Black Power

The power of Gordon Parks' images testify to Stokely Carmichael's fight for racial justice and civil rights.

IN 1967, the American magazine Life published a revolutionary profile of the controversial Black Power activist, Stokely Carmichael (later, Kwame Ture), with images and reports from one of the most influential figures in 20th century photography. century, Gordon Parks. Centered around the five iconic shots of the young leader taken from the article, this exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts echoes the complexities and tensions inherent in the struggle for civil rights. Parks met Carmichael when he called for rallying Black Power in a speech given in Mississippi in June 1966, garnering national attention.

More radical than the American civil rights movement – represented among others by Martin Luther King – Black Power demanded an affirmation of black identity, before any possible integration into a society dominated by “white power”. The exhibit features dozens of other photographs and contact sheets from Parks' series that have never been published or exhibited before, as well as footage from Carmichael's speeches and interviews.