New exhibitions on display at The Florida Holocaust Museum, August 1 to December 1, 2015

This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement

This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, an exhibition of the Center for Documentary Expression and Art, presents the Civil Rights Movement through the work and voices of nine activist photographers – men and women who chose to document the national struggle against segregation and other forms of race-based disenfranchisement from within the movement.

Unlike images produced by photojournalists who covered breaking news events, most of the photographers in this exhibition were affiliated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and documented its activities by focusing on the student activists and local people who together made the movement happen.

The exhibition is comprised of 157 black and white photographs, the majority of which were taken in Mississippi and Alabama between 1963 and 1966. Generously presented by Bank of America. Also media partner Bright House, with additional support from the State of Florida.

This Light of Ours is an exhibition organized by the Center for Documentary Expression and Art.  Major support for the exhibition has been provided by the Bruce W. Bastian Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Beaches, Benches and Boycotts: The Civil Rights Movement in Tampa Bay

The focus of most Civil Rights history is written about places like Alabama and Mississippi, as if few challenges occurred elsewhere. Tampa Bay remained racially segregated at the dawn of the Civil Rights era and many local institutions and establishments held out on integration for several years after Brown vs. the Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Under “Jim Crow” every aspect of African American life in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and their surrounding cities was segregated.  Restricted covenants were in place that segregated residential neighborhoods.   African American children had to attend segregated schools that were under-funded and often in disrepair.  Blacks could only be cared for at “Black only” hospitals, and other public and private establishments like restaurants and beaches were often segregated – if blacks were allowed in at all.

The Civil Rights Movement in Tampa Bay may have had characteristics similar to other areas of the South but its stories are its own. This exhibition will illuminate our region’s struggle with racial equality and shine a light on the local leaders who changed our cities. Presented with support from the Tampa Bay Times.

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