Portfolio: We Shall Overcome

Transcription

1 Portfolio: We Shall Overcome Photography Jim Wallace Jim Wallace, now a seasoned freelance photojournalist and editor, was a student at the University of North Carolina when he took these civil rights photos in the sixties During the Ku Klux Klan s cross-burning ceremony, men in white robes carried torches that were thrown to the base of the cross. While the cross burned, speakers preached white supremacy from a makeshift podium on the back of an old flatbed truck. Images from the Civil Rights Movement count among those responsible for changing public opinion. Indeed, they helped changed the course of history, and continue to remind people of the events that shaped American culture in the sixties. Jim Wallace documented the movement in He photographed protest demonstrations, including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech. He also covered an attempted revival of the Ku Klux Klan in The civil rights assignments represented here are perhaps the most important moments in history that I have been privileged to capture, says Wallace. the heroes of these photographs are those who put their lives on the line to improve their town. They were seeking to make it possible for everyone to have the freedom that most of us already enjoyed. The fact of the matter is that as long as they didn t have it neither did we. During the Civil Rights Movement, as a student at the University of North Carolina majoring in journalism, Jim Wallace also worked for the University of North Carolina student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, and as a stringer for United Press International, Newsweek and the Charlotte Observer. Although taking the civil rights photos began as assignments, Wallace came to know the participants over time and was given free access by the local leaders of the movement and generally by the police. He photographed planning meetings, church rallies and services, marches, demonstrations, sit-ins and arrests in Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh and Greensboro (all in North Carolina) and in Washington, D.C. ASPP member Jim Wallace is a freelance photojournalist, editor and photographic preservation consultant. He is a member of the International Standards Organization (ISO) working group for photographic image storage and permanence. Wallace is the former director/curator of Imaging, Printing and Photographic Services at the Smithsonian Institution. He edited and designed the book Reflections on the Wall: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Stackpole books, 1987). The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., held an exhibition of Jim Wallace s civil rights photographs, Eat at Joe s Black + White, earlier this year. Jim Wallace Address: 6990 Falls Reach Drive, #401 Falls Church, VA Website: jimwallacephotography.com wallacephotos@aol.com The Picture Professional 25

2 Police separate marchers from segregated store at a 1963 protest in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 26 Issue 2, 2008

3 In 1963, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, demonstrators point their fingers at a segregated business. The Picture Professional 27

4 With roots in the church, freedom songs were one of the movement's strengths. The music was based on traditional African American spirituals. By singing during marches, demonstrators used the music to bolster their morale while delivering their message and demands to segregated facilities. 28 Issue 2, 2008

5 At Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1963, a protester goes limp as a way of refusing to assist in his own arrest. Civil disobedience workshops were used to train demonstrators in passive resistance techniques like these and to ignore both verbal and physical attacks. The Picture Professional 29

6 More than 500 demonstrators crowded Durham, North Carolina s First Baptist Church on January 12, 1964, to support the movement. 30 Issue 2, 2008

7 Before marching 13 miles from Durham to Chapel Hill on January 12, 1964, more than 500 demonstrators crowded into Durham's First Baptist Church, filing past collection plates to donate bail money and support the movement. The Picture Professional 31

8 The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation s capital, and one of the first to receive extensive television coverage. 32 Issue 2, 2008

9 In August 1963, more than 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Picture Professional 33

10 Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous I have a Dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington. Leaders of the March credit King's speech with influencing Congress and the White House to enact federal legislation covering public accommodations, the power to vote and open housing. 34 Issue 2, 2008

11 Two marchers rest following the 1963 March on Washington. The Picture Professional 35