In 1933, the Harlem Renaissance star wrote a powerful essay about race, unpublished in English until 2019.
It’s not every day that you come across an extraordinary unknown work by one of the nation’s greatest writers. But buried in an unrelated archive, I discovered a searing essay condemning racism in America by Langston Hughes—the moving account, published in its original form below, of an escaped prisoner he met while traveling with Zora Neale Hurston.
During the hot summer months of 2020, especially in the weeks following the May 25th killing of George Floyd while in police custody, the Magnum Photos, Inc. Photography Collection was often on my mind. The scenes of protest that we witnessed, in countless cities across the United States and the world, reminded me of the iconic Civil Rights Movement images that Magnum’s photographers created. Burt Glinn in 1957 Little Rock, Eve Arnold at the 1961 Black Muslim rally, Danny Lyon at 1963 SNCC sit-ins, Leonard Freed at the 1963 March on Washington, Bruce Davidson at the 1965 Selma march: These images, and many more, documented the epic Black struggle to achieve greater social justice, a struggle that so obviously continues. [Read more…] about The camera as a weapon against racial injustice: Eli Reed’s Black In America
Between May 9 and May 13, roughly two dozen photographers will make the Ransom Center their home base for an intensive week of photographic study and practice. Some will be coming from Texas, while others will come from [Read more…] about “Good photography looks backward and forward at once”: Ransom Center hosts Magnum Photos workshop
