Black History Month is a time to look back on some of the most important moments—and iconic imagery—in American history. But the more we browse these images, the less they feel like history; news reports of young black men dying at the hands of the police and the troubling rise of the Far Right movement have reopened what many thought to be a closed chapter. Here, some of the most powerful photos commemorating black history—then and now.
“We cannot walk alone.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.” Harriet Tubman
Getty Images
Top: The Klu Klux Klan makes its mark with a sign in Smithfield North Carolina, 1971; Left: The Klu Klux Klan confront black Americans, 1938; Right: Members Of National Socialist Movement Hold Anti-Immigration Rally in Riverside, California, 2009 and Alt-right Members, Neo Nazis, and White Supremacists clash with activists at the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, 2017.
“Power never takes a back step- only in the face of more power.” Malcolm X
Getty ImagesSean Rayford
Top: Police officers face off with protesters in the early hours of September 21, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina; Left: Police manhandle a demonstrator of the Poor Peoples Campaign at The Supreme Court, 1968 and Policemen carrying away a black woman at a civil rights protest in Alabama, 1963; Right: A demonstrator is arrested by police officers during a protest April 29, 2015 at Union Square in New York.
“When people saw what had happened to my son, men stood up who had never stood up before.” Mamie Bradley
Getty Images
Top: Mrs. Mamie Bradley is grief stricken as her son’s body is lowered into the grave. 15-year old Emmett Till was shot and clubbed to death in Greenwood, Mississippi, 1955; Left: Mamie Bradley recounts her son’s murder; Right: Lesley McSpadden, mother of slain 18-year-old Michael Brown, cries during a press conference in Jennings, Missouri, 2014. The fatal shooting by police of the unarmed teen sparked outrage.
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Frederick Douglass
Getty ImagesPhotoQuest
Top: Demonstrators picket in front of a school board office in protest of segregation, St Louis, Missouri, early 1960s; Left: a man who carries a young girl in his arms during a funeral procession for assassinated Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ca. 1968 and 1950s women at pro-segregation rally with sign; Right: A young girl chants in a megaphone as she rides on the shoulders of a demonstrator during a protest march in Baltimore, Maryland, May 2, 2015.
“In your struggle for Justice, Freedom, and Equality, I am with you.” Muhammad Ali
“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.” Rosa Parks
Getty ImagesMark Wallheiser
Top: Demonstrators gather after marching at the Louisiana Capitol to protest the shooting of Alton Sterling on July 9, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Left: People marching during the March on Washington for the Jobs and Freedom political rally in Washington, DC on August 28, 1963; Right: Students from Baltimore colleges and high schools march in protest chanting “Justice for Freddie Gray” on April 29, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Be the first to comment