• Introduction
• The Power of a Photograph: The Lynching of Emmett Till
• Word and Image: Creating Context
• Documenting Civil Rights
• The Documentary Role of Television News
• Breakthrough in Birmingham
• Rousing a Sleeping Nation: Images of Assassination and Murder
• Portable Images

The leaders of the civil rights movement believed in photography’s ability to advance their objectives. A number of organizations—including the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Council of Churches, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—cultivated teams of professional “movement photographers” to create images that celebrated black life and achievement, offered evidence of the problem of racism and segregation, or acted as instruments of motivation or persuasion. Scores of other photographers—whether independent or on assignment for newspapers or magazines—documented the movement.

This section looks at photographs as historical records, how they chronicled the ongoing events of the modern civil rights movement. These images are, in turn, evocative, moving, startling, and celebratory—testaments to the vitality, courage, and perseverance of those who fought for racial justice and equality.