Photographer sought to capture the essence of civil-rights movement
From 1963 to 1964, Danny Lyon, a photographer from Brooklyn, New York, traveled in the South to document the civil-rights movement. He was a white man, sympathetic to the movement and considered himself a “photographer as participant.”
Fifty-seven of his black-and-white photos — capturing sit-ins, arrests, protests, speeches and more — are on view in “Danny Lyon: Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement” in Capital University’s Schumacher Gallery. Along with the Lyon photos are 22 photos and four large wood panels printed with messages — all created by local artists during the summer’s Black Lives Matter events in Columbus. The pairing nicely bridges two eras of protest, significant all year, not just during Black History Month.
Lyon’s photos were published in the book, “The Movement,” and later in “Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement,” his memoir of his years working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
The photos capture a variety of well-known civil-rights leaders. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy are shown being escorted back to jail in Albany, Georgia, in 1962.
A young John Lewis is seen in a contemplative portrait from 1963 in Nashville, Tennessee, and in another photo taken in Cairo, Illinois, kneeling in prayer with a young man and a girl.
Bob Dylan is captured playing his guitar behind the SNCC office in Greenwood, Mississippi, Among those listening to him is Bernice Reagon, founder of the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Many of the photographs are disturbing even as they exhibit a matter-of-fact tone. A small “colored” drinking fountain is placed next to a far bigger “white drinking fountain.” Two black men hold up “register to vote” signs as they stand on the steps of the federal building in Selma, Alabama. Directly beneath the photo is another one showing them being arrested, and then led to jail. Shattered stained-glass windows of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, testify to the murder of four girls killed inside by a Ku Klux Klan bomb.
“Arrested for Demonstrating in Americus, Georgia,” shows teenage girls locked in a stockade with no beds and no working sanitary facilities. Lyon noted that he “made pictures through the broken glass of the barred windows” in 1963.
The recent protest photographs from Columbus, presented in conjunction with the Greater Columbus Arts Council, demonstrate the longevity and continuing passion in struggles for social justice.
Brittoney J. Roane’s “Purpose” captures well-dressed African American marchers, including two small boys, in suits and bow ties.
In an untitled nighttime photo by Ezra M. Ngabo, a somber girl stands next to a man wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, his foot on a lighted skateboard and his fist raised skyward.
One of the large panels, created on plywood from boarded-up windows in Columbus, carries in large letters a quote from King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Schumacher Gallery Director David Gentilini said he asked the Greater Columbus Arts Council to add the works, which he considers “important history,” to the exhibit.
He had booked the Danny Lyon photos three years ago.
“I knew it would be a great exhibit," he said, "but I didn’t know it would be so timely and important now.”
At a glance
“Danny Lyon: Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement” continues through March 27 in Schumacher Gallery, on the fourth floor of Capital University’s Blackmore Library, 2309 E. Main St., Bexley. The gallery will be closed Feb. 27 to March 7 for midterm break. Regular hours: noon to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Also available by appointment by calling 614-236-6319. Visit schumachergallery.org.