In the early 1940s, the young John Wilson came under the influence of the Mexican modernists while studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in his native Boston. Wilson was inspired by the examples of José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, artists who embraced both the public art of mural painting and the democratic medium of printmaking. For Wilson the latter offered “a form through which I could use my art skills to create convincing images of black people based on my experiences. Hopefully, others would identify with these images and sense a common, universal humanity.” The lithograph "Straphangers" (shown here with its related, preparatory drawing) is one of two compositions that Wilson created in the 1940s that depict a working-class African-American man riding a streetcar. The protagonist in "Straphangers" is surrounded by white passengers who share the same space and yet are distant; they either eye him askance or look away.