High Museum shows new group of civil rights photos

ON EXHIBIT

"Civil Rights Photography, 1956-1968." Photos make rotating appearances in the exhibit, and the current installation can be seen through June 1. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays (until 8 p.m. Thursdays), noon-5 p.m. Sundays. $19.50; $16.50, 65 and over and students; $12, ages 6-17; free, 5 and younger. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-4200, www.high.org.

The High Museum of Art is touting its expanding permanent collection of more than 250 photographs depicting activists and events of the civil rights movement with a new exhibit of its holdings.

The vintage images feature prominent visionaries such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and events such as the March on Washington, as well as unsung heroes of the movement in the Southeast and beyond.

Once included in the High’s 2008 traveling exhibit “Road to Freedom,” the photographs now make rotating appearances on a smaller scale as part of its ongoing display “Civil Rights Photography, 1956-1968.” The rotating selection also is a stop on the museum’s year-round Celebrate Black History Tour, which the museum says is its most requested tour by visiting school groups.

The latest “Civil Rights Photography” installation includes 13 photographs, including two by Atlanta-based photographer and activist Doris Derby, who worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was the founding director of the Office of African-American Student Services and Programs at Georgia State University.

The museum holds six of Derby’s photographs, but this is the first time her work has been featured in any of the rotations, said Nicole Cromartie, the High’s coordinator of museum interpretation.

One of Derby’s featured works, an image of women making quilts, also is the first time photos of cooperatives that produced art are featured in the rotation, Cromartie said. The image offers an “opportunity to talk about both the major role that women played in the civil rights movement and the major role of arts in the civil rights movement,” she said.

Art as a theme is also illustrated by photographer James E. Hinton’s image of an actor from Spirit House Mover Theatrical Group. While each rotation may incorporate a different theme, every one of them addresses key issues such as voters’ rights, as depicted in this exhibit by photographer Declan Haun’s image of a man standing in a voting booth, and Bob Adelman’s photograph of Frank Robinson helping a potential voter with a registration form.

Each rotation includes also images of children to highlight the role they played in protests and other activities during the movement. The photos represent the diversity of photographers, locations and activities during the civil rights movement.

So far, none of the photos from the High’s holdings have made a repeat appearance in the “Civil Rights Photography” rotating exhibit since its beginning, and works from some photographers have yet to appear.

As with Derby, photographs by James E. Hinton are also getting a first airing. The museum holds 67 of Hinton’s photographs, three of which appear for the first time. Among them is an image of activist Huey P. Newton, which also is the first time an image of a Black Panther has appeared, Cromartie said.