Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Panopticon Press (Boston, Mass.), publisher.

Description

1. 1 portfolio (10 photographic prints); 70 x 59 cm

Summary

1. Fine art prints depicting some events and activities related to the American civil rights movement, many associated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from 1956 to 1968, consisting of candid shots and group portraits of civil rights activists and families; and views of marches, processions, and specific acts of civil rights activism. A group of images relate to the final days and death of Dr. King (March-April 1968), consisting of views of striking Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers carrying the iconic "I Am A Man" protest signs; the memorial march in Memphis for King following his assassination; and King's funeral procession, following his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia.
2. Also depicted are Dr. King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy riding one of the first desegregated public buses in Montgomery, Alabama (1956); King being confronted by Jackson, Mississippi, police at Medgar Evers' funeral (1963); four African American students, members of the Little Rock Nine, arriving for their first day at Central High School as White students wait to protest their arrival, in Little Rock, Arkansas (1957); an African American family, who were evicted from their home by White landowners for trying to vote, living in "Tent City," Fayette County, Tenn. (1960); an African American father pushing his daughter in a stroller past a police car during a protest march in Memphis (1961); and a group of Memphis civil rights attorneys, that include Benjamin Hooks and Odell Horton, at the Memphis police court (1960).

Subject

1. Elegiac poetry, Spanish > History and criticism
2. García Lorca, Federico, 1898-1936 > Criticism and interpretation

Genre/Form

1. Portrait photographs – 1990-1999.
2. Group portraits – 1990-1999.
3. Gelatin silver prints – 1990-1999.

Call number

1. Sc Photo Portfolio (Withers, E.C. I am a man)

Note

1. Title taken from portfolio cover.
2. Schomburg Center's copy is number 4 in an edition of 35.
3. Images were originally captured between 1956 and 1968, and were produced as fine art prints in 1994.
4. Portfolio includes three inserts: a title page bearing publication, production and copyright information on verso, and photographer's signature on recto; a list of the photographs with titles, dates and captions; and a preface and introduction written by Tony Decaneas and Martha Hunt Hule respectively.

Terms of use (note)

1. Collection is under copyright; permission of the copyright holder is required for duplication.

Biography (note)

1. Ernest C. Withers, 1922-2007, was a Memphis, Tennessee, based African American freelance photographer, best known for documenting racial segregation and the civil rights movement in the American South during the 1950s and 1960s. After training as a photographer during World War II, Withers returned to Memphis to open a photo studio. Among his accomplishments were his coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial (1955); his travels with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his public life; documenting the blues music scene on Memphis's Beale Street, and shooting the last years of the Negro League baseball teams. Withers died in Memphis in 2007. In 2010, evidence surfaced that Withers was a paid informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1968-1970), reporting on the activities of several civil rights figures including Dr. King.

Author

1. Withers, Ernest C., 1922-2007, photographer.

Title

1. I am a man / photographs by Ernest C. Withers.

Publisher

1. Boston, Mass. : Panoptican Press, 1994.

Type of content

1. still image

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. sheet

Terms of use

1. Collection is under copyright; permission of the copyright holder is required for duplication.

Biography

1. Ernest C. Withers, 1922-2007, was a Memphis, Tennessee, based African American freelance photographer, best known for documenting racial segregation and the civil rights movement in the American South during the 1950s and 1960s. After training as a photographer during World War II, Withers returned to Memphis to open a photo studio. Among his accomplishments were his coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial (1955); his travels with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his public life; documenting the blues music scene on Memphis's Beale Street, and shooting the last years of the Negro League baseball teams. Withers died in Memphis in 2007. In 2010, evidence surfaced that Withers was a paid informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1968-1970), reporting on the activities of several civil rights figures including Dr. King.

Connect to:

1. Request Appointment

Added author

1. Panopticon Press (Boston, Mass.), publisher.

Research call number

1. Sc Photo Portfolio (Withers, E.C. I am a man)