Friday, March 23, 2007

Exhibit of Civil Rights-era Photographs on Display

An exhibit of works by world-renowned civil rights photographer Ernest C. Withers will be on display during March and April at the Cooper Campus of Bluegrass Community & Technical College (BCTC).

The event is the result of a joint venture between the University of Kentucky Office of Multicultural and Academic Affairs and the BCTC Multicultural Affairs Office.Forty of Withers’ photographs will be on display March 19 through April 9 in the main hallway of BCTC’s Oswald Building, located at 470 Cooper Dr., Lexington. The exhibit will be open during regular college hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. It is free and open to the public.

Ernest Withers was born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1922 and began his career in photography while serving in the Army. After fulfilling his military duty, Withers returned to Memphis and during that time photographed many pivotal moments of the civil rights movement, including the Montgomery bus boycott, the Medgar Evers’ funeral, and the assassination and funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. Withers also documented the music scene on Beale Street as well as the Negro Baseball League and black social life in Memphis. To date, he has published four books of his photography: "Pictures Tell the Story," "The Memphis Blues Again," "Let Us March On," and "Negro League Baseball."

Source: UK press release.

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