This is really one of those cases where the pictures speak a thousand words.
A photographer at The Birmingham (Ala.) News was looking for a lens, but found a box instead filled with negatives of photos from the civil rights movement in Alabama.
Many of the images include the biggest names and key events of the movement, but were never published before.
Minutes after the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed on Sept. 15, 1963, Tom Self was on the scene taking pictures.
The photographs, published in The Birmingham News, were among hundreds that appeared in print during the civil rights struggle in Alabama. Self, who retired as chief photographer in 1998, remembers many of those images.
He also recalls many not published. One is a picture from inside the Sixteenth Street church moments after explosives blew the face of Jesus Christ from a stained-glass window and killed four little girls.
“I shot a picture of Jesus, and everything was intact except his face; his face was blown out,” Self remembered. “It was an eerie feeling to look up there and see the whole frame of the window and just the face was gone.”
The link to the photos, stories and audio accounts from the retired photographers themselves can be found here, a terrific online exhibit that was published as part of a special in the newspaper.
For some civil rights activists who marched in the era I’m sure the photos will bring back a lot of memories.
For the rest of us, view them for inspiration. We owe these <s>people</s> heroes for their courage and faith to continue their struggle for justice and equality and to make the world a better place.
WOW! Impressive. This was a great find. Thanks for bringing it to us here. Hugs..
Thanks. The Birmingham paper put together an incredible package, one I’ll be going through repeatedly.
Yes a true treasure, many thanks for the powerfull images, “Every Picture Tells a Story”
Bravo sir….peace
Agree w/ Brenda and IP. Thank you for bringing the story to our attention Carnacki!
What an amazing find … and the photographer’s stories! Interesting snippet from your link:
An interesting profession — photojournalism. They do some amazing work; tell some amazing stories w/ their photos.
but I was confused by the title — the Civil War was in the 1800s, right?
(and just what’s so “civil” about war, anyway?)
Fixed the headline. Thanks. I guess I channeled Raybin for a moment.
I thought it was done on purpose. “Civil War”. It divided this country and it still does, sadly. I heard so many racial slurs after Katrina than I thought I’d ever hear in my life… the warpigs have emboldened their lemming clansmen and all you have to do is listen to hear the same hate and bigotry that divided this country.
Anyways, great diary. I shared your link with some friends yesterday. Thank you.
Fantastic!!! Thank you for bringing this forward. These images are amazing.
Amazing and powerful pictures, all of them..I’d say the creepiest one was of the Highway Patrol sitting in a line with all those confederate type flags. Creepy and scary. I still wonder what kind of guts it took for those first black students, just young kids, to go into a school where they knew they were going to be reviled…and often wondered if I’d have the courage of my convictions to do something like that.
Thanks for putting up this diary Carnacki.
Hi Chocolate Ink,
I thought the same thing as I looked through the pictures yesterday. Especially one that showed two young women getting out of a car, ready to go in. The expressions on their faces, I thought, did show their fear. Who would not be afraid? And yet in spite of the fear they must have been feeling, they carried through. To me that is the most amazing courage, and coming from people so young is astounding.
Heros. Every one of them.
Hey S…in my mind when I see your name I always call you ‘superman’ instead of supersoling-hope you don’t mind but it just seems to fit for me.