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The Withers Collection is hosting the official book launch and signing for Revolution in Black and White: Photographs for the Civil Rights Era by Ernest Withers on Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 6-8 pm at Crosstown Theater.
Doors open at 6 pm in the theater for a booksigning. There will be slideshow at 7 pm, followed by a panel discussion at 7:30 pm with Richard Cahan, Michael Williams, and Rosalind Withers. Moderated by Emmy-nominated journalist and author, Katina Rankin, evening anchor for WATN-TV Local 24.
The event is free and open to the public. RSVP required. Printed or digital RSVP tickets MUST be presented at the venue.
Please be advised that there will be a documentary film crew recording this event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ernest C. Withers was one of the most prominent African-American photographers of the civil rights era. During the course of his work, he took thousands of photographs that document the civil rights movement―from the Emmett Till trial in 1955 to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.
What set his work apart was that he went beyond the political struggles to explain the civil rights movement that changed the country. Withers was primarily a local photographer, working as a freelancer for the Memphis World and Tri-State Defender starting in 1948. His photographs of the everyday world―bridge clubs, funerals, people at work and play, and street life―create a stunning record of what it was like to live in Memphis and the Mid-South. He was also a noted baseball photographer, documenting Negro League baseball in Memphis, and a noted music photographer, taking thousands of photographs of jazz, blues, rock ’n’ roll, and R&B performers.
This book combines this work for the first time and uses first-hand accounts of people who lived in the South to explain these transformative years. The photographs, taken as bare-bones journalism, rises to the level of fine art decades later.
They are also important examples of photojournalism, documenting decades of struggle in Memphis and the Mid-South. They serve as an important missing link in the civil rights narrative.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Richard Cahan and Michael Williams are noted photo historians. They have teamed up to produce more than twelve books. Most are based on long-lost archives or photographic collections. Called “the eloquent archival sleuthing duo” by Booklist magazine’s Donna Seaman, they have written award-winning books about photography, art, and history, including two on Vivian Maier, the reclusive nanny whose discovered photographic work has become a worldwide sensation.
