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Posts Tagged ‘Flip Schulke’

Did Martin Luther King use graphic pictures?

attacked by dogs

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “America will never reject racism until America sees racism.” Was he wrong?

Did Martin Luther King use graphic pictures?  You bet he did.  He said

America will not reject racism until America sees racism.

He organized marches so that racial violence, which had been perpetrated mostly in the shadows, could now be exposed to the light of day.  When Americans saw racial violence for themselves, they rejected it.

Richard B. Speed’s review of Mark Kurlansky’s book, 1968:  The Year That Rocked The World, describes how Dr. King orchestrated this enormously successful strategy:

In discussing the impact of civil disobedience, Kurlansky relates a telling incident that took place during a 1965 march in Selma, Alabama.  Martin Luther King apparently noticed that Life Magazinephotographer, Flip Schulke had put down his camera in order to help a demonstrator injured by the police.  Afterward, according to Kurlansky, King rebuked Schulke, telling him that “Your job is to photograph what is happening to us.”