Southern
ScribeSouthern
Scribe
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Photo Essay Review |
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A powerful episode in the shaping of the American Civil Rights Movement, Mississippi’s Freedom Summer, is recalled through Herbert Randall’s stunning and evocative portraits. Upon discovering that Randall took some 1800 photographs during the summer of 1964, one wonders when looking at some seemingly ordinary images why these were chosen over others. Suddenly the reader is struck by the normalcy of the scenes and the realization that in 1964 there was nothing normal or ordinary about the subjects, from blacks and white celebrating Independence Day together, volunteers pointing to bullet holes in automobile grilles to white and black volunteers registering black Mississippians to vote. The very idea that black and white coexisting would seem ordinary today means that Freedom Summer was as effective and powerful as Randall’s photographs.
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