Above: Untitled, Alabama 1956. The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Segregation Story
In 1956, Life assigned Gordon Parks to create a story on the Jim Crow south as part of a five-part series on segregation. Life was known for publishing articles that were generally accepting of Jim Crow laws, and originally this was how they wanted him to address the subject. Parks, however, decided to document the life of an extended African American family in Mobile, Alabama, in a way that would show the everyday restrictions of being a black citizen. |
"My family saw the photo essay as an opportunity to advance the cause of civil rights. These pictures were going to be published in a national magazine. People across the country would clearly see the problem." |
Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks, 2011. Youtube.
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By chronicling Segregation Story as he saw fit, Parks was putting himself at great personal risk. White supremacists were angered at the idea of a black man exposing the injustices of the Jim Crow south; during his week in Alabama, Parks and his guide were frequently followed and harassed by white townspeople. Once his assignment was finished, Parks fled as quickly as he could: “After reaching Birmingham at dawn I took the first plane to New York. Not until it roared upward did I breathe easily.” |
Letters to the Editor
Life Magazine, October 15, 1956
Life Magazine, October 15, 1956
In September of 1956, Life published twenty-six of Parks’ photos, paired with an essay entitled “The Restraints: Open and Hidden” written by Robert Wallace. The article challenged racial inequality by exchanging the typical focus on boycotts, protests, and brutality for an empathetic depiction of how an average family lived in the midst of the unjustness of segregation. His photographs were unlike other representations of the African Americans in the press, which often portrayed them as agitators or as pitiful victims.
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