In high cotton, Tchula, Mississippi 1981-"He's got a minute's, waiting for his cart o fill and the cotton gin to restart. King Cotton had long been the bane of blacks' existence. The labor-intensive corp spurred the need for large numbers of slaves. Later, as tenant farmers, no matter how hard they worked, African Americans just scraped by. These days in the South, most cotton fields are on giant mechanized farms, requiring few workers."
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Chilly scene in winter, Brooklyn, New York City 1962
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Comforted by a day-care worker. Harlam, New York City. 1978.
05 Harlem 1979
Daddy's little man, Harlem, New York City 1959
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Sunday best, Harlem, New York City 1980
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Sunday best, Harlem, New York City 1980
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Steppin' out, Harlem, New York City 1980
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St. Albans neighborhood. Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. 1968
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Startled by a Stranger, Kingstree, South Carolina 1962
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Peering through a mail slot, Brooklyn, New York City 1963
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Boy in the Box, Brooklyn, New York City 1963-"The Box was the nickname for the Bend Stuy ghetto back in those days. I remember thinking when I made this picture that the elaborate filigree metalwork had been left over from much better times."
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Returning from a sit-in, New York City 1963
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Strange fruit, Sumter, South Carolina 1962
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On Main Street, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana 1963-I ran across these children in a car near the Voter Registrar's Office during the Freedom Summer of 1964. They weren't waiting for someone who was registering but for a black domestic to finish the family's shopping.
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Peyton Buford Jr. and his tenant farmers, Yellow Bluff, Alabama 1970-"This picture was taken back when cotton was farmed on Buford's land in Yellow Bluff. Today the land is a cow pasture and the workers-and their jobs-have vanished."
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Socialite gathering, Dallas, Texas 1965
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Mrs Pettway, Canton Bend, Alabama 1966-"Mrs. Pettway was a proud woman, proud of the meals from her wood-burning stove, proud of her wallpaper and proud of Martin Luther King Jr. King, who 'got us to the place where we wasn't afraid. He told us to be together. We needed someone to stand for us who wasn't afraid."
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Backyard, Sumter, South Carolina 1962
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Just settin', Waynesboro, Georgia 1965
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In the garden, Dallas County, Alabama 1965
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True believers, the Mississippi Delta, Mississippi 1988
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Quilting bee, Gee's Bend, Alabama 1965-"Touring exhibitions of their extraordinary folk art have made the Gee's Bend quilters world famous and have made their quilts objects of great value to collectors. In 2006, their designs graced a set of U.S. postage stamps. That art of such modernity and sophistication emerged here indicates the immense creative resources in the rural black South."
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Second-generation quilter Betty Rogers finds "quilting keeps my mind steady." she is amused-and embarrassed-to be photographed in her bed under her leaping-frog quilt, Clinton, Alabama 1983
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Ben Jones splits a tree limb into strips, then weaves a basket, Demopolis, Alabama 1983
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"Ben Jones took almost 10 years to learn basket weaving. When his father taught him, he insisted, 'I done give you a trade. Don't you throw it down. Stick to it, and you'll meet a great day." Demopolis, Alabama 1983
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Champion show horse shows off, Epes, Alabama 1983
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Jug blower Will Henley, Tishabee, Alabama 1983-"At parties in the old days, Will Henley recalled, 'You'd hear them blowing every which way, half the night. We'd be blowin's the jug and folks was dancing. It was like they would tear the house down."
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Love thy neighbor: A visiting prayer band prays with a blind parishioner, Mantua, Alabama 1983
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On-the-street baptism, New Orleans, Louisiana 1965
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Bone knocker Arthur Tucker, Starkville, Mississippi 1988-"Folks would dance on the naked ground, 'Arthur Tucker said, when he knocked his cow bones."
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Al Green, live at the Apollo Theater, Harlem, New York City 1980-"At the Apollo, I remember, the great Al Green tossed dozens of roses to the ladies in the front rows."
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Making himself heard: Sammy Davis Jr. at Madison Square Garden, New York City 1970
Tina Turner, the queen of rock-and-roll, at Madison Square Garden. November 27, 1969
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Image and reality: a blues band at the state fair, Dallas, Texas 1965
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As blue as he can be, Sunbeam's Club Paradise, Memphis, Tennessee 1968-"B.B. King's face mirrors every chord he plays. The man known as the Beale Street Blues Boy is the foremost living practitioner of the form. The blues is, I think, a great American literature that sees the world through the prism of the man-woman thing, It's music that mysteriously dips into the darkest registers yet ultimately sounds triumphant."
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Senior prom at McCorey Liston High School, Blair, South Carolina 1985
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Mighty fine threads on prom night, Blair, South Carolina 1985-"As elegant and stylish as these graduates look, the real sight to see was the beaming faces of their pleased parents as these kids set off, all dolled up, for the festivities."
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"I love you madly," Duke Ellington at Madison Square Garden, New York City 1966
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Nonchalantly, the jazz great Miles Davis turns away from the audience at the Village Vanguard, New York City 1959
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At the top of his game: Sidney Poitier on the set of For Love of Ivy, New York City 1968-I photographed Sidney performing in Ivy, a movie he also wrote. This same year, he starred in three box office hits: Guess Who's Comming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and To Sir With Love. Sidney Poitier did for the movies what Jackie Robinson did for Baseball. Not only could they play with the best, they were the best. And they made sure that the doors they opened stayed open.
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Poitier joins Abbey Lincoln in a love scene in Ivy, then clowns around on the set, New York City. 1968
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Poitier joins Abbey Lincoln in a love scene in Ivy, New York City. 1968
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Poitier in a love scene in Ivy, New York City. 1968
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Dionne Warwick rehearsing with musicians, New York City. 1970
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Dionne Warwick rehearsing with musicians, New York City. 1970
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But beautiful: Warwick primps and then wows an audience, Washington, D.C 1970
