Black Photographers Chronicle America, 1945–1985

FAIN: GE-285433-22

Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4007)
Dan Leers (Project Director: August 2021 to present)

Development of a traveling exhibition exploring African American photojournalism from World War II through the 1960s.

Carnegie Museum of Art is requesting exhibition planning support for the first comprehensive consideration of Black photojournalism from World War II through the heart of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s. During a pivotal period of social change in our nation, Black freelance and staff photographers working for national and regional publications recorded history in the making. From Black servicemen fighting abroad to family life on the home front, from the death of Emmett Till and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the historic March on Washington, these images document formative milestones in the nation’s history and present an accurate picture of social and cultural change that continues to resonate today. Featuring original photographs, films, and ephemera from collections and archives across the United States, this unprecedented exhibition and its accompanying catalogue and public programming will showcase significant imagery by Black photographers.