Separate, But Equal: The Mississippi Photographs of Henry Clay Anderson - Hardcover

Anderson, Henry Clay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586480928 ISBN 13: 9781586480929

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2002

Synopsis

An extraordinary treasure: Rediscovered photographs document a proud community of middle-class Southern blacks at the dawn of the civil rights movement.

Henry Clay Anderson established Anderson Photo Service in Greenville, Mississippi in 1948. Throughout the 50s and 60s, he photographed this relatively prosperous black community, recording the daily lives of the men and women who built the schools, churches, and hospitals that served their segregated society. He photographed family gatherings, weddings, funerals, and events at the high school. He photographed nightclub musicians, itinerant entertainers, and a wide range of professionals at work. His mission had strong political overtones. But this rich archive of photographs would have been destroyed and forgotten had it not been for Shawn Wilson, a young filmmaker, whose search for his own family photographs led him to Anderson's studio.

The 95 photographs contained in this book are art objects, but they are also historical documents. In his accompanying essay, writer Clifton Taulbert guides us through them, recalling his own memories of Greenville. The book also contains an interview with the late photographer and an essay on the political climate at the time. Together, these materials create a window into a world that has been overlooked in the aftermath of the civil rights movement--a community of prosperous, optimistic black Southerners who considered themselves first-class Americans despite living in a deeply segregated world.

About this title

About the Author

Clifton Taulbert is the author of eight books, including Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored. Raised in Glen Allan, Mississippi, just outside Greenville, Taulbert writes and lectures about life in the segregated South. He currently lives in Tulsa. Shawn Wilson is creating a documentary film on Greenville, where he was born. He lives in New York City. Henry Clay Anderson (1911-1998) studied photography on the G. I. Bill, and ran Anderson Photo Service. A lifelong activist for social change, he recorded every aspect of life in Greenville until his death in 1998.

From Publishers Weekly

"I received my first camera when I was about nine years old," Anderson writes in one of the five essays accompanying this collection of his work. "I tried to catch pictures of people, cats, trees, houses, whatever was interesting to me as a little boy." After studying photography on the GI Bill, Anderson opened a studio in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1948. This slim volume presents 130 or so straightforward but affecting photos of a conservative, respectable, and separate African-American world during the Jim Crow years. Anderson documents children in their Sunday best, a postman, a majorette, a white-frocked girl posing next to a birthday cake with six candles, teenaged bathing beauties parading in front of a crowd, a group shot of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels ("The Greatest Colored Show on Earth") and weddings and funerals. The pictures show a way of life that, for obvious reasons, will not inspire nostalgia, but which certainly had its share of dignity and beauty. And to young would-be photographers, Anderson advised: "Try to show not the picture only, but show the person who had the ambition. And if he's showing it, he shows himself."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1586480928
• ISBN 13: 9781586480929
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160