Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power

In 1967, Life magazine published a groundbreaking profile of Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael, with images and reporting by photographer Gordon Parks. The exhibition Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power features the five images by Parks from the article, along with nearly 50 additional photographs and contact sheets never before published or exhibited. Also included in the presentation is footage of Carmichael’s speeches and interviews.​

One of the 20th century’s preeminent American photographers, Parks (1912–2006) created work focusing on social justice, race relations, the civil-rights movement, and the African American experience. In 1966 and 1967 he went on the road with Carmichael (1941–1998) and took more than 700 photographs as the controversial young civil-rights leader addressed Vietnam War protesters in New York, spoke with supporters in a Los Angeles living room, and went door to door in Alabama registering Blacks to vote. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Carmichael issued the call for Black Power in a Mississippi speech in June 1966, eliciting national headlines and media backlash.

At the time, Parks was the only Black staff member at Life, and in his finely drawn sketch of a charismatic leader, he reveals his own advocacy of Black Power and its message of self-determination. Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power is on view exclusively at the MFAH.

Accompanied by an exhibition catalogue 

Credit: Overview from museum website