Later in 1947, Perkins received a grant from the Chicago-based Julius Rosenwald Fund. In operation since 1917, the fund initially supported the building of schools and libraries and the work of scholars that led to better conditions for blacks and poor, white southerners. In the mid-1920s, the fund began to offer grants to individuals in the arts: Barthé, Catlett, Cortor, and White were all recipients. 41 Perkins proposed creating a series of portrait heads of children of various races. His application also reveals he intended to enroll at Chicago’s famed Institute of Design. He secured references from artist Joseph Hirsch, Locke, Pollack, and David Ross (Pollack’s successor at the SSCAC). Hirsch and Ross remarked that Perkins’s financial responsibilities prevented him from devoting all of his time to his creative output. But the most persuasive endorsement came from Langston Hughes:

• What I have seen of his work has visual beauty and emotional power. What I know of him as a person causes me to believe him hard working, persistent, a man of character and determination, dedicated to his art, continually interested in experimentation, growth, and improvement. 42

The awards panel, which included Katharine Kuh and Jacob Lawrence, awarded Perkins $2,400.

When he received the grant money, in April 1948, Perkins left for New York City. Regrettably, nothing is known either about the trip or whether he completed the series of portrait heads. The award and the New York visit may have coincided with his dismissal from the post office, perhaps because of his leftist political beliefs. In this time of increasing polarization over the American position toward the Soviet Union, thousands were fired from government jobs in 1948 under the new United States Loyalty-Security program. 43