Making its West Coast debut at the Skirball, Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968 features more than 160 images that helped change the nation. Taken by professional and amateur photojournalists, social activists, and anonymous witnesses, the compelling photographs exposed injustice prevalent in America at the time, promoted solidarity among citizens, and dramatically increased the momentum of the struggle for equal rights.
The indelible images track historical turning points that occurred in the twelve-year span between the 1956 trial that followed Rosa Parks’ famed act of resistance aboard a Montgomery, Alabama bus and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968. Complementing the photographs are related archival objects and documents, which help to illuminate the hope and courage of the men and women who campaigned peacefully for social change.
At the Skirball, the acclaimed traveling exhibition has been enhanced to include a newly developed section on Los Angeles civil rights history—illustrating local events such as the picketing of the Kress Store in Pasadena in 1960 and the Watts Riots of 1965—and a documentary on the role of Jewish Americans in the movement.
Victoria Lichtendorf: It seems astonishing that Road to Freedom is the first major exhibition of Civil Rights photography in close to thirty years. How do you account for this lapse?
Julian Cox: I think it comes down to the fact that photojournalism and documentary photography do not have much of a home in fine art museums. If you look around the country, there are only a few institutions committed to showing this kind of work. The High wanted to appropriately mark the fortieth anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination; he’s an international figure, of course, but he’s also a great Atlantan, so again, we were trying to reach different audiences in putting together a show of this kind.
(( read the rest of the interview here ))
In conjunction with this exhibition, David Lyons will be in conversation with Road to Freedom curator Julian Cox about photography of the civil rights on November 17th @ 8 pm. More info can be found here. If you go to the talk, you'll get a chance to preview the exhibition before it opens. BTW : If you are a ASMP member you can get a discount - contact ASMP for details :)
Opening November 19, 2009 - March 7, 2010
Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
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