I AM A MAN

Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1970

William R. Ferris

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781496831620
• eBook ISBN: 9781496831637
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Photography

In the American South, the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the struggle to abolish racial segregation erupted in dramatic scenes at lunch counters, in schools, and in churches. The admission of James Meredith as the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi; the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; and the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis—where Martin Luther King was assassinated—rank as cardinal events in black Americans' fight for their civil rights. The photographs featured in I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970 bear witness to the courage of protesters who faced unimaginable violence and brutality as well as the quiet determination of the elderly and the angry commitment of the young. Talented photographers documented that decade and captured both the bravery of civil rights workers and the violence they faced. Most notably, this book features the work of Bob Adelman, Dan Budnik, Doris Derby, Roland Freeman, Danny Lyon, Art Shay, and Ernest Withers. Like the fabled music and tales of the American South, their photographs document the region's past, its people, and the places that shaped their lives. Protesters in these photographs generated the mighty leverage that eventually transformed a segregated South. The years from 1960 to 1970 unleashed both hope and profound change as desegregation opened public spaces and African Americans secured their rights. The photographs in this volume reveal, as only great photography can, the pivotal moments that changed history, and yet remind us how far we have to go.

LIST OF REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHS

Cover and pages vii and 2

Sanitation workers assemble in front of Clayborn Temple for a solidarity march. “I Am A Man” was the theme for Community On the Move for Equality (C.O.M.E.), Memphis, Tennessee, 1968. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 4

University of Kentucky student Nieta Dunn sitting in the all-white section at a dime store lunch counter, Lexington, Kentucky, 1960. Photo by Calvert McCann and courtesy of the University of Kentucky Archives. © Calvert McCann.

Page 5

Voter registration August 25, 1965; federal examiner C. A. Phillips administers voter registration oath to Joe Ella Moore, Prentiss, Mississippi, 1965. Photo by Wilfred Moncrief and courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. © Moncrief Photograph Collection.

Page 6

Protester with sign reading “Jim Crow Will Be the Death of America Yet!” Farmville, Virginia, 1963. Photo by Wilfred Moncrief and courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. © Moncrief Photograph Collection.

Page 6

Singer Mahalia Jackson at the Charlotte Coliseum, November 21, 1961. Photo by Don Sturkey and courtesy of the Wilson Library. © Don Sturkey.

Page 8

Charred remains of Vernon Dahmer’s car the morning his house and store in the Kelly Settlement were firebombed on January 10, 1966. Photo courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Page 11

Segregated waiting room in Memphis bus station. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 12

Demonstrators marching past stores on Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky, 1960. Photo by Calvert McCann and courtesy of the University of Kentucky Archives. © Calvert McCann.

Page 13

Women at sit-in at a lunch counter, Lexington, Kentucky, 1960. Photo by Calvert McCann and courtesy of the University of Kentucky Archives. © Calvert McCann.

Page 14

Minister directs choir at SCLC convention rally at SME church. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 14

Protesters attending a training session, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1960. Photo by Don Sturkey and courtesy of the Wilson Library. © Don Sturkey.

Page 15

African Americans and a few whites picket Charlotte department stores, woman with sunglasses and holding a sign looking into the camera, 1960. Photo by Don Sturkey and courtesy of the Wilson Library. © Don Sturkey.

Page 15

African Americans and a few whites picket Charlotte department stores, elderly woman wearing a sash, 1960. Photo by Don Sturkey and courtesy of the Wilson Library. © Don Sturkey.

Page 16

Protester with sign reading “Brotherhood or Klanhood?” Farmville, Virginia, 1963. Photo courtesy of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Page 16

Protester with sign reading “Discrimination Anywhere Is Everybody’s Business.” Farmville, Virginia, 1963. Photo courtesy of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Page 16

Protester with sign reading “Mob Terror? or Police Protection.” Farmville, Virginia, 1963. Photo courtesy of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Page 16

Protester with sign reading “There Is No Equal Protection Under Law for Colored People Here.” Farmville, Virginia, 1963. Photo courtesy of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Page 17

William Edwin Jones pushes daughter Renee Andrewnetta Jones (eight months old) during protest march on Main Street, Memphis, Tennessee, August 1961. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 18

Lynching victim lying on morgue table, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1960. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 19

Carl Braden. Photo by the Alabama Department of Public Safety and courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. © Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Page 19

Stokely Carmichael. Photo by the Alabama Department of Public Safety and courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. © Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Page 19

Anne Braden. Photo by the Alabama Department of Public Safety and courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. © Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Page 19

Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery, Alabama, 1965. Photo by the Alabama Department of Public Safety and courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. © Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Page 19

“A Training School for Communists” propaganda photograph in newspaper: Martin Luther King Jr. attending a class at a training school for Communists, 1957. Photo courtesy of the Robert Langmuir African American Photograph Collection.

Page 20

Operation Tent City receives food from Philadelphia and other cities, Somerville, Tennessee, 1960. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 20

Dick Gregory delivers food to farmers’ families, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1960. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 21

“Tent City” family, created when black families were evicted from their homes for voting in 1960. They took up residence on the property of Shep Toles, Fayette County, Tennessee, 1960. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 22

Young woman receives her voter registration card, Fayette County, Tennessee, 1960. Photo by Ernest Withers and courtesy of the Withers Collection. © Withers Collection, Inc.

Page 22

Willie Lee Wood Sr. demonstrating a voting machine for an audience in a small wooden church building in Prattville, Alabama, 1966. Photo by Jim Peppler and courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. © Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Page 23

105-year-old woman (former slave) registers to vote in Greenville, Mississippi, 1965. Photo by Bruce Hilton and courtesy of the Robert Langmuir African American Photograph Collection. © Bruce Hilton.

Freedom Rides, Jackson, MS, Birmingham, AL—1961

Page 25

National Guard members protecting the bus for the Freedom...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• I am a Man: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970
• 1961: Freedom Rides, Jackson, MS, Birmingham, AL
• 1962: James Meredith Integrates University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
• 1963: March on Washington
• 1964: Ku Klux Klan Rally in Salisbury, NC
• 1965: Selma to Montgomery March
• 1966: James Meredith March Against Fear, Jackson, MS
• 1968: Mule Train—Poor People’s March on Washington, Marks, MS
• 1968: Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, TN
• 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination, Memphis, TN
• 1970: Jackson State University
• Photographer Biographies
• List of Reproduced Photographs
• About the Authors