AfriCOBRA founder Jeff Donaldson was born in Pine Bluff, Ark. in 1932. He received a BA in studio art from the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff in 1954, after establishing the school’s first arts major. He studied under John Howard, who had been a student of Harlem Renaissance painter Hale Woodruff and nurtured Donaldson’s interest in Afrocentric art.