Here is a small selection from a group of approximately 120 press and wire photographs dating from the early 1960s through 1980, recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection with the help of Steven Knowlton, Librarian for History and African American Studies. These heavily used prints all relate to the Civil Rights movement in the United States, documenting protests, marches, sit-ins, and police confrontations in Atlanta, Alabama, Chicago, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C.
Typed captions provide details of the event, often with names, dates, and other specifics to place the picture in its historical context. Many prints have a clipping from the newspaper where the photograph appeared taped to the back.
These photographs and all our collections are available to researchers, without appointment, Monday to Friday 9-5. Just register here: https://rbsc.princeton.edu/research-account-access
“Selma, Ala., Mar. 12 — The ‘Wall’ is down — Jubilant demonstrators held aloft a rope barricade after it was cut down in Selma, Ala. today [by] public safety director Wilson Baker. The demonstrators had sung [unclear] referring to the barricade as the Berlin wall and Baker unexpectedly walked over and severed it. He said “nothing has changed” and still refused to allow the non-stop demonstrators to march. …1965.”
Read more about 1965 events in Selma: https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/us/1965-selma-to-montgomery-march-fast-facts/index.html
“St. Augustine, Fla., June 19 — Up goes the confederate flag at Monsons — Manager James Brock and his daughter Robyn, 13, raise a confederate flag today in front of the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Fla. The motel has been a target for several weeks of Negro integrationist. Yesterday they jumped into the pool at the motel… 1964.”
The Monsons responded by pouring acid in the pool: https://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321380585/remembering-a-civil-rights-swim-in-it-was-a-milestone