BLACK ART HISTORY: Ernest Withers

Ernest Withers was a powerful Black photojournalist who captured some of the most important moments of the Civil Rights Movement—but somehow, his name doesn’t come up as often as it should. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, he worked for over 60 years, documenting everything from protests and marches to everyday Black life in the South. He photographed key events like the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Emmett Till trial, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s final days in Memphis. Withers also had a deep connection to music—he shot early images of legends like B.B. King, Elvis, and Ike & Tina Turner. His images are gritty, raw, and full of soul—they feel like history you can hold in your hand.

What complicates his legacy is that years after his death, it came out that he may have secretly shared information with the FBI while covering civil rights events. Even with that controversy, you can’t deny how much his work shaped how we remember that era. His photography is a huge part of both Black history and American photojournalism, even if he didn’t always get the credit he deserved. He left behind over a million negatives, giving us one of the most extensive visual records of Black Southern life, activism, and culture in the 20th century.