In 1956 Gordon Parks traveled to Alabama for LIFE magazine to report on race in the South. Photographing the day-to-day life of an African-American family, Parks was able to capture the tenderness and tension of a people abiding under a pernicious and unjust system of state-mandated segregation. Sixty years on these photographs still resonate with the emotional truth of the moment.
Segregation Story, photographs by Gordon Parks, introduction by Charylayne Hunter-Gault · Available February 28th from Steidl.
 Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, 
Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, 
Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Department Store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Department Store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 © The Gordon Parks Foundation
 
						Lit Hub Photography
Photography excerpts are curated by Catherine Talese and Rachel Cobb.









 
					





