ART-EXHIBITION/CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH Photo exhibit celebrates 50th anniversary of civil rights march

Record ID: 319843

  • Title: ART-EXHIBITION/CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH Photo exhibit celebrates 50th anniversary of civil rights march
  • Date: 14th January 2015
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 14, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN SOMERSTEIN
  • Embargoed: 29th January 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABESFAO29XALQAC0NO7VHQQ4OW
  • Story Text: A new photography exhibit shines a light on the civil rights march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
    Stephen Somerstein was a 24-year old City College student in New York City when thousands of people walked from Selma, Alabama to the State Capitol building in Montgomery.
    Somerstein, also an editor of his college newspaper, said he decided to go to Alabama after being shocked by the news reports of the bloody and deadly violence of the earlier civil rights marches in the southern state.
    With his camera and a few rolls of film, he joined other students and took a bus from New York to Alabama.
    Now, 50 years later, Somerstein's photographs are part of an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society called "Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March."
    "How do you capture a sense of the people there and why they're there and what their business was, a story that had to be told. So I had to work that out for myself to find people who would represent those moments in time; the coming together, the different races, the different people from different parts of the United States, even people from Canada were there. How do you get a sense of their moment," said Somerstein during a preview of the exhibition on Wednesday (January 14).
    In dozens of photographs Somerstein documented much of the event with photos of King, his inner circle, marchers, police and the hundreds of people in small towns who viewed history in the making from their front porches and sites along the route.
    "You knew it was history. You didn't know what kind of history was unfolding, but you knew it was there," said Somerstein, now 74.
    He captured author James Baldwin smiling, singer Joan Baez in front of the state capitol with a phalanx of troopers on the steps behind her, a young black teenager with the word 'vote' written across his forehead and King surrounded by microphones.
    While walking along the highway he spotted a multi-generational black family seated on a hilltop under a sign that read, "Things Go Better with Coke," which Somerstein considers among his best images.
    "I had only a little film to do it with," he said. "It was all I could gather in the last hours before we left on the march. So every photograph became unique. There was no backup. Nothing like you have with digital cameras now. So the discipline for the moment was profoundly strong on me. And the fear of running out of film was always there," he admitted.
    Somerstein had enough film to take about 400 pictures. About 50 photographs make up the exhibition.
    Somerstein said he wants people who view the exhibition to remember the sacrifices people made for civil rights.
    "There was a moment in time when people from around the country gathered together to make known their wishes that all people had equal opportunity and equal opportunity to vote anywhere in the country. This is a democratic nation. And people will put their lives, their bodies on the line to make sure that all people have that opportunity."
    Four months after the historic march, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
    "Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March," opens on Friday and runs through April 19 at the New-York Historical Society.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Video restrictions: parts of this video may require additional clearances. Please see ‘Business Notes’ for more information.
Register