Civil Rights Movement Photography: Martin Luther King Jr Portrait by Johnnie Crump, Mississippi, circa 1960s

Martin Luther King

Photograph

King, Martin Luther, Jr., original silver gelatin photograph by Johnnie R. Crump, Vicksburg, MS, circa 1960s, documents Civil Rights leadership through the lens of an African American Mississippi photographer active under segregation. The image presents Dr. King seated at a desk in suit and tie, hands crossed and resting before him, listening intently, capturing a composed moment of leadership during the height of the southern freedom struggle. Created by Crump, a Vicksburg-based photographer and NAACP member who documented Black community life in Mississippi during the 1940s and 1950s, the photograph situates King within a regional network of African American civic activism that included figures such as Medgar Evers. The work connects national civil rights leadership with local Black photographic authorship in a state central to the movement’s most dangerous campaigns.

Silver gelatin print photograph, Vicksburg, Mississippi, circa 1960s. Image measures 5 x 7 inches. Photographer’s ink stamp on verso reads “Johnnie Crump’s Vicksburg, MS.” The composition shows King seated behind a desk, formally dressed, his posture upright and attentive, suggesting an interview, meeting, or press setting. The print is identified as the only known photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr. taken by Crump, whose body of work focused primarily on Black Mississippians during segregation.

Produced during the decade of Freedom Summer organizing, voter registration drives, and sustained NAACP activity in Mississippi, the photograph embodies the intersection of grassroots Black documentation and national civil rights leadership. Crump’s involvement in civil rights work alongside his wife Clara and his friendship with Medgar Evers place the image within a documented activist milieu in Vicksburg and the broader Mississippi Delta. Small loss to one corner professionally stabilized with adhesive; minor crease to upper left; otherwise clean with strong tonal range. Overall very good condition. Distinct example of African American photographic authorship depicting Martin Luther King Jr within the context of Mississippi civil rights activism.

Item #17774

Price: $950.00