Beginning with the murder of Emmett Till in 1955,

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

and photographers played an important role in advancing the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

by documenting the public and private acts of racial discrimination against African Americans and the nonviolent response of the movement. 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 (1931–2016), volunteered as a photographer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in the early 1960s and photographed the events and the now well-known people active in the civil rights movement at the time. *James H. Barker, documented civil rights movement activity in Selma in the early 1960s. *

Dan Budnik Daniel Budnik (May 20, 1933 – August 14, 2020) was an American photographer noted for his portraits of artists and photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and Native American life. Career Budnik studied painting at the Art Students League ...

(1933–2020), persuaded ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' to have him create a long-term photo essay documenting the

Selma to Montgomery march The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...

. His photographs are now in the collection of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. * Bruce Davidson (born 1933), chronicled the events and effects of the civil rights movement, in both the North and the South, from 1961 to 1965. In support of his project, Davidson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962 and his finished project was displayed at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York. Upon the completion of his documentation of the civil rights movement, Davidson received the first ever photography grant from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. * Diana Davies (born 1938) * Benedict J. Fernandez (1936–2021), extensively documented the 1968 Sanitation Worker's Strike in Memphis. *

Bob Fitch Robert E. Fitch (July 28, 1919 – April 15, 2003) was an American athlete and coach. He broke the world record in the discus throw in 1946 with a mark of 54.93 m (180 ft in). He developed a rotational technique referred to ...

(1939–2016),

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(SCLC) photographer in 1965 and 1966. His images includes school integration, voter registration actions, and candidate campaigns in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia; the March Against Fear in Mississippi; 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 Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...

''. Fitch's photos appeared in the 1997 Smithsonian Exhibit "We Shall Overcome", and his portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Atlanta, Georgia, office with a print of Mohandas Gandhi on the wall, is the model for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial monument in Washington D.C. *Jack T. Franklin (1922–2009) *

Leonard Freed Leonard Freed (October 23, 1929 – November 29, 2006) was an American documentary photojournalist and longtime Magnum Photos member.Amanda Hopkinson,Leonard Freed, The Guardian, 6 December 2006. Accessed 2 February 2018. Career Freed had wanted to ...

(1929–2006), documented the

March on Washington The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...

and other civil rights events. *

Jill Freedman Jill Freedman (October 19, 1939 – October 9, 2019) was an American documentary photographer and street photographer. She was based in New York City. Early life and education Freedman was Jewish and born in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of ...

(1939–2019), extensively documented the 1968

Poor People's Campaign The Poor People's Campaign, or Poor People's March on Washington, was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCL ...

in Washington, D.C. *

Gene Herrick In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

(born 1926),

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

photojournalist, covered the Emmett Till trial,

Autherine Lucy Autherine Juanita Lucy (October 5, 1929 – March 2, 2022) was an American activist who was the first African-American student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956. Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university' ...

and the integration of the University of Alabama, the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

(photographing

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "th ...

and

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

being fingerprinted and booked), and the race riots in Clinton, TN in response to the integration of

Clinton High School (Clinton, Tennessee) Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, is the Anderson County, Tennessee, high school that serves students living in and near Clinton, Oliver Springs, and Claxton. History 1806 Union Academy, a state-sponsored institution, was char ...

, and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. * Matt Herron (1931–2020), documented the Freedom Summer of 1964. That year, he organized a team of five photographers, The Southern Documentary Project, in an attempt to record the changing racial landscape of Mississippi. * R.C. Hickman (c. 1922–2007), documented the everyday life of African-Americans in Dallas, Texas, published in his book "Behold the People" in 1994. He also photographed the visitations of notable individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr. in Dallas. * Bill Hudson (1932–2010),

photojournalist, depicted police brutality against peaceful protesters, including the police dogs attacking students marching to talk to Birmingham's mayor during the 1963

Birmingham Children's Crusade __NOTOC__ The Children's Crusade, or Children's March, was a march by over 5,000 school students in Birmingham, Alabama on May 2–3, 1963. Initiated and organized by Rev. James Bevel, the purpose of the march was to walk downtown to talk to the m ...

. * David Johnson (born 1926), first African American student of Ansel Adams, photographed the 1963

. * James H. Karales (1930–2002), photographer for ''Look'' magazine from 1960 to 1971, covered the civil rights movement throughout its duration and took many memorable photographs including photos of

SNCC The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

's formation, of Dr. King and his associates, and, during his full coverage of the event, the iconic photograph of the

showing people proudly marching along the highway under a cloudy turbulent sky. In 2013 a book of his photographs, ''Controversy and Hope: The Civil Rights Movement Photographs of James Karales'', was published by the

University of South Carolina Press The University of South Carolina Press is an academic publisher associated with the University of South Carolina. It was founded in 1944. By the early 1990s, the press had published several surveys of women's writing in the southern United States ...

. * Warren K. Leffler, photographer for '' U.S. News & World Report'' during the civil rights years. Although based primarily in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, Leffler also traveled to the South to cover many of the main events for the magazine. *

Danny Lyon Danny Lyon (born March 16, 1942) is an American photographer and filmmaker. All of Lyon's publications work in the style of photographic New Journalism, meaning that the photographer has become immersed in with, and is a participant of, the doc ...

(born 1942), published his first photographs working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. 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 SNCC. * James "Spider" Martin (1939–2003), took photographs documenting the March, 1965 beating of many of the marchers during the first

, known as "Bloody Sunday." Speaking about the effect of photography on the civil rights movement,

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." *Jack Moebes (1911–2002), only photographer to capture the Greensboro Four after they sat at the lunch counter in Greensboro, NC on February 1, 1960, arguably helping to precipitate the Civil Rights Sit-ins in other cities throughout the South. It appears in both the Smithsonian's American History and African American Museums and as widely in textbooks, magazines, books and other museums. Moebes documented numerous civil rights events in Greensboro, NC over his 30-year career with the Greensboro News and Record from 1945 to 1975. * Charles Moore (1931–2010), photographed a 1958 argument between

and two policemen. His photographs were distributed nationally by the

, 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 Jacob Koppel Javits ( ; May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American lawyer and politician. During his time in politics, he represented the state of New York in both houses of the United States Congress. A member of the Republican Party, he al ...

said that Moore's pictures "helped to spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." *

Gordon Parks Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particula ...

(1912–2006), assigned by ''

'' in 1963 to travel with

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

and document the civil rights movement. He was also involved with the movement on a personal level. In 1947, Gordon Parks documented Drs. Kenneth B. and

Mamie Phipps Clark Mamie Phipps Clark (April 18, 1917 - August 11, 1983) was an African-American social psychologist who, along with her husband Kenneth Clark, focused on the development of self-consciousness in black preschool children. Clark was born and raised i ...

's " Doll Test," pictures that were published in ''Ebony'' that year. The Doll Test was used as evidence in the ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' trial and helped sway the ruling. Parks also photographed civil rights demonstrations, including the 1963 March on Washington, and documented Jim Crow Segregation for ''Life'' magazine. * Herbert Eugene Randall Jr. (born 1936), photographed the effects of the civil rights movement in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1964, at the request of Sanford R. Leigh, the Director of

Mississippi Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...

's Hattiesburg project. Randall spent the entire summer photographing solely in Hattiesburg, among the African-American community and the volunteers in area projects such as the

Freedom Schools Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative, and 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 ...

Voter Registration In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The r ...

, and the

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to as the Freedom Democratic Party, was an American political party created in 1964 as a branch of the populist Freedom Democratic organization in the state of Mississippi during the ...

campaign. Five of Randall's photographs were published in the summer of 1964, and one seen worldwide was the bloodied, concussed Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld, head of a prominent

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

congregation and former conscientious objector to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 1999 Randall donated 1,800 negatives to the archives of

The University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

in Hattiesburg. He and Bobs Tusa, the

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can consis ...

at USM, wrote ''Faces of Freedom Summer'', which was published by the

University of Alabama Press The University of Alabama Press is a university press founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama. An editorial board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within ...

in 2001. ''Faces'' is the only record of a single town in the midst of America's civil rights movement. * Flip Schulke (1930–2008), freelance photographer who traveled with Martin Luther King, Jr. and took around 11,000 photographs of him. * Robert A. Sengstacke (1943–2017), award-winning photojournalist during the Civil Rights era. He made portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and other prominent civil rights leaders. *

Art Shay Art Shay (March 31, 1922 – April 28, 2018) was an American photographer and writer. Biography Born in 1922, Shay grew up in the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. ...

(1922–2018), photographed the

Chicago Freedom Movement The Chicago Freedom Movement, also known as the Chicago open housing movement, was led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel and Al Raby. It was supported by the Chicago-based Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) and the Sou ...

. Working freelance for ''Life'', the ''Saturday Evening Post'', ''Time'' and other magazines, Shay started covering integration issues in 1953. In 1959 he covered the Deerfield Housing Crisis, in 1961 block busting, then the 1963 Freedom March, school boycotts, and Martin Luther King's 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement rally at Soldier Field. Shay also covered the 1966 Chicago and the 1967 Detroit riots. *

Moneta Sleet Jr. Moneta J. Sleet Jr. (February 14, 1926 – September 30, 1996) was an American press photographer best known for his work as a staff photographer for ''Ebony'' magazine. In 1969 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his p ...

(1926–1996), won the 1969

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography is one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or phot ...

for his photograph of

's widow,

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she ...

, at Dr. King's funeral. Sleet is the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

man to win the Pulitzer, and the first

to win award for journalism. *

Maria Varela Maria Varela (born January 1940) is a Mexican-American civil rights photographer, community organizer, a writer, and a teacher. She has been actively involved in Civil Rights movements, advocating rights for indigenous communities and protects cult ...

(born 1940), worked for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1967 primarily in Alabama and Mississippi supporting civil rights organizers with educational materials and photographs. Varela authored several photo-based publications and filmstrips ranging from voter education training manuals to organizing co-operatives and farm-worker unions. Some of her movement photography appeared in La Revista Porque (Mexico City), Chicano Press Association newspapers, numerous civil rights movement texts and photo exhibits. Three exhibits, "We’ll Never Turn Back" (1980) and "This Light of Ours" (2013–14) and "Time to Get Ready" are traveling extensively across the US. * Grey Villet (1927–2000), and other photographers and reporters, was assaulted in

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

while covering protests after the Federal Government's attempts to desegregate public schools. After being attacked by

segregationists Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internati ...

he was arrested by the police and held for a few hours on unspecified charges. Villet also became notable for his photographs of Mildred and Richard Loving whose interracial marriage was declared illegal in Virginia. After a lengthy

legal battle - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...

, the Supreme Court eventually found unanimously in their favor in 1967. Villet was assigned to the story in 1965 and spent two weeks with the Lovings. * Cecil J. Williams (born 1937), began photographing the origin of the civil rights movement in Clarendon County, and Orangeburg, South Carolina; and at eleven years old, beginning with Thurgood Marshall, arriving by train in Charleston, South Carolina to argue the ''Briggs v. Elliott'' case. His collection of nearly one million film images is perhaps one of the largest in the world. At fourteen years old, he became a freelancer for ''JET''. Later, he regularly contributed to the ''Afro-American'', ''Pittsburgh Courier'', and other weekly publications. Some of the notable events he photographed include: the ''Briggs v. Elliott'' petitioners, Elloree School Teachers, Minister Billy Graham's 1957 New York Crusade at Madison Square Garden, Harvey Gantt being admitted to Clemson University, John F. Kennedy's presidential announcement, the Orangeburg Massacre, and the Charleston Hospital Workers Strike. His photograph of Coretta Scott King involved in the Charleston Hospital Workers Strike was featured on the front cover of ''JET''. Other photographs he made appeared in ''Newsweek'', ''TIME'', and the Associated Press. He was twice arrested and jailed for photographing student demonstrations. In 2015, he invented the FilmToaster, a fast camera scanning instrument, to scan his mammoth film collection. Many of his iconic images from the era of civil rights have appeared on the covers of numerous historical publications. * Ernest Withers (1922–2007), photographed African American history in the segregated South for over 60 years, including the Montgomery bus boycott, the Emmett Till murder trial, Sanitation Worker's Strike, Negro league baseball, and musicians related to Memphis blues and Memphis soul.

References

External links

10 Essential Civil Rights Movement Photographers

* ttp://www.WDASHistory.org Rare photos of national civil rights leaders at Freedom Station WDAS-Philadelphia, Pennsylvania {{Civil rights movement Lists of photographers People involved with the civil rights movement History of civil rights in the United States * Historians of the civil rights movement

Notable photographers and the roles they played

See also

References

Further reading

External links