Not Arab, Alabama. Albertville, Alabama (Alabama 205 doesn't go through Arab). Great picture, though.
1
@onanov
I had relied on my notes from 50 years ago. There are a series of images in Arab - a town name that stuck in my mind. But, you're right, it was Albertsville, Ala. where the Wallace rally took place. I actually found buildings on Google Earth that matches up with some of the other photos of the rally.
Thanks!
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@dgorton Note: Albertville, not Albertsville. It's confusing because it's right next to Guntersville, but there's no "s" in Albertville, even though the locals sometimes call it Albertsville to be funny.
I teared up as I looked at the photo of the white revival tent preacher washing the feet of a black man in attendance. These are powerful photographs.
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I think Agee's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" is one of the most important (and underrated) books in US literature. A hard read at the beginning, but once you get into his flow of narration, it completely pulls you in. It's ironic that Time Magazine, which had assigned Agee and Evans to the story, did not publish it, as planned (if I remember correctly).
@light'n fast According to Wikipedia, it was Fortune magazine that assigned Agee and Evans to go south, then declined to publish their completed story. The two men extended it to book length and published it as "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men". At first the book sold poorly, but has since become a classic, which, as you point out, reads magnificently. Agee later worked at Time first as a book reviewer and later as a movie reviewer. (He also reviewed movies for The Nation magazine.)
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In 1959 I shipped out to Ft. Benning, GA for basic Army training from Ft. Dix, NJ. Hundreds of NY and NJ draftee boys traveled by Pullman train several days straight thru to the fort. Raised insular Irish, Catholic in all Irish, Catholic communities, my first rail trip, starting at the NJ Mason Dixon line was my first glimpse at the real world beyond my family and familiar neighborhoods and a hard look at an unadorned and frighteningly far flung and diverse United States. Just looking out the train window at the passing signs of poverty as we traveled ever deeper South unmoored my sense of place as an American. I felt I was traveling into a new and different America on that trip.
It didn't get any better in Fort Benning. The South in 1959 was shocking to me and my Brooklyn, NY and NJ upbringing. The greater lesson for me out of that experience was the discovery of the iron clad. monolithic pecking order of bias and prejudice and hate in the South. I became very well aware that my Catholicism and Yankee roots made me part of a suspicious lot to the locals. At the bottom of the pecking order were Blacks, then Jews, then Catholics, then Yankees What a first look see at America. Still there was kindness there when you got past the South's unforgiving politics.
I hope Trump doesn't tempt the South back to go back in time.
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Having recently celebrated the start of the 6th generation of my African-American family born here in Chicago (1904-Present), I'm exceedingly grateful at 35 to be a descendant of the Mississippi Delta (Friars Point, MS) rather than a resident.
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At that time I remember being told to always wear your uniform if you were traveling in the south. My friend had a DI who made
sure he reminded his”Boots”
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In B&W - how fitting.
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When I was a kid growing up in Canada I had a t shirt that said Dynomite! My parents told me to change clothes because our friends from the US were coming for a visit. I never understood why I had to change clothes. Now I do.
The first photo of the women chatting at a fashion show with a uniformed server standing nearby reminds me of life here in modern-day Brazil.
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“It’s astonishing to me that 50 years later, that the enormous sacrifices, the enormous bravery and the enormous courage of ordinary white people in the Deep South in dealing with race issues is not recognized,” he said.
We do not get medals for showing up and recognizing the shared humanity of our peers. Nor should we need recognition when the goal is deconstructing systems of racism.
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@Anne It did take courage to stand up to the Klan and others in an era when just showing up could put a person at risk of losing their job, their reputation, their safety or even their lives.... Yet ordinary people did stand up, not for recognition, but because it was the right thing to do. Perhaps you had to be there, as I was, in 1968, to understand how it felt to be an outlier, warned and threatened. "Deconstructing racism" might have been the goal. For some ordinary white people, mere survival while trying to adhere to principles was the goal at that time. But you are right there were no medals obtained, then or now.
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@Anne
Anne, the consequences for "showing up and recognizing the shared humanity of our peers " in that era ranged from murder to the destruction of your business and family. In my case, my mother's house was destroyed in an explosion with my mother suffering a life long physical injury. I never regained my extended family's affection and I lost many of my childhood friends. Those were the real costs of the decisions in the 1960s Mississippi.
I don't mean to minimize your insights about the struggles over racism, but I don't believe you want to minimize the profound costs that many white southerners suffered during that period when they stood up for racial equality and justice.
Understanding how people, white people in the south, confronted injustice that seemingly benefited them has always been difficult.
But, many of them did.
And to this day, they have not been recognized for their courage and decency.
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Ha unless you are a millennial, then you need a medal just for showing up.
I will always be grateful that the Mississippi Delta was merely my birthplace and not where I grew up.
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Liked the photos. Glad those particular days are done. Reminded me of when I traveled from northern Virginia to Austin Texas to attend UT. The end of summer 1967 and I stayed the night in Jackson Mississippi. Went to the motel restaurant and must have talked the wrong way because a couple of Klansmen followed me to my car threatening me with a beating. Then they saw my uniform hanging on the inside window and left me alone. I had gotten back from Vietnam. Back then in the South, strangers were eyed with suspicion and you faced scowls and dour looks in bars, honkytonks, and burger joints. I was always careful about driving through Mississippi after that; still am.
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"The upper classes, they don’t have that much trouble dealing with change. But working classes and middle classes are always on the edge during these huge transitions.”
This is a very astute and accurate observation. Privileged classes have always been able to insulate themselves from the impact of 'change'; their lives continue on the same trajectory unless or until the upheaval becomes dramatic enough to rearrange the entire social structure. The lower in social stature a person is, the larger the impact of change...economically especially, but perhaps even more importantly, culturally. It is not simply a case of becoming "more or less" poor, or "more or less" educated, but becoming less relevant in their own eyes...that feeling of being left behind, shoved to the periphery within their own communities. Being denied their own sense of identity, having that sense crumble or being destroyed in front of their eyes, is perhaps the lead-in to extremism, whether through racism, nationalism or whatever other cultural form that, at least for a moment, seems to retrieve a sense of self.
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I lived and worked through the South for most of the 80's. Being originally from Colorado and raised in Southern California I really only had a vague idea of what the South was like. What I found most interesting is that the South was really just then emerging from the devastation of antebellum society by the Civil War. From the churches to social clubs to the workplace, it was an echo chamber of hurt pride, resentment, and racism. It surprises me not that the Republican Party had found the South fertile ground and and it was Southern GOP leaders that have pushed the party toward being the "white" party. I've not been back to the South for a couple of decades, and though there has been progress, I don't believe that the all white power structure has changed at all. They've just gotten better at PR.
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Moving photos of such a transformative period in American history. Makes a nice complement to fellow Missippian (and former NYT contributor) Eric Etheridge's Breach the Peace.
They look so long ago and yet, I remember 1969 and 1970 vividly as that was my first year in High School and Vietnam was raging.
What is interesting is that most of the clothing and hair styles were national, but some of the, distinctly regional.
That klansman and nazis haven't changed is depressing.
4
Reminds me of why I left Kentucky 48 years ago. Haven’t been back to visit in 33 years. I finally internalized that the south and I have very little in common - thankfully....
4
We need to see more pictures like this. We need to understand the effects of segregation and slavery on our relationships with African Americans and all minorities in America today. We need pictures that force us to see how daily life can be changed because of how it was or is.
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Astonishing. We really know so little about the South, how it evolved and came to be what it was during this period. Some may say it has changed, but then the South, and much of the country, is reinventing a disastrous racism based on fear and the feelings of being left behind.
Photographs can only tell a small story, snapshots of reality, captured in parts of a second. A great photographer can bring together elements of truth in a small frame, and the results can be gratifying and pleasurable. Mr. Gorton was obviously attuned to these significant moments.
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My Pennsylvania school had what might as well be called "foreign exchange students". Black high school students from Alabama were sponsored by local families and enrolled in our public high school. Our town was as unfamiliar to them as their hometowns were to us. Let's also not assume that they were not treated poorly by a good portion of my community. Too many ignore that ingrained racism was quite rampant then in the 1960's and is rampant today. These students were fortunate that they did get a chance at a much better education than they had access to back home. I then did my college internship at a hospital in the south. The division of treatment for black patients versus white patients was wide and mind blowing for me.
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@jcs
That would be a great idea for today as well. I don't know if AFS still does the foreign exchange program -- two of my French cousins greatly improved their English by participating, but why not have a program for American students who may have never seen snow, or the Rockies, or or.
2
The photo with the African American maid serving refreshments jumped at me like a scene from the movie, "The Help". Being grateful today, of the great economic and social gains, and yet, at the same time, how so much remains the same, or has gotten worse, racially. The photographs emitted such a raw authenticity that one could reach out and touch the legalized white supremacy of that era. Certainly our country has an enormous amount of racial dialogue to confront, but I am humble that we as a nation are beating back the tenacles that fruitlessly keep hate and racism alive.
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Thank you for sharing these exquisite images.
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Mr Gorton, A powerful adjunct to the book that all of us would like to see, would be to find key people (the war widow, the lady serving drinks) and interview them, covering who they were then and how they have changed since
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Truly amazing photos, they should be published in a book. The standout for me? The Vietnam War Widow, quite powerful indeed. I hope her life and that of her children worked out well.
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@Margo Channing
Did Lyndon Johnson stop here?
In 1960 when I was 15 I ran away from my northern Ohio home to Macon, Georgia where a friend lived.
This deep south community was frightening in the fear on the faces of black citizens. I will never forget the look they gave me when I accidentally walked into their community.
I could hear their sigh of relief when I turned and went back to the white neighborhood!
35
My (South American) mom studied in Canada at the end of 1950s and would spend summers in the US and New York. She didn't realize segregation existed until she stepped into a dinner and the workers stared at her. One of them told her she was not supposed to be there - a dinner for black people only. She told them he was shocked as this didn't happen in her very mixed country of origin...
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@G
It may have been about something other than race. there are places even today which I would not enter or if I do quickly exit.... (think crime -- drugs, etc.)
Yes, it brought back memories; just not very good ones.
14
George Wallace at a 1970 rally for governor in Arab, Ala.
What a photo. The hat on one of the rally goers seems to imply the phrase "Race War" is the actual text and not "Wallace". Combined with the young children in the bottom corner reaching their hands out for a shake giving the appearance of a Nazi salute make for a chilling image. A perfect example of the "decisive moment" in photography.
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Stunning photo journalism. He has a website with these and more photos:
http://dgorton.com/white_south/whitesouth.html
Thank you Mr. Estrin for sharing with us and Thank you Mr. Gorton for your exceptional work through the years.
18
My Millennial son has adopted an attitude that 1960 was the peak period for America because white culture was dominant and people were required to behave better than today. I emailed him a link to this article.
8
So crisp and powerful. Thank you for sharing these - all of them made me stop to think what was really going on inside of them and helped me see lives that still exist, but in different incarnations today, for better or worse.
7
I lived in Greenville my junior year of high school, 1962-63, the year that began with James Meredith's admission to Ole Miss and ended with Medgar Evers's tragic death. I have always called it my year of "total immersion in Southern". The people I knew, black and white, were welcoming and caring, and even then I saw, as Mr. Gorton expressed, that a lot of the trouble was a matter of class, masked in race. You could be poor and white, losing your job or your house, but at least you could always think you were better than the "colored" across town. And so the poor of both races were kept down.
Greenville was actually an oasis of moderation, with a crusading (for those times) newspaper editor (Hodding Carter Jr.), a town of some literary pretensions past and present, and prosperous, in comparison with many towns in the state. Returning to the east coast after my dad finished his job in Indianola was like coming back from a very strange place.
I have always sought out exhibitions of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and other earlier photographers of the South, and Mr. Gorton's work is a stunning and worthy addition to what went before him. His life story includes genuine heroism. No one was hated more in those days than the white man or woman who worked with or supported African Americans' struggle.
54
These are extraordinary photos. Thank you for sharing this rich glimpse of Southern life with us! For those of us who were too young to experience it, that times feels permanently stuck, an archive of stock photos, images, heroes and villains. These photos breathe new life into that narrative. The revival one, my goodness will never forget it.
16
The elegance and dignity of the black woman serving at the department store fashion show is riveting. Beautifully framed. Thank you, Mr. Gorton.
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@Elizabeth A
The server has more grace than those for whom she is toiling.
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@Elizabeth A
Belk's Dept. Store mezzanine, Tuesdays as I recall... Raleigh, NC, 1968
2
Wonderful pictures and memories. I grew up in the pre civil rights south, and remember all too well the beauty, tragedy, racism, hatred and love, and the mystery.
19
Thank you! These photos have a quality of deepening my understanding of everything now. I appreciate the discussion of class (the grizzly bear in the room) within the white community because it's one that still needs to be talked in the clear wide open. Something I see that relates to right now is that being white has been the single thing holding together people that have very little in common with each other. Being white has been weaponized to keep all white people thinking they are part of some kind of lifted group and so they vote against their own personal needs willing to believe they are just temporarily poor.
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Very good, especially the one with the cheerleaders.
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These are amazing photos, because you find yourself wondering and thinking hard about all these people. I sure would like to see and know more. I wonder what is the photographer up to now?
The young war widow was not having an easy time of it.
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@Sue Thank you! Not a whole lot of "privilege" there....
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@Sue And her Nancy Sinatra white boots are a poignant comment on the quiet yet somehow fierce form that aspiration can take.
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@Sue
I would like to see a photo of the war widow and her children today.
10
Brings back many memories.
Thanks for helping us remember why we are where we are today.
These are "our" roots and who we are and how we overcame.
Surely we can do it again; even better
9
Powerful images, thank you!
10
I am stunned and overwhelmed by the insight in your photographs. I hope you publish a book.
13
That one of Vietnam War widow living near Chatham, Miss. is remarkable and, to my eye, stands way out from the rest.
Hope her life has gone well.
44
Powerful photos of a bygone ere?! In some places only the clothing and hairstyles have changed!
26
I echo all the previous comments. This terrific body of work deserves a book and an exhibition.
Thank you to those who made this photo article possible.
12
Oh my god, these pictures are awesome. I am nearly speechless. Political and social significance aside, may I just say one thing? What were white women who could afford to go to the hairdresser in the 1960's THINKING?
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@itsmildeyes I was a teen then and I was thinking that their hairstyles were just about going out of style in NYC in the late 60 early 70s--the time frame for these photos. FYI, everyone went to a hairdresser then--didn't you see Steel Magnolias?
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We are all humans. Often scared and confused, sometimes brave and generous, all fleeting transients.
15
Very moving images, especially to me, because I spent my childhood in small town KY. The essence of that period resonated deeply for me. I am hoping you will publish this collection as a book soon.
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Great photos. I had friends in Greenville,MS, who were tormented by the KKK---garbage thrown onto their lawns, crosses burned, car tires slashed....
The area is a stronghold for Democrat voters---always has been. I feel privileged to have lived there several years and befriended by the Carters of the "Delta Democrat-Times" newspaper.
When I moved to MS in 1967, the last thing my parents said to me, an activist for racial equality, was "Please don't get yourself killed there"
The era was invigorating for those who were determined to work for justice and equality.
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Thank you for sharing these photos. Each one is remarkable.
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@nowadays
Agree.
1
What an amazing sample of Mr. Gorton's work. I appreciate the care James Estrin took to chronicle the photographer's life and the period that serves as context for the images.
13
So glad you took the time to do this work. History in photos speaks volumes.
14
To quote Faulkner, "The past is never the past." The past remains forever in the present because we cannot escape history, racism, black anger, and white fear.
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@Stephen Kurtz
Escape of racism is possible. It would take a tremendous change in popular thinking and behaviors.
Will climate change, or some major event or movement, be the catalyst that motivates mutual respect and cooperation?
These are extraordinary. The wind blowing through the war widow's house knocked the wind from me. Why do the debutantes at the motor lodge cotillion make me think of Brett Kavanagh's 65 lady defenders? These photographs depict the set point of MAGA yearnings.
98
Is that Kavanaugh at the cotillion ball?
12
I did not have the pleasure of working with you at The Times, where I was a picture editor for three decades, as we just missed overlapping there, but have seen and admired many photos you made while a staffer (& published some, too!).
These pictures from this body of your work are just riveting. And beautiful.
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@Nancy Weinstock
Nancy, you made my day. Thanks!
DG
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These are so great. I truly hope there will be a book and exhibition to showcase the rest of them. I know Mr. Gorton through his work in printing the 1930’s WPA photographs of Eudora Welty that the Miss. Dept. of Archives and History published in the 80’s. He has worn many hats but these photographs certainly ring true with my experience and recollections of 1960’s Mississippi.
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@Mmmsc
I'm glad to hear from a fellow southerner and concur that these should be exhibited and a book published. This selection is from almost 3,000 photographs. However, Jim Estrin of the Times did a great job.
D. Gorton
[email protected]
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@dgorton
I do hope they will be exhibited - they are wonderful - so compelling. Thank you
1
@dgorton
I donated a folio of photographs to the American Wing at the Met last week. I suggest giving them a call.
This is powerful stuff by a photographer that was until now unknown to me. Mr. Gorton's discerning and humanistic eye needs to be seen and celebrated.
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It works be fantastic to see more of these images - they deserve a full exhibition.
33
Thank you for this bit of history and the the background information on the photographer. It sounds like Mr. Gorton's own trajectory is a story unto itself. I hope the Times tells it.
37
Such strong and important photographs to see right now. Walker Evans would be proud. It’s so important to photograph what you know and see happening all around you.
33
This is wonderful, moving work, both historically and artistically relevant. Seeing it this morning has gotten my day off to a great start. Thank you.
42
I am moved. I recognize some of the Mississippi that raised me. These photographs are frank, respectful, and true. And sometimes devastating. Thank you, Mr. Gorton. Mr. Estrin, where is Mr. Gorton now? Will this work be exhibited?
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@Monica
Born and raised in 1970s MS, I'm right there with you. These pictures stir some memories. I'd say that they take me back to those days, but I don't want to ever go back to that.
1