We Shall Overcome: Photographs from America's Civil
Rights Movement
August 1 - September 27, 1998
During America's Civil Rights Era, the fight for equal rights took many forms, including boycotts, sit-ins and marches. Photographers contributed to the movement by relaying the struggle to every corner of the nation. "We Shall Overcome: Photographs from America's Civil Rights Era" brings these images together.
The exhibition, sponsored locally by the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, The City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs/Leisure Services Bureau, and Georgia Council for the Arts, explores the role of seven prominent American photographers in documenting one of the most decisive eras in this nation's history. The 80 black-and-white photographs in the exhibition focus on key events and personalities of the Civil Rights Era (1954-1968). "We Shall Overcome" was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), and curated by Robert Phelan, an art historian, museum curator, and former director of CREED Photos (a database project for civil rights).
Works in "We Shall Overcome" are by some of America's most thoughtful and gifted photographers. Drawn from the personal collections of the artists, these works bring the viewer into the presence of the people and events of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The images reflect both the power and beauty of the photographic medium when used as a tool for social change.
The striking photographs in the exhibit are juxtaposed with the words of James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Movement participants. These quotations provide viewers with an opportunity to examine the Civil Rights Movement through the experiences of those directly involved with the struggle.
Photographers' Biographies
Bob Adelman's photographs of the American Civil Rights Movement express his interest in people forced to the margins of society. After studying philosophy and law, Adelman began photographing the dramatic events of the Civil Rights Era. He also documented quieter individual acts of bravery such as the scenes of voter registration, which transformed the political landscape of the South.
Bob Fitch, after receiving his Master of Arts from the Pacific School of Religion in 1965, joined the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As staff photographer, Fitch captured the grassroots organizing efforts of the SCLC and other groups as they went about the daily work of the Civil Rights Movement. His photographs record anonymous acts of courage. And although the mainstream press, which catered to a predominantly white readership, rarely published Fitch's work, his photographs appeared regularly in the Afro-American, the Pittsburgh Courier, the Amsterdam News, the Chicago Daily Defender, and Jet.
Leonard Freed, an American member of the photographers' cooperative Magnum, was living in the Netherlands in the early 1960s when the photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in European newspapers compelled him to return to the United States. Upon his return, he was struck more by the similarities of black and white Americans than by their differences. However, he also noticed something else: while culturally available images of white Americans were broad and varies, images of black Americans often assumed the form of caricature. Freed set to create a body of visual evidence that refuted those caricatures and emphasized the individuality of his subjects. His subtle and thoughtful images comment on the unfairness of enforced segregation and provide context for some of the events that took place in America in the 1950s and 60s.
Matt Herron was born in 1931 in Rochester, New York. His student days transformed him into a pacifist and social activist. In 1963, he moved his family to Mississippi to be on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement where he worked as a magazine photographer, documented the activities of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and trained local apprentices to photograph the Civil Rights Movement. Herron's work conveys his philosophy of using photography to advance social justice.
Charles Moore was born in 1931, the son of a Baptist minister. Moore was keenly aware of the inequalities around him and felt a responsibility to capture them on film. Working first for newspapers in Montgomery, Alabama, and later for national publications, Moore made a specialty of photographing the most violent incidents of a volatile era. His images reveal both the orchestrated brutality of police officers and the random attacks of hostile bystanders. Moore's unflinching documentation of these violent episodes and his unwavering attention to the heroism of ordinary people elevates his work to the highest levels of photojournalism.
Gordon Parks, one of the preeminent photojournalists of the twentieth century, was born in Kansas in 1912. During the 1940s he used his camera to record scenes of poverty for the Farm Security Administration. He worked for the Office of War Information from 1943 to 1945. And, in 1949, he joined Life magazine, where he photographed a broad range of subjects from Winston Churchill to South American slum children. In 1963, Parks photographed Malcolm X for a Life photo-essay on the Nation of Islam. These images change many other popular representations of Malcolm X.
Robert Sengstacke worked in Chicago in the late 1950s, and he saw himself as a visual historian. As staff photographer for Muhammed Speaks, the Nation of Islam's official newspaper, Sengstacke had unique access to the organization. He was the first non-Muslim photographer for the newspaper, but he shared with the Nation of Islam "a desire to counter the negative images of African Americans in the American press."
Curator's Biography
Robert Phelan, a writer, curator and museum consultant, trained as both an art historian (M.A., Williams College) an as an attorney (J.D., Tulane University). Phelan has organized exhibitions for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History and other institutions. His writing of photography ranges from a study of the 19th century scientific representations of Eadweard Muybridge to New Traditions, a book that examines the work of Latin American photographers in New York City. He has lectured extensively at museums and colleges on a wide range of art topics and has been a guest of several radio and television special.
Phelan's most recent exhibition, "We Shall Overcome: Photographs from the American Civil Rights Era," ponders the questions of art, race, and justice in American society. The exhibition goes beyond a display of important photographs, examining the multiple meaning and uses of visual imagery. In Phelan's words, "While esthetics are what initially drew me to these photographs, it was the visceral power of the images and their use to achieve just ends which maintained by interest. Most of the issues of content and meaning examined in the discourse about art and media over the last few decades are addressed within these photographs." The works presented, captured by internationally recognized photographers, exist simultaneously as both primary historical documents and fine art objects.
The information provided on this page was originally published in pamphlet form by the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. Usage is strictly limited to non-profit educational purposes. Permission to reproduce this text for any purpose, including academic or commercial publication, must be obtained in advance and in writing from the Civil Rights Museum. Copyright infringements are not the responsibility of the Civil Rights Museum or the Savannah Images Project.