Recognized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art as early as
1943, John Biggers was a new force on the Texas scene in 1950, having recently
joined the faculty of Texas Southern University, a historically Black
university. The Cradle was featured in the Museum’s 25th Annual
Houston Artists Exhibition that year, where it was awarded the annual
purchase prize and became the first work by an artist of African descent to
enter the collection. However, the Museum, like nearly all
civic and cultural institutions in Houston at the time, strictly regulated
admission in line with Jim Crow laws, and Biggers was excluded from the
exhibition opening.  Using this egregious injustice as an example, the
director James Chillman forced the board of trustees to fully open the Museum
to People of Color.

The Cradle portrays a mother sheltering her children, a theme that
Biggers returned to frequently. He later described the mother figure as “a
mountain of refuge, ravaged by time, yet remaining both strong and
tender—protecting life—poised to absorb hostility without flinching.”