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Hale Aspacio Woodruff (1900-1980) was an African American painter, muralist, and arts educator. His most well-known works are the Amistad murals, painted between 1939 and 1940 for Talladega College's Savery Library.
Woodruff was born in Cairo, Illinois, and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. He studied at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, and at the Art Institute of Chicago. After winning an award from the Harmon Foundation, he traveled to Paris and attended the Academie Moderne and the Academie Scandinave. He also spent a summer studying mural painting in Mexico with Diego Rivera.
In 1931, Woodruff established one of the earliest art departments at a Black college at Atlanta University – teaching classes at the University's Laboratory High School, Morehouse College, and Spelman College as well. He also established the Atlanta Annuals, one of the earliest national exhibition opportunities for African American artists. In 1946 he moved to New York and taught in the art department at New York University until his retirement in 1968.