Chicago State University held a private, invitation-only reception to unveil the art collection of the Honorable R. Eugene Pincham and his wife Alzata Henry Pincham recently at the Chicago State University Library. The art collection features pieces from various African cultures, including masks, statues and framed contemporary paintings.
Alzata Cudalia Henry Pincham (June 27, 1925 – April 9, 2005) was an educator, homemaker, mother of three and founder of Can-Cer-Vive (cancer survivors) Ministry at Trinity United Church of Christ.
R. Eugene Pincham (June 28, 1925 – April 3, 2008) was a pioneering African American civil rights attorney, judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., justice of the Appellate Court of Illinois, and ardent critic of the U.S. criminal justice system.
“Judge Pincham was one of Chicago’s prominent legal intellectuals and one of the city’s top defense lawyers,” said Dr. Wayne Watson, president of Chicago State University. “We are pleased and humbled that his family would entrust these collections to our institution.”
Close friends and business associates of the Pinchams, including Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor emeritus, Trinity United Church of Christ; Roosevelt Thomas, Esq., former partner of Judge Pincham; James D. Montgomery, Esq., Lewis Myers Jr., Esq., Judge Pamela Hill Veal; and Janet Moore, executive director of Kwame Nkrumah Academy were in attendance. Noted historian and founder of the HistoryMakers, Julianna Richardson, emceed the event.
The Chicago State University archives and special collections team recreated Judge Pincham’s home office, featuring the principle items that the Judge used on a regular basis.
The couple’s artwork has been gifted to the Trinity UCC Day Care and Kwame Nkrumah Academy and will be on display at Chicago State until 2016.
Also on display will be Judge Pincham’s papers, collected over the course of his stellar 50-year legal career. The Pincham papers have been gifted to the University.
The papers and writings include transcripts of Pincham’s trials during his time as an Illinois attorney and preserved scrapbooks with more than 50 years of career accomplishments. There are also a large number of photographs and plaques that were formerly displayed in the family’s home office.
The Pincham Collection is open to the public in the Archives and Special Collections department of Chicago State University’s Library and Instruction Services. Selected pieces from the Pincham Art Collection will be on display on the fourth floor of the CSU Library.
For more information, visit www.library.csu.edu/collections/pincham/ or call the Archives and Special Collections Department at 773-995-2246.
