Above: Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956. The Gordon Parks Foundation.
"I picked up the camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most in the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty." -Gordon Parks
Through his work for Life Magazine, photojournalist Gordon Parks explored the discrimination and racism African Americans encountered during the mid-twentieth century. His photographs supported the Civil Rights Movement by portraying blacks as capable, intelligent people rather than agitators or victims. Parks’ humanistic representation of African Americans expanded the range of images available to the public about the everyday inequities blacks faced, which led to a more empathetic understanding and greater acceptance of them.