Untitled Document

Let Us March On!
Selected Civil Rights Photographs of Ernest C. Withers, 1955-1968

Ernest Withers' very particular point of view is informed by his personal history, that of a socially conscious citizen who worked hard to support his community and raise a family of eight children in a South which was segregated until the 1960s. In 1955, a photograph of the mutilated body of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, published in Jet Magazine, shocked Black communities throughout the U.S. Ernest Withers' identification as a civil rights photographer began with his coverage of the ensuing trial of two white men (and their acquittal by an all-white male jury) for the murder of Emmett Till.

In a few important ways, Withers must be distinguished from other photojournalists who covered the people and events of the Civil Rights Movement. First, Withers, unlike some of the northern and/or white photojournalists covering the South, was a participant in the Movement, not just an observer. He regularly received phone calls from activists and organizations to alert him to current and future actions. Withers saw his work as a contribution to the movement for social change and, therefore, his role was that of social documentarian, a recorder of real people engaged in important activities, participating in historic events. Second, he was often unpaid for his work, although paid assignments were done for the Tri-State Defender and Chicago Defender. Early in the 1950s Withers worked with a 4 x 5" Speed Graphic, a large camera and flash unit which made him highly visible and sometimes vulnerable. He later switched to a 120 Flexinet, a more convenient and less conspicuous format.

It was clear from the start of his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement that Withers' intention was not merely to document events. Like many activists, Withers believed that if the struggle for equality could be shown, people would surely move to change the way things were. In a single-minded effort to get out the pictures quickly, Withers sometimes, during a critical demonstration or event, would sell a roll of exposed film on the spot to an out-of-town journalist, just to be sure the pictures would be published. His photos were widely used (Time, Life, Newsweek) and often uncredited.

The intention of this exhibition is neither to present documents of all of the events and people of the Civil Rights Movement, nor to offer a complete record of all that Withers photographed. Rather, it is to present a selection, a sample of images that illuminate the finely tuned humanistic vision that informed Ernest Withers' obsession to document.

Withers' photographs allow us to reflect on what the Civil Rights Movement still means today and what its future will require of us.

Michele Furst, Curator
Massachusetts College of Art

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