There is one image that for me sums up the man, Jim Harithas. It is an old black and white photo from 1977 of a protest on the steps of the Houston Police Central Headquarters. Jim joined a crowd gathered there to demonstrate over the brutal murder of a young US Army veteran, Joe Campos Torres, by rogue Houston police officers. His murder and other kinds of brutality and discrimination by the police were all too common in those days. It sparked a seminal time for a rebirth of Chicano rights, for people of color caught in the justice system, and for reforming the Houston police. Though I barely knew Jim, this image, more than the knowledge of all his accomplishments, is what connects me to him.
Whether directing august art museums or scrappy upstarts, he championed art-world outsiders and socially conscious and political art. He gave Yoko Ono her first solo show.