In 1935, together with
Charles Alston,
Augusta Savage (who had experienced discrimination in her artistic career), others artists and bibliophile
Arthur Schomburg, Lightfoot founded the
Harlem Artists Guild[11] to work towards equality in
WPA art programs in New York.[12][13] In 1936, a group of African American artists, including Charles Alston,
Georgette Seabrook, Vertis Hayes, Sara Murrell, Selma Day, and Lightfoot submitted mural designs for Harlem Hospital in New York City. The murals were approved by the WPA's
Federal Art Project (FPA), but the hospital superintendent, L.T. Dermody, initially rejected four of the designs.[14][15]
She was among the artists who took part in the Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro (1851-1940) (July 4–September 2, 1940), connected with the
American Negro Exposition, at the Tanner Art Galleries in
Chicago.[16] She also featured in American Negro Art, 19th and 20th Centuries (December 9, 1941 – January 3, 1942) at New York's Downtown Gallery, the first exhibition of African-American art to have been held at a mainstream commercial gallery; curated by
Edith Halpert, owner of the gallery. The exhibition counted among its sponsors such prominent white patrons as Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia,
Archibald MacLeish,
A. Philip Randolph, and
Eleanor Roosevelt.[17]
Elba Lightfoot appears in a group photograph of the artists of the WPA Art Center at 306 W. 141st St.,
New York.[18]
^"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKH2-61L : accessed 24 April 2023), Elba Lightfoot in household of Izaih [sic] Lightfoot, Evanston, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 100, sheet , family , NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll ; FHL microfilm.
^"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSRS-MH1 : accessed 24 April 2023), Elba Lightfoot in household of Isoc Lightfoot, Evanston, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 2135, sheet 15B, line 65, family 319, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 500; FHL microfilm 2,340,235.
^Sharon F. Patton,
"Negro art organizations", African-American Art, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 147.
^Lemoine Deleaver Pierce (2004). "Charles Alston – An Appreciation". The International Review of African American Art (4): 33–38.
^Wintz, Carrie D.; Paul Finkelman, eds. (2004).
"Second Harlem Renaissance". Encyclopedia of the Harlem Rennassance. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge. p. 1100.
ISBN0-203-31930-3. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
^Find a Grave, database and images (
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50673077/elba-reyes : accessed 24 April 2023), memorial page for Elba Reyes (1907–1989), Find a Grave Memorial ID 50673077, citing Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA; Maintained by recordagrave.org (contributor 46960600).