Iconic photos to bring Selma march to life at Black Expo
He had one chance.
Running low on film, college student Stephen Somerstein knew he had to be conservative. He slipped on to the stage behind Martin Luther King, Jr., snapped a photograph of King addressing the 25,000 marchers in Montgomery, Ala., and moved on.
During Black Expo's Summer Celebration in July, that iconic photograph and other Somerstein images from the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches will be on display for three days to the public.
"It is important for our young people to receive continued education to help alleviate some of the social issues going on in our community," Black Expo coordinator Dian Foreman said.
At the end of the exhibit, prints of the photos will be sold through an online auction with all money going to Black Expo's scholarship fund.
"I saw this march as a potential turning point to open opportunity to a part of the country that had been denied participation in the national consciousness," Somerstein said in a phone interview. "The significance of the Selma to Montgomery march has really been understated up until this 50 anniversary."
In March 1965, Somerstein was editor of the student newspaper at the City College in New York and had been following the voting rights movement unfold in the South.
When several civil rights groups on campus contacted Somerstein about joining them on a bus trip to Alabama, he raced home to grab all the film he could find and five cameras.
Somerstein and 40 other City College students got to Alabama in time to join marchers on their third attempt at crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Montgomery. The first attempt, on March 7, is known as "Bloody Sunday," when 600 marchers were attacked by Alabama state troopers wielding whips, night sticks and tear gas.
"It was a dangerous time," Somerstein said. "But it wasn't always obvious."
By the time Somerstein got to Alabama, King and the other marchers were under protection of the U.S. Army and Alabama National Guard.
Somerstein had no way to buy more film. What he brought from New York would have to last.
Every photograph had to be spot on.
One of the moments Somerstein recognized that he had to capture took place at the Mount Zion AME Church in Montgomery.
"All the elders of the church were lined up in front of the church. I spotted this and had to capture it," Somerstein said. "It was going to change their lives as well as the lives of their children."
Somerstein took 400 photographs of the final moments of the march. Several were published in his student newspaper. And few in The New York Times. But instead of pursuing a career in photography, Somerstein became a physicist and worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
It wasn't until he retired in 2008 that Somerstein decided to dig up his old photos, "to see what hidden gems" he had. Today there are galleries in New York and California exhibiting his photographs, plus a traveling exhibit that will be ending its tour in Indianapolis at Summer Celebration.
The Selma exhibit will be available for viewing July 17 to 19 in the Cultural Arts Gallery at no additional cost. Somerstein will be present at the opening reception July 16 and at a corporate luncheon July 17.
People who want to bid on the photographs must register online before hand. Registrations is open now and bidding starts July 8.
Call Star reporter Dennis Barbosa at (317) 820-8150. Follow him on Twitter.
When: July 9 to 19.
Where: Indiana Convention Center.
Tickets: $8 general admission.