Today In Black History
Gordon Parks, Award-winning Photographer, Author, Musician, and Filmmaker
Issue #588 Today In Black History, Thursday, May 2, 2024
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Today’s Black History WOW!
Gordon Parks was born on November 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kansas, and faced numerous challenges in his early life, including poverty, racism, and the death of his mother at a young age. Parks went on to become one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American art as a remarkably talented and versatile artist whose work as a photographer, author, and filmmaker.
At the age of twenty-eight, Parks was struck by photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. He bought his first camera for $12.50 at a Seattle, Washington, pawnshop and taught himself how to take photos.
Throughout his career, his works included photography, fiction and nonfiction writing, musical composition, filmmaking, and painting. Parks was also a tireless advocate for social justice and used his art as a means of raising awareness about the issues facing African Americans in the United States.
Parks first gained recognition as a photographer in the 1940s when he began working for the Farm Security Administration, documenting the lives of African Americans in the segregated South. His striking images captured the struggles and triumphs of everyday people, and his work was instrumental in bringing attention to the civil rights movement. In 1948, Parks became the first African American staff photographer for Life magazine, where he continued for two decades to produce powerful and evocative images that challenged stereotypes and inspired social change.
While at Life and Ebony magazines, Parks covered subjects ranging from racism and poverty to fashion and entertainment and published memorable pictures of such figures as Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael.
The photographs by Gordon Parks, including at the 1963 March on Washington, helped rally support for the civil rights movement, for which he was a tireless advocate as well as a documentarian.
Parks also wrote several autobiographical books, including "A Choice of Weapons," which chronicled his journey from poverty to success. Parks also directed several acclaimed films, including "The Learning Tree" and "Shaft," which made him the first African American to direct a major Hollywood movie.
In 1970, Parks helped found Essence magazine and served as its editorial director during the first three years of its circulation.
In 1989, Parks produced, directed, and composed the music for a ballet, Martin, dedicated to the late civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Throughout his career, Parks received over 50 honorary doctorates, numerous awards, and other honors for his work, including the National Medal of Arts and the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.
Today, archives of Parks's work are included in many institutions, including The Gordon Parks Foundation, The Gordon Parks Museum (Fort Scott, Kansas), Wichita State University, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian.
Gordon Parks passed away on March 7, 2006, in Manhattan, New York.
Today In Black History
In 1920, the first game of the National Negro League was played in Indianapolis.
In 1936, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and his family fled Abyssinia.
In 1953, Rev. Joseph A. Johnson, Jr.became the first Black student admitted to Vanderbilt University‘s Divinity School.
In 2011, the United States Special Forces, overseen by President and Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, captured and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
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