Photographs That Changed America

By Anthony Todd in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 26, 2009 5:40PM

The struggle for African-American civil rights is full of dramatic stories. Bravery, violence, hatred and hope; all of these are part of the complex and interesting tale of the movement. Sadly, for many the exposure to these stories is limited to a half-remembered week of high school history class, or a few dusty books sitting on shelves. Thanks to the Field Museum’s amazing exhibit, “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement 1956-1968,” visitors have a chance to understand this struggle in an entirely different and much more visceral way.

Just as television changed the way Americans think about the Vietnam war, photography changed the way America (especially white America) saw the civil rights struggle. Many of us have seen the iconic pictures of the segregated drinking fountains in the Jim Crow-era south, or photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King leading the march in Selma, Alabama. But these are just the tip of the iceberg. Throughout the civil rights era, hundreds of brave photographers, black and white, risked their lives to document the marches and sit-ins and show them to the American public. Threatened by rioters, beaten with bricks and rocks, and often arrested with the very protestors they were documenting, these pioneering photographers allow us to see the moments we’ve read about in the history books.

Subjects include the integration of Little Rock High, the Freedom Rides, the bus boycotts and the marches in Alabama and the bombings and murders that dotted the south. These photographs changed public opinion by allowing American to see the struggles of a group that had been rendered invisible by hatred. While this exhibit may not seem like the usual Field Museum fare (not a fossil in sight), it alone is worth a trip to the museum. Hurry down now - the exhibit closes on September 7th.