Lois Mailou Jones is one of a handful of African American artists, legendary in her virtuosity and the scope of her work, who got their start during the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Boston in 1905, she began her artistic career at an early age, designing sets as a student for The Ted Shawn School and holding her first solo exhibition at the age of 17. A graduate of the Boston Museum School, she joined the staff of the art department at Howard University in Washington in 1930 and continued to teach there until her retirement in 1977. A litany of now-famous artists were her pupils.

Lois had many sources of inspiration, gathered from her travels to France, Africa, Haiti and Martha's Vineyard. She spent many years as an artist in Paris in the 20's, when it would have been difficult to gain recognition in the U.S. In 1953 she married Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, a well known Haitian artist and thus began her love-affair with that county. Her travels in Africa also influenced her greatly. Lois changed styles many times, and in many instances she successfully combined them. She exhibited all over the United States and abroad. Her work is in the collection of most major American museums. In 1990, Meridian organized and circulated a retrospective of her work, The World of Lois Mailou Jones.

Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel was still actively working when she died in 1998 at the age of 92.