father’s pupil, is positioned in a mirror image of his father – indicating the son’s eventual role as the burden bearer for the family’s next generation.  However, the father’s intense gaze suggests a different desire -- for the son to eventually enjoy a life not burdened by systematic and institutionalized disenfranchisement. This goal was eventually accomplished through the subsequent gains of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. In this sense, to these “disinherited” sharecroppers (and others like them), the future was theirs.

In “Sharing The Burden,” Washington illustrates the far-reaching family contributions of the sharecropper woman.  With every hand needed in the fields to make ends meet, the entire sharecropper family, including women and children, were required to “share the burden” for survival in the Reconstruction era American south. Washington postures the women featured in “Sharing The Burden” with grace and dignity, yet imbues their facial expressions with a sense of underlying sadness -- an outward indicator of the overwhelming stresses placed on every member of the sharecropper family.   

In “With These Hands” Washington depicts the weathered hands of a sharecropper tending to the land.  The hands -- swollen and battered by years of hard work and toil – are intricately rendered to illustrate the physical agony and bodily anguish that was common to sharecropper life.

In “A Joyful Sorrow,” Washington illustrates the inherent contradiction raised by the institution of sharecropping. While sharecropping was touted as a prospect of new economic opportunity for freed slaves, it truly functioned to ensure African Americans remained poor and virtually locked out of any opportunity for land ownership or basic human rights.  In this sense, sharecroppers and their families experienced the “joyful sorrow” of superficial freedom, tinged with the shackles of a still existent economic and social slavery. 

The central figure in “A Joyful Sorrow,” is a mother figure, whose back is distorted by the constant physical pain of working the fields day after day. Her efforts, as well as those of her children, are in a futile attempt to repay the family’s never-ending debt owed to the property owners.  Her face is completely obscured in this back-breaking posture, a subtle detail invoked by Washington to emphasize the lack of humanity afforded to freed slaves in Reconstruction years of the American South.

In “A Paradigm Of Unbroken Rituals,” Washington depicts a traditional river baptism, a rite of passage for African American Christians in the South. This sacred ritual, a symbolic act of purification and initiation, was performed in rivers, bayous, and lakes throughout southern America.

Washington depicts members of the church congregation gathered in excitement on the bank to witness the baptizing of a loved one. In the backdrop, the candidate is immersed in the water. Deacons lead a devotional consisting of the singing of hymns, scripture reading, and prayer.

In “A Study of Impatient Patience,” Washington depicts a group of African Americans assembled for voter registration at a local county registrar that could have been anywhere in the South during the segregation years. They have arrived early, prior to the registrar’s opening.  Blatant and unobstructed attempts at violence often accompanied such registration campaigns.  These prospective voters proudly stand resolutely one after the other, stoically bracing themselves for whatever obstacle may arise as they attempt to exercise their constitutional right to vote.  

In “A Parade of Sympathies,” Washington depicts a traditional Civil Rights era protest scene, which could have taken place in many southern cities during the mid 20th century.  All of the protesters in this scene are fighting for the same overarching goal -- equal rights irrespective of race, color, or creed.

However, as evidenced by Washington’s painstakingly detailed rendering of each protester’s face, the deprivation of equal rights has affected each protester’s life in its own independent way. As the line of protesters stretches backwards to what seems like a distant vanishing point, each of the protester’s facial expressions evidence a different emotion.  In this respect, the totality of the protest line represents a “parade of sympathies” for the viewer to experience and take in as their own. 

In “We Will Never Stand Silent,” Washington depicts a civil rights demonstration that includes protesters from the entire spectrum of African American life -- including men, women, children, and teenagers – who are protesting the Jim Crow laws that relegated them to being second class citizens.  Their protestations effectively sent the message that marginalized African Americans “[would] never stand silent” in the face of racism or discrimination.

In “Get On The Bus,” Washington depicts a group of Freedom Riders preparing for a ride through segregated Alabama.  The activists board the bus in front of a Baptist church, which symbolizes the Freedom Movement’s foundation on the principles and of the southern African American Church.  The steeple of the church is in the shape of a cross, and cuts against the ominous and turbulent skies, symbolizing the importance that religious faith played for these brave activists who risked their personal well-being for the sake of social change.

In “Freedom Has Never Been Free,” Washington depicts the brutality of the Civil Rights Movement at its climax.  Fire hoses were used on protesters -- whether they were men or women, peaceful or not – as a means to disrupt their dreams of racial equality.  When that was not enough, firefighters turned even more powerful hoses on protesters, hoses that shot streams of water strong enough to break bones and roll the protesters down the street. Sometimes protesters suffered from more than just fire hoses; they were sometimes beaten or even killed.

Washington implicates all of these details into the composition of “Freedom Has Never Been Free.” To the right, protesters stumble and fall as they are drenched with the violent waters shot at them by local firemen.  The firemen, the villains of this work, are adorned with masks that obscure their faces, and substitute their humanity for a ghastly, otherworldly existence. The protesters in the center of the image have bound their arms together, in an attempt to withstand the pulverizing force of the fire hoses -- hoping that their collective strength can withstand the power of the firemen’s tools of oppression.

To the center right is a lone protester holding a sign that reads “EQUALITY,” reminding the viewer that this horrific scene was born out of the desire for African Americans to have the same rights as white Americans.

In “Some Truths Are Not Self Evident,” Washington depicts the conflict-ridden nature of social change in the segregated south.  During this era, thousands of civil rights protesters were arrested – and many were assaulted with high-pressure fire hoses, shocked with electric cattle prods, and beaten by police as well as angry segregationists. The protesters suffered these consequences simply for demanding equality for all human beings. Despite the violence, the activists persevered and many of the demonstrations escalated.

Washington employs three central images in “Some Truths Are Not Self Evident,” which are meant to be interpreted together as a singular whole.  On both of the side panels, Washington depicts protesters suffering the consequences of their bravery.  Both the men depicted on the left, and the woman depicted on the right, are seen falling victim to the brutality of local authorities who have reduced themselves to the use of abject violence.  The image of a gazing eye fills the center of the painting, symbolizing the need for focus in times of tribulation -- the need for each member of the Freedom Movement to keep their “eyes on the prize” of achieving racial equality for all Americans.

In “Let Nobody Turn Us Around,” Washington depicts a traditional Civil Rights era protest scene, featuring a crowd of demonstrators taking to the streets to fight segregation and Jim Crow. As a result of these protesters’ non-violent tactics (which were commonly met with brutal violence from southern authorities), many of the segregationist policies of the south were eventually overturned.

In “A Seeming Contradiction,” Washington illustrates the paradoxical nature of the civil rights related violence that ravaged the American south.  Washington juxtaposes the images of peaceful protestors singing freedom songs, with images of brute force used by southern authorities hoping to stifle attempts at social progress.   

“We Walk The Difficult Road” was inspired by the Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights.  The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks -- and three separate events -- that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement.

In “We Walk The Difficult Road,” Washington depicts a racially mixed group of activists, some carrying American flags, marching in support of voter rights in the rural south.  Ominous and sweeping clouds foreshadow and completely obscure armed National Guardsmen standing road-side. Indeed, for legions of brave activists participating in the Selma-to-Montgomery March, the road to freedom was difficult – but the ultimate success in changing the racially divisive social landscape of the South was monumental.

In “What These Weathered Eyes Have Seen,” Washington depicts the troubled eyes of an otherwise unidentified elderly African American man.  The man’s aged and weathered eyes possess a hint of sadness, yet speak to the trying experiences of a people and the need for persistence in times of adversity.