Andrews was both an artist and activist who created narrative-based works in collage, prints, paintings and drawings. He created scenes of the South using memories of his childhood in the segregated South to create works addressing human suffering and injustice. He was the first member of his family to graduate high school and went on to attended Fort Valley State College, Ft. Valley, Georgia, 1948-50, which was one of three black colleges in the state. After serving in the Korean War, he enrolled in the Art institute of Chicago, receiving a BFA in 1958. In the 1960s and 1970s he led protests against galleries and museums that were not exhibiting the work of women and African Americans. While teaching at Queens College, University of Michigan and while Director of the Visual Arts Program for the National Endowment for Arts, he gave back to those communities by initiating a program for underserved kids, a prison art program at Manhattan Detention Complex and an arts program at Inner City Roundtable of youths, an organization of gang members seeking to combat youth violence. Andrews was listed by Ebony magazine as “America’s top selling Black artist” in 1998.