Exhibition Review

"Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968." High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,3,1,2,1.      Temporary exhibition, June 7–Oct. 5, 2008. 7,000 sq. ft. Julian Cox, curator of photography.      Traveling exhibition [under review], International Gallery, S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2008–March 8, 2009; Field Museum, Chicago, Ill., June 5–Sept. 7, 2009; Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Calif., Nov. 19, 2009–March 7, 2010. "After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy." High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=3,3,1,3,2.      Temporary exhibition, June 7–Oct. 5, 2008. 6,000 sq. ft. Jeffrey D. Grove, Wieland Family curator of modern and contemporary art.      Traveling exhibition [under review], International Gallery, S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2008–March 8, 2009; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, Calif., Nov. 16, 2009–March 7, 2010.
Photographs taken during bus boycotts, sit-ins, and other demonstrations for civil rights captured single moments during a long struggle. Many of those dramatic and moving images have become iconic. Interest in them and appreciation of them has grown in the decades since, just as the legacy of the movement continues to evolve over time. Two traveling exhibits organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta provide interesting perspectives on the civil rights movement's history and legacy.	1
The "Road to Freedom" exhibition was planned by the High Museum of Art to mark the fortieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Thus, the first photograph visitors encounter upon entering the exhibit is a life-sized image of Dr. King and his wife, Coretta, marching with others citizens for voting rights in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Set in large script above it are Dr. King's words, "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy." This introductory quotation proved especially poignant as the traveling exhibit, presented in Washington, D.C., by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened just days after America elected its first African American president.	2
This photograph, "Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham," taken in 1963 by the photographer Bob Adelman, is one of many displayed in the "Road to Freedom" exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. ©Bob Adelman.
After this introduction, the exhibit's focus shifts from the leaders to the many relatively unknown individuals, young and old, who protested, fought for justice, and propelled the civil rights movement forward. This focus is where the value of the exhibit lies. Of equal importance, the exhibit also highlights the photographers who captured the nonviolent protests, brutal repressions, and moments of strength and hope. The featured images were taken by nearly fifty different individuals—artists, photojournalists, movement photographers, and amateurs alike.	3
Simply hung and matted in black frames, almost two hundred black-and-white photographs line the gallery walls, arranged primarily around key moments in the movement. Short introductory panels provide visitors with the context and impact of each campaign, while individual labels shed light on the photographers—how they worked and the dangerous conditions they often faced.	. . .