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Ernest Withers

IMAGE GALLERY

BIO

Photojournalist and a participant in the civil rights movement, Ernest Withers documented changing events of desegregation in America from the 1950s-1960s. Applying a direct and immediate style, Wither’s captured current events and its powerful leaders all over the South, using his normal-focus lens. The black and white images depict such critical events as the Sanitation Workers March in Memphis, Tennessee (1968), the SCLS (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) march from Selma to Montgomery (1965); and Emmitt Tee’s mutilated body in wake (1955). A trusted friend of Martin Luther King, Withers had unique access to King’s most private moments, as seen in candid imagery of the quiet dignitarian reading the newspaper or preparing a speech.

Born in Memphis, Withers had a unique passion for music and often turned his lens to Beale Street to photograph early performances of such music celebrities as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin.

Wither’s photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Ebony, Jet, the New York Times, Washington Post, the Chicago Defender, and the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize. Withers has also published four books: Let Us March On, Pictures Tell a Story, The Memphis Blues Again, and Negro Baseball League.