The Jon Onye Lockard papers are organized into four series: Personal Files, Teaching, Art, and Activism. The Personal Files series is comprised of biographical materials and personal correspondence, and contains some of Lockard's autobiographical files. Materials in the Teaching series relate to the classes Lockard taught at both the University of Michigan and Washtenaw Community College, as well as other materials related to his work for institutions of higher education. The Art series is comprised of materials related to Lockard's art career, including materials about his murals, art events, and shows, as well as materials related to Black history, culture, and art and artists. Most of the audiovisual material within the collection is housed in this series. The Activism series is the broadest, and consists primarily of topical files, recordings, and materials from the organizations Lockard worked with over the course of his career, including the National Conference of Art, a Black arts organization. Because of the interconnected nature of Lockard's activism and his career as an artist and professor, there is significant overlap between the Teaching, Art, and Activism series; researchers are encouraged to consult multiple series when working with this collection.
Jon Onye Lockard was born John Melvin Lockard January 25, 1932 in Detroit to Cecil E. Lockard and Lillian Jones. His brother, Cecil E. Lockard, was a prominent photographer for the Ann Arbor News. Lockard lived and grew up on Detroit's eastside during white flight, and experienced segregated schools as a result. He attended Eastern High School in Detroit, graduating in 1949.
During this time, he attended Meinzinger Art School in Detroit, and he received his Bachelor's from Wayne State University. Lockard received a Master's Degree from the University of Toronto in 1958. Around this time, he dropped the H from his name and adopted the middle name "Onye" after his travel group in Nigeria suggested he should be "Onye Eje/Ije", which in the Igbo language means "artistic traveler". He spent his early career as a traveling portrait artist, before returning to the Detroit area and establishing himself in Ann Arbor. His first studio was at the Ann Arbor Arts Center at 215 S. Fourth Avenue.
His early efforts on campus included supporting the Black Action Movement in 1969 and participating in the first annual Black Artist's Festival in 1969. In December that year, Lockard was brought on at Washtenaw Community College (WCC) as part of the newly founded Black Studies Program. In 1970, he organized the first show of Black students' works in an outdoor exhibit at Washtenaw Community College.
Also in 1970, Lockard was appointed as a lecturer and founding faculty member of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (now the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies). He taught classes on Black Art and Culture, as well as figure drawing and the fundamentals of art at both institutions. While working for CAAS, Lockard also implemented several conferences and symposia on the arts of Africa, curated art exhibitions, and practiced an early form of community engagement by organizing trips to historic places for students and alumni alike. During his tenure, he served on several doctoral committees, including George Vargas' PhD committee.
Lockard painted several murals on both the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw Community College campuses, as well as Wayne State University (where he produced a series of murals titled "Continuum"), Central State University, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. He also co-hosted a radio program, Back-to-Back, with Allan Tumkin and produced recordings of significant lectures and Black cultural events. His paintings are in the collections of Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Ohio, and at Grand Valley State University. He cultivated relationships with many Black artists and activists, including Bing Davis, Angela Davis, Nikki Giovanni, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan, among others.
In 1982, despite participating in the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair for 22 years, the Art Fair committee rejected Lockard's application based on charges of exhibiting "commercially printed prints" and works by other artists. Lockard had previously exhibited the work of a student artist who translated Lockard's paintings into stained-glass. Lockard filed suit against the street fair, and a judge ruled in favor of the street fair in 1983.
In addition to his formal teaching positions, Lockard also co-founded "Our Own Thing", a scholarship program providing funds to help students study the arts. He was elected president of the National Conference of Arts in 1983 and was a co-founder of the Society for the Study of African American Culture and Aesthetics.
In 1996, Jon Lockard was selected as one of six African American men to advise on the creation of a national monument honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and acted as Senior Art Advisor for the memorial.
Lockard retired from his teaching positions at UM and WCC in 2010; he served as professor emeritus at WCC until his passing in 2015.
