Press Documentation of African American Public Leadership and Cultural Production During Civil Rights Era and After

Arthur Shores Jesse Jackson

Photograph

United Press International (publisher) archive of press photographs and related printed material documenting African American public figures and civil rights–era activity from circa 1960 through the 1980s, with particular relevance to African American legal history, civil rights activism, and Black cultural production. Primary visual documentation includes civil rights attorney Arthur Shores, whose home was bombed on August 20, 1963 during the Birmingham campaign, directly tied to his legal work securing the admission of James Hood and Vivian Malone to the University of Alabama during desegregation efforts. Additional photographs depict Jesse Jackson and Coretta Scott King in a corporate award setting, alongside images of major Black cultural figures including Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, and Lionel Hampton. The archive combines political, legal, and cultural subjects, providing evidence of how African American leadership and artistic production were circulated through national press networks and presented to broad audience.
Archive comprises 10 items, primarily silver gelatin press photographs produced by United Press International and other sources, dating from circa 1960 to 1980. Photographs include: a 7 x 9 inch image of Arthur Shores with accompanying caption noting the bombing of his home on August 20, 1963; a 5 x 7 inch photograph of Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, and others receiving an award from Nabisco Brands, Inc.; a 7 1/4 x 9 1/4 inch photograph identified on verso as Roberta Flack, dated February 26, 1973; a 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 inch unidentified image of a younger woman and older man; an 8 x 10 inch photograph of Lionel Hampton and Vivian Reed at a Broadway event dated June 6, 1980; a PBS promotional photograph of Roberta Flack in concert, associated with an April 22, 1972 performance broadcast in July of that year; and a 5 x 7 inch photograph of a group of predominantly African American singers. Also included is a University Studio photograph showing a line of individuals entering a Woolworth’s luncheonette in Greensboro, North Carolina, likely documenting or reconstructing the 1960 sit-in protests, with visible signage reading “Luncheonette.” Accompanying material includes a color postcard titled “Ante Bellum Auntie, New Orleans, La.” depicting an elderly African American woman with a cane, bearing a handwritten message in German, and Walter Hawkins’ Love Alive booklet (Waco, TX: Lexicon Music, Inc.), 60 pages, documenting gospel music performance and recording.

Press photography of this period functioned as a key documentary mechanism through which civil rights struggles and African American cultural achievements were transmitted to national and international audiences, particularly through agencies such as United Press International. The inclusion of both protest-related imagery and representations of artistic and public recognition underscores the dual visibility of African American life in moments of conflict and cultural affirmation. The Greensboro Woolworth’s image situates the archive within the broader history of nonviolent direct action, while the Shores photograph directly connects to the escalation of violence surrounding desegregation in Birmingham. The presence of figures such as Roberta Flack and Lionel Hampton reflects the parallel expansion of Black cultural influence in music and performance during the same decades. Light wear, minor edge creasing, occasional surface marks, and handling wear to photographs; booklet wrappers worn and partially separating from text block; overall good condition. A thematically cohesive grouping linking civil rights legal history, protest imagery, and Black cultural production through widely circulated press media.

Item #17782

Price: $550.00