Rube Dee (1 results)
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Seller: Max Rambod Inc, Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A.Max Rambod Inc
Contact seller5-star sellerCivil rights fundraising contact sheet, May 1964, documenting the NAACP's mobilization of nationally recognized performers during the final congressional struggle over the Civil Rights Act. Produced by photographer David Gahr on 13 May 1964, the sheet records preparations for the NAACP's Freedom Is the Word television spectacula…r, staged as the Senate filibuster against the Civil Rights Act entered its closing weeks. Sammy Davis Jr., Sidney Poitier, and Ruby Dee appear not as entertainers detached from politics, but as participants in a coordinated campaign that joined celebrity visibility to the organization's fundraising, public advocacy, and legal work during one of the decisive legislative moments of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Photo archive of one silver gelatin contact sheet from a 35mm Kodak Pan Film negative roll, approximately 8 x 10 inches, New York, 13 May 1964. The contact sheet preserves approximately thirty six sequential exposures documenting speakers and participants before and during the event. Repeated portrait studies follow Sammy Davis Jr. at the microphone from multiple angles as he addresses the audience. Sidney Poitier appears reading prepared remarks and in closely observed portrait studies between appearances at the podium. Ruby Dee is recorded both in individual portraits and alongside fellow participants, while additional frames depict unidentified speakers, organizers, and attendees awaiting their turns. Two frames are outlined in red grease pencil, marking editorial selections for enlargement or publication. The verso bears David Gahr's copyright stamp together with the handwritten notation "D. Gahr. T152. 5-13-64," establishing the photographer and date of the assignment. The contact sheet was made on the eve of the nationally broadcast NAACP Freedom Spectacular, presented on 14 May 1964 to mark the tenth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education while raising funds for the organization's litigation, voter registration, and direct action campaigns. As the Senate continued its prolonged filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, nationally prominent Black artists increasingly treated public performance as political work, lending their visibility to organizations directing the movement's legal and organizational infrastructure. The complete sequence records David Gahr's working method, revealing changes in expression, gesture, camera position, and editorial selection as the event unfolded. Light surface wear; editorial grease pencil marks present as issued. Overall in very good condition. The photographs document how the NAACP enlisted nationally prominent performers to sustain the organizational campaign behind the Civil Rights Movement at the moment federal civil rights legislation approached enactment.
