October 28, 2024

University Gallery to Host Traveling Exhibit of Photos From Civil Rights Movement

A photo from 1968 showing people walking down a downtown street. One person is wearing a sign on their back that reads "I am a man."

“I AM A MAN” displays a wide range of photographs that provide a vivid visual story of the evolution of the civil rights movement.

Texas A&M University-Commerce is pleased to announce I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970. The exhibition will be on display from November 11 through December 20, 2024 in the University Gallery located in the Art Building at 2005 University Dr. in Commerce, TX. A reception will be held Tuesday, November 12 from 5–7 p.m. The gallery is open weekly Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (except for university holidays) and by appointment.

I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970 displays a wide range of photographs taken by amateurs, local photojournalists, and internationally known photographers. Together, they provide a vivid visual story of the evolution of the civil rights movement and shed light on the movement's integration in daily living in the American South.

When developing this exhibition, Southern folklorist, author and curator William Ferris and his research team sought out photos taken in the heat of the civil rights movement, by activists or local news photographers, who documented history taking place before their eyes. Viewers of the exhibition will recognize the photographs of protestors who carried signs with messages like “I Am A Man” or sat at segregated lunch counters as iconic images associated with the movement, while numerous other photographs presented in the exhibition have rarely been seen until now.

Key events include James Meredith's admission to the University of Mississippi, Ku Klux Klan gatherings, the Selma Montgomery March in Alabama, the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Martin Luther King's funeral, the Poor People's Campaign and the Mule Train.

This traveling exhibition has been adapted from an exhibition originally produced for the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier, France, by the Center for Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The French exhibition was funded by the City of Montpellier and administered by Gilles Mora, director of the Pavillion Populaire.

For more information, please contact Melynda Seaton, Art Gallery Director and Assistant Professor of Art History. Learn more about Art at A&M-Commerce

About ExhibitsUSA

This exhibition is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than twenty-five exhibitions on tour to over 100 small- and mid-sized communities every year. These exhibitions create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurture the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. For more about ExhibitsUSA, email [email protected] or visit www.eusa.org.

About Mid-America Arts Alliance

Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) strengthens and supports artists, cultural organizations, and communities throughout our region and beyond. Additional information about M-AAA is available at www.maaa.org.

About the Curator

William Reynolds Ferris was born and raised in an anti-segregationist family on a farm in Mississippi. He taught as assistant professor in the English Department at Jackson State University (1970–72), associate professor in the Afro-American and American Studies Programs at Yale University (1972–79), professor of anthropology and founding director of the Center for Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi (1979–97), and as professor of history and Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2002–17), where he is now the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus. The former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1997–2001), Ferris co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 2019, his Voices of Mississippi project received two GRAMMY Awards. Other honors include the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities, the American Library Association's Dartmouth Medal, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the W.C. Handy Blues Award, and the Mississippi Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.

About Texas A&M University-Commerce University Art Galleries

The A&M-Commerce Department of Art reserves the University Gallery (1^st floor, Art Building) for exhibitions featuring artworks by TAMUC students and nationally and internationally recognized artists and designers. The gallery also hosts graduate critiques, thesis reviews, and the Annual Juried Student Art Show held every spring.

Additional galleries include Wathena Temple Project Space (2^nd floor, Wathena Temple Fine Arts Building) and the President's Gallery (2^nd floor McDowell Admin Building across from room 295). These two galleries feature solo and group exhibitions created by currently enrolled TAMUC students.

This exhibit is a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, and The National Endowment for the Arts.