Photographers of the American Civil Rights Movement
Encyclopedia
Emmett Till
Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...
in 1955, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and photographers played an important role in advancing the American Civil Rights Movement by documenting the public and private acts of racial discrimination against African Americans. This article focuses on these photographers and the role that they played in the movement between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the South.
Notable photographers and the roles they played
- Bob Adelman
- Dan BudnikDan BudnikDan Budnik is an American photographer noted for his portraits of artists and photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and Native American life.Born in 1933 in Long Island, New York, Budnik studied at the Art Students League of New York in the early 1950s...
, in 1963, Budnik persuaded LifeLife (magazine)Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
to have him create a long-term photo essay documenting the Selma to Montgomery marchSelma to Montgomery marchesThe Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
. His photographs are now in the collection of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic SiteMartin Luther King, Jr. National Historic SiteMartin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site established on October 10, 1980, consists of several buildings surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.'s boyhood home on Auburn Avenue in the Sweet Auburn historic district of Atlanta, Georgia. The original Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where King...
.
- Bruce DavidsonBruce Davidson (photographer)Bruce Davidson is an American photographer. He has been a member of Magnum agency since 1958. His photographs, notably those taken in Harlem, New York City, have been widely exhibited and published in a number of books.-Youth:Bruce Davidson was born to a single mother, who worked in a factory...
chronicled the events and effects of Civil Rights MovementCivil rights movementThe civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, in both the North and the South, from 1961 to 1965. In support of his project, Davidson received a Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1962 and his finished project was displayed at the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York. Upon the completion of his documentation of the Civil Rights MovementCivil rights movementThe civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, Davidson received the first ever photography grant from the National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
- Bob Fitch was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) photographer in 1965 and 1966. His images includes school integration, voter registration and candidate campaigns in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia; the Mississippi Meredith March; and intimate photos of the King family during Dr. King's funeral. His pictures appeared nationally in Afro-American publications including Johnson Publishing's JET and EBONY. Photos appeared in the 1997 Smithsonian Exhibit "We Shall Overcome." His portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Atlanta, GA office with a print of Gandhi on the wall, is the model for the King memorial monument being constructed in Washington D.C. (www.bobfitchphoto.com)
- Jack T. Franklin (May 7, 1922 - September 20, 2009)
- Warren K. Leffler was a photographer for U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
during the civil rights years. Although based primarily in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Leffler also traveled to the South to cover many of the main events for the magazine.
- Danny Lyon published his first photographs working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeStudent Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeThe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
. His pictures appeared in The Movement, a documentary book about the Southern Civil Rights Movement, as well as Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, his own memoir of his years working for the SNCC.
- James "Spider" Martin'sSpider MartinJames "Spider" Martin was an American photographer known for his work documenting the American Civil Rights Movement....
photographs documented the March 1965 beating of marchers in the Selma to Montgomery marchSelma to Montgomery marchesThe Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
, known as “Bloody Sunday.” About the effect of photography on the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
said, "Spider, we could have marched, we could have protested forever, but if it weren't for guys like you, it would have been for nothing. The whole world saw your pictures. That's why the Voting Rights Act was passed."
- Charles MooreCharles Moore (photographer)Charles Lee Moore was an American photographer most famous for his photographs documenting the American civil rights era.-Life and career:...
, in 1958 photographed an argument between Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
and two policemen. His photographs were distributed nationally by the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, and published in Life and he began traveling throughout the South documenting the Civil Rights Movement. Moore's most famous photograph, Birmingham, depicts demonstrators being attacked by firemen wielding high-pressure hoses. U.S. Senator Jacob Javits said that Moore's pictures "helped to spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
- Gordon ParksGordon ParksGordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
was assigned by LifeLife (magazine)Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
in 1963 to travel with Malcolm XMalcolm XMalcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
and document the civil rights movement. He was also involved with the movement on a personal level. In 1947, Gordon Parks documented Dr. Kenneth Clark's infamous Doll Test. It is those pictures, published in Ebony July 1947, that were used as evidence in Brown Vs. Board of Education and helped sway the ruling.
- Herbert Eugene Randall, Jr.Herbert RandallHerbert Eugene Randall, Jr. is an American photographer who had documented the effects of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Randall is of Shinnecock, African-American and West Indian ancestry.- Education :...
photographed the effects of the Civil Rights Movement in Hattiesburg, MississippiHattiesburg, MississippiHattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census . It is the county seat of Forrest County...
in 1964, at the request of Sanford R. LeighSanford R. LeighSanford Rose Leigh , also known as Sandy Leigh was an African-American Civil Rights Activist and the director of the largest project in Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Hattiesburg Project....
, the Director of Mississippi Freedom Summer's Hattiesburg project. He spent the entire summer photographing solely in Hattiesburg, among the African-American community and among the volunteers in area projects such as the Freedom SchoolsFreedom SchoolsFreedom Schools were temporary, alternative free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States...
, Voter RegistrationVoter registrationVoter registration is the requirement in some democracies for citizens and residents to check in with some central registry specifically for the purpose of being allowed to vote in elections. An effort to get people to register is known as a voter registration drive.-Centralized/compulsory vs...
, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic PartyMississippi Freedom Democratic PartyThe Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement...
campaign. Only five of Randall's photographs were published in the summer of 1964. One seen worldwide was the bloodied, concussed Rabbi Arthur LelyveldArthur LelyveldRabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld was a rabbi within the movement of Reform Judaism. As well as being a prominent rabbi he also embraced social activism in many forms....
, head of a prominent Cleveland congregation and former conscientious objectorConscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
to World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1999, Randall donated 1,800 negatives to the archives of The University of Southern MississippiThe University of Southern MississippiThe University of Southern Mississippi, informally known as Southern Miss, is a large public research university located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. It is situated north of Gulfport, Mississippi and northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana...
in Hattiesburg. He and Bobs Tusa, the archivistArchivistAn archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
at USM, wrote Faces of Freedom Summer, which was published by the University of Alabama PressUniversity of AlabamaThe University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
in 2001. Faces is the only record of a single town in the midst of the Civil Rights revolution in America. At the time, the Hattiesburg Project was overlooked and unpublicized by the Civil Rights Movement.
- Moneta Sleet Jr. won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Feature PhotographyPulitzer Prize for Feature PhotographyThe Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography has been awarded since 1968 for a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album....
for his photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
's widow, Coretta Scott KingCoretta Scott KingCoretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
, at Dr. King's funeral. Sleet is the first African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
man to win the Pulitzer, and the first African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to win award for journalism.
Photo books on the Civil Rights Movement
- Davidson, Bruce. Time of Change: Civil Rights Photographs 1961-1965. Los Angeles: St. Ann's Press, 2002.
- Faces of Freedom Summer. University of Alabama Press, 2001.
- Freed, Leonard. Black in White America. New York: Grossman, 1967.
- Kasher, Steven. The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68. New York: Abbeville, 1996.
- Lyon, Danny. Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
- Moore, Charles. Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1991.
External links
- King's Dream: Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement
- Civil Rights Movement Veterans, Photo Album: Images of a Peoples' Movement