Ordinary Objects – US Civil Rights Trail
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Discover the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

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    Often confiscated from journalists to hide the truth, cameras captured images that forced all Americans to take notice of violence in the South.

    Today, using a cellphone camera to document everyday life is the norm. That wasn’t the case in the 1950s and 1960s when cameras were scarce. That’s why the cameras that were there played a vital role in documenting the Civil Rights Movement.

    In the hands of journalists, cameras became tools to expose the cruelty of segregation and discrimination to the wider world. But often, journalists had their cameras and film taken and destroyed in an attempt to keep from the world’s eyes the reality of life for Black people in the South. Photographs from the Civil Rights Movement documented the everyday inequalities and the violent tactics employed to stop protestors. These images forced all Americans to notice – and to choose sides.

    But photographs also revealed the peaceful goals and beliefs, actions and interactions behind the scenes, as well as the landmarks that played essential roles.

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