The ernest withers museum 333 beale

Dr. Ernest Withers, Sr. ( – ) a native Memphian, is an internationally acclaimed photographer recognized for his iconic photographs in Memphis and the broader south during the Civil Rights era. His well-known images of musicians during Memphis’ early days of legendary blues, soul, and rock and roll scene; his chronicling of Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and participants in Memphis’ “I AM A MAN” sanitation strike; and his preservation of the end of the Negro Leagues comprise an unequaled time capsule of the heartland of Mid-Century America.

Withers images are in the permanent collection of The Smithsonian and other esteemed institutions. He took pictures of public facilities as they integrated, such as the Cossitt Library, of Memphis, where Novelist Richard Wright checked out books under the guise of running errands for his white boss in the ’s, and the Memphis City Zoo. Withers also travelled, capturing Dr. King riding one of the first desegregated buses Mont

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The Withers Collection
Museum & Gallery

LOCATED IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

The Photo Collection

In his more than sixty-year career, Withers accumulated a collection of an estimated million photographs; his works appeared in The New York Times, The Washington brev, The TriState Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, Jet, Ebony, Newsweek, Life, People, and Time, and many other smaller publications.

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Documenting Injustice

Withers went beyond the call of a photographer by joining other members of the Black Press in persuading locals to testify against the murderers, as well smuggling those who testified out of the state following the trial to ensure that a similar fate did not befall them. Some of his most famous shots are those taken during his unparalleled coverage of the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike in , the revolt which culminated in the assassination of Dr. King.

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Ernest C. Withers

While most famous for his coverage

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The Withers Collection Museum & Gallery houses the work of Ernest Withers Sr., an internationally acclaimed photographer and photojournalist recognized for his iconic photographs of Memphis and the broader South during the civil rights era. Withers documented a history that still resonates today, capturing the momentous and often dangerous upheaval of America’s Civil Rights Movement across the South from the late s through the s. Apart from documenting those fighting for racial justice and equity, Withers gained acclaim by capturing the African American experience, creating a singular record of day-to-day life in an effort to better illustrate and understand life in the South during this crucial era. His vast archive (estimated at million images) also includes images of famed Memphians who brought soul, rock ’n’ roll and the blues to the world. Withers’ photographs have been published extensively in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Life, Jet and Ebony. The With