It all started in the 50s when a small number of African Americans dedicated their talents and livelihoods to painting the Florida landscape. With the friendship and encouragement from local landscape artist A. E. “Bean” Backus, these young Fort Pierce artists developed their individual techniques and rendered waterscapes, backcountry marshes, and inlets with a raw beauty and mystique, which became well-known vintage Floridian images. From the beginning, there were people who collected their paintings. Later, their artwork became noted for introducing the Indian River School and the Backus School movements and the Ft. Pierce artists became known to the public as the Florida Highwaymen.