Together We Stand

The sixties was an oxymoronic time for the African American People, as certain events shaped the country into becoming a strong nation that was full of diversity. A time that had both its up and downs wilted in the hearts of humanity. During this decade, an African American woman won three gold medals in the Olympics, and the first Civil Rights bill was passed to stop racial discrimination. Then on the other side of the spectrum, Senator John F. Kennedy became president and was later assassinated, and towards the middle of that year, the Vietnam War broke out leaving America in distress.

As the nation was beginning to form, a certain group of people who were treated unfairly was fighting for their equal rights. The sixties was a time where African Americans were struggling to have their voice heard among society. Blacks were judged by the color or their skin and not their character. A man by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King was a spokesperson for the black community, and for them he represented strength and purpose, but on April 4, 1968, their civil rights leader was assassinated, and with that, the African American society shattered to the ground. Riots were forming in large black neighborhoods from the affliction, all but one. Photographer, Billy E. Barns took this photo of a black community gathering in the small town of Durham, North Carolina the day after Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination.

I believed Billy E. Barns captured this photo to depict the sadness as well as the very dignified moral essences of the black community after the murder of their civil rights leader. The image consists of two men walking down the street on the road with a crowd of men, women and children behind them. Police officers surrounded the area overlooking the crowd. The first thing that popped out in my perspective was the two men in the middle of the image. They both looked young, like in their mid twenties and both are well dressed for the occasion, and behind these two men, in a single filed line there are men, women and children who walked down the streets of Durham, North Carolina in the remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King. I could tell that the crowd was walking downtown because of billboard signs and fancy theater lettering on the sides of buildings. Also, I could tell that the photographer wanted people who would later view this image, to see that the line of people stretched for miles, it almost looked endless for it faded a little bit towards the back.

Violent revenge was not on the minds of the people who marched down Durham that day. Unlike other cities, they did not want to betray Martin Luther King's life or philosophy. If I were to put myself in this picture, I would ask myself why, why did this happen to us? A leader who guided us through the dark when there was no light was gone. I would feel the sadness around me as I walked on the sidewalks with other members of my community. I would hear children asking questions expecting answers, but receiving none. Singing would have probably swept through the crowd from mouth to mouth, as well as prayers and then finally, silence. The street looked wet and from the second man's expression, he appeared to be upset or confused, but I believed slight rain was falling on the crowd because women are dressed in raincoats and have their heads covered in slickers. The rain, to me is symbolic because water itself portrays new life, and the marchers of Durham, even though they felt lost and hopeless still kept their head held high, as if there was a new beginning of life ahead of them and they marched to better their community for African American hardships.

Billy E. Barns placed a name to the first man in the image, and his name was Fuller. His expression said the most to me and got the biggest emotional respond from me. Fuller's expression, I felt, was empathic for the other blacks in his community, as well as shocked from the events and not fully grasping truth of reality. Fuller also looked terrified because at any moment, the peaceful march could turn into something ugly and majority of the people feared for their life. The police also walked on the sidewalks of Durham, but for completely different reasons. What made the connection for me to this picture was how Fuller looked up to the sky, almost to heaven as if he was asking himself, "What do I do now in a world that does not accept me for who I am?" The numbness and confusion on the African American's faces seemed sorrowful but in the end, we knew what they were marching for. This image conveyed the aspect of hope and forgiveness into one because of the fact that the black community wanted people to understand their pain, and illustrate that their voices would no longer be silent, and Dr. King's death resulted in a bond like no other that was not going to be broken by corruption.

Photos like these make me proud to be an African American because it gives me a standpoint of where we have come from, and where we as Americans are going today. This image made me appreciate my culture more because of the hardships we had to overcome to be considered as people in America. Marches, to me, dignify many things in society as well as people; it reflected pride, and a combination of body and soul that understood each language. This photo-demonstrated unity as human beings, and it represented the aspect that humanity does not need to start a war in order to build nations. Billy E. Barns took this picture to remind not only people of color, but also everyone that triumph could overlook tragedy. The purpose for him taking this was, I believed to symbolize the courage the black community had in times of heartache, and that not all cities of poverty were violent over the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Photography is a tool alluded to help people understand the past and present of their world. Photographers take images to educate the public of events that took place, or to reveal the awareness of certain people’s oppressions and events to others, so we as Americans could learn from past mistakes or accomplishments. Photographers are the ones who leave a piece of history behind, as well as the ones who mainly create it.

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