1961–1965 was the defining era of the American Civil Rights Movement. As a participant and observer of this struggle for racial equality, Bruce Davidson chronicled the demonstrations, the protests, and the social and political tumult that arose out of the conflict.
In May of 1961, at the age of 28, Davidson joined a group of Freedom Riders traveling by bus from Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi, and began documenting what would later become known as the Civil Rights Movement. The actions of young people, in racially mixed groups, challenged segregation in the South and led to violence and arrests. The following year, in 1962, Davidson received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to document the era further. The body of work Time of Change, from which this image was taken, is a testament to the everyday lives of the people who fought against accepted social norms of segregation, poverty, and discrimination.