Photojournalism - Charles Moore

Photojournalism Unit:

Using photography and photojournalism to create change

Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. The Civil War officially abolished slavery, but it didn’t end discrimination against Black people—they continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, especially in the South. By the mid-20th century, Black Americans, along with many other Americans, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades.

Famous photographers who created change during the civil rights movement

Charles Moore - There are common names associated with the civil rights movement, like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. And there are lesser-known names like Charles Moore. His photos, which often appeared in Life magazine in the 1960s, are the ones that put faces to a movement for most Americans.As a white, Southern journalist, born and raised in Alabama, he was fighting against Jim Crow discrimination the only way he knew how: by taking pictures. When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Alabama in 1958, Moore was there. When police dogs attacked anti-segregation demonstrators in 1963, Moore was there. When a march for voting rights culminated in tear gas and police clubs in 1965, Moore was there.

I realized the power of even one image. Pictures can and do make a difference. Strong images of historical events do have an impact on society. I'm proud to say my photographs have helped to make a difference in our country and society, and to show that we're all children of the same God.

- Charles Moore

Section 2 Diagnostic

Let's dive into what creates change and how.

'Including quotes always enhances ourpresentation. It breaks the monotony'

Access the article from TIME and read to help you find information for your Section 2 Diagnostic.

Images

One easy way to get someone's attention is by either putting them in front of what's going on or in Charles Moore's case, process images that create awareness.

Question #1

• “The brutality with which officials would have quelled the black individual became impotent when it could not be pursued with stealth and remain unobserved. It was caught — as a fugitive from a penitentiary is often caught — in gigantic circling spotlights. It was imprisoned in a luminous glare revealing the naked truth to the whole world” (King in Raiford, para. 2).

• “But white violence and black resistance are not the only captives imprisoned within the camera’s luminous glare and vigilant eye. For many viewers today, almost the entirety of the Civil Rights Movement is captured, quite literally, in the photographs of Birmingham 1963. These images have shaped and informed the ways scholars, politicians, artists, and everyday people recount, remember, and memorialize the 1960s freedom struggle specifically and movement histories generally” (Raiford, para. 3).

quotes for section 2 diagnostic