Gwendolyn Brooks

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It is 50 Years since the photographer Moneta sleet was The First African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Get His work the recognition it deserves?

At 9. April 1968, Moneta sleet Jnr made His Way to The Front of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, as The Funeral of Martin Luther King Jnr was about to begin. He found a position that allowed him to see Coretta Scott King , the civil rights leader's widow, and the photo he took of her, and he won a Pulitzer.

It almost did not happen. First of all, no Black photo-journalist to cover The Funeral , but when word of this reached Mrs king were chosen, they insisted that The Black media will be shown. If Moneta sleet, and they were not allowed in The Church , she is reported to have said, there is no photographer ever would.

The Shot that won The Following year, the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography shows Dr. king is worthy of veiled widow clutching her youngest child, His head on her lap, while The Eyes of their daughter, five years old, and Bernice, the look is sad about The Church .

rain on The Getty Images website, only on the photo to Moneta snow After This story was published, even Though Gwendolyn had Brooks, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1950, sleet was The First African to win American man, and to win The First African-Americans in journalism.

snow to rain had to come, to know The Kings , while the coverage of the civil rights movement for ebony, the leading magazine for the African-American market. In His first year there, he was the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott is covered. He was on the ground for the 1963 March On Washington and the events in Selma, Alabama, 1965.

snow-rain was in good shape physically, and tall, about 6ft 2in (1. 88m), with a long step. He would capture walk up and down the marches, the now-iconic images - he estimated he had actually went from 100 miles on the 50-mile March from Selma to Montgomery. He would also sticks often in the way of the police-shock, water hoses and dogs.

"dad had a lot of chances, fortunately, to cover groundbreaking events in The Life of the [king] in a family, in The Life of Dr. King. We all benefit from this history," says snow rain eldest son, Gregory.

snow rain accompanied to collect Martin Luther King on His trip to Oslo, the Nobel peace prize in 1964 to pay tribute to a memorable encounter for Gregor in an airport VIP lounge.

"My father said, 'Stay here', and a few minutes later the multitude was divided - it was like the Red Sea and coming through The Crowd , was my father and Dr. king. And Dr king went up to me and held out His hand and I was reminded of in shock," Gregory.

Gregory sleet, Moneta sleet, and Martin Luther King in 1964, Many years later, Gregory received an envelope from His father, the white with a 8in x 10in Black and photo of the handshake. In addition, a program of the Nobel was a ceremony with a hand-written inscription: "Gregory, to whom I wish a great future and whose father I admire underlined very much [the word is], signed by Martin Luther King. "

Gregory went on to be The First African-American district judge in Delaware. The photo took the place of honor in His office, hung over His Desk until His recent retirement.

While Moneta sleet may be remembered now mostly for His images of the civil rights movement, in His 41 years in Ebony magazine, he has photographed virtually every aspect of The Black experience in the United States. His early assignments for the Johnson Publishing Company, which is in the possession of the Ebony, including photographing Prison inmates in the death cell, a hospital in Harlem, and a beauty contest. He shot almost every Black celebrity from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1990s, and traveled far and wide, in Africa, where they liberated the countries from the colonial rule.

A staircase in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1964, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, An exhibition with the title The Black image Corporation, curated by the installation artist Theaster Gates , recently snow presents rain fashion photography, in addition to that, the guy ebony photographer Isaac Sutton.

Gates selected these images from the photographic archives of ebony and a sister publication, Jet, purchased earlier this year by The Getty Institute and the National Museum of African American History and culture (NMAAHC). In the long term, this can be accessible to snow rain work more for The Public , although the NMAAHC says it has to do "a lot of work to catalog, preserve, digitize, and store the archive, and develop a plan for the long-term distribution".

Black picture Corporation: fashion photographs of Moneta sleet. . Isaac Sutton (left), and Moneta sleet (right) Russell Frederick, Vice-President of the Kamoinge Inc., one of the African and African American photography collective, founded in the year 1963, says snow rain was slowly forgotten, in the 23 years since His death.

"As a matter of fact, what he has achieved, has been under-represented and ignored," he told the BBC. "The reason is patently obvious. Mr snow rain worked for a Black -and-publisher, whose primary objective was to determine the accomplishments and concerns of Black America . "

Prison cell block, Jackson, Michigan, in 1953, Frederick says that when he asks young photographers, African-American or white, the name of a big Black photo journalist or portrait photographer, snow rain the name of "never mentioned".

", Very few are aware of the extraordinary importance of Ebony and Jet magazines. Moneta contribution to American History is unknown to far too many. There is a scholarship in His name. "

Find out more being a Black journalist in 20th-Century America made it impossible to remain an impartial observer. Snow, rain, born in Kentucky in 1926, at the time of the separation, and served in a segregated unit in the U.S. army in the second World War . On His return to the studies at Kentucky State University, he traveled to the North In Search of opportunities that were denied to African-Americans in His native country He earned His master's degree in journalism from New York University in 1950.

Sammy Davis Jr 1956 Miles Davis in 1961, Gregory snow, rain remembers going to visit His grandparents in The South .

"It would be colored facilities and white facilities, we would have gone together, and you can bet your bottom dollar that he didn't like. He was a civil rights activist. It is one of the things that drove him, and I think that motivated its expression through His camera," he says.

"My father felt that it was a story that he told, but he wanted to tell the story from His perspective as a Black man In America . He said he had a point, and he wanted to represent that point of view with His Camera Lens . I think that a lot of His photography and many of His journalistic and a lot of His art in the course of His career. "

Moneta sleet, 1926-1996 This was certainly true when he shot the Pulitzer Prize winning photo at The Funeral of Martin Luther King.

"I was The Photograph of The Child , as she was uneasy lap to mama's. Professionally, I did what I had trained to do, and I was glad because I was very emotional. If I work not previously been to, I would have a good cry, like any other," he said later.

Black -and Pulitzer-winning journalist, Gregory snow, rain also remembers this moment.

"We all felt a great sense of loss. My father felt it more acutely then I could ever have," he says. "He described to me how emotional it was for him. I know, to close various times, he was on The Verge of tears. He was an experienced journalist, but he was a man, and he admired Dr. king very much. "

The Haunting look in Bernice King ' s eyes covered The Pain of the moment, but Gregory snow, rain says that children in General, offers one of father's favorite topics, a break from the ugliness that he had often, chronicle.

One of the tasks he enjoyed most, came early in His career, when he went to photograph the special needs of the school attended by His second son, Michael, had Down's syndrome.

, Which by His own photographs, was snow rain favorite band?

Gregor said it was a photo that turned up on one of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, a picture of a woman with a rain hat on, and your head to the sky.

"You could see, it rained hard, you could see that in The Black -and-white photo, and clapping, and belting out a song, they March for civil rights," he says.

Despite many offers of employment elsewhere, Moneta sleet magazine remained in Ebony in the course of His career. He died of cancer in 1996 at the age of 70, shortly after the return of the coverage of the Olympic games in Atlanta.

The language of His "gentle, engaging Personality . to smile and His eternal optimism, His ever-present smile and His gift for others, even if you don't feel like it".

african-american civil rights movement, long reads, martin luther king, black interest, photography

Source of news: bbc.com