Devin Allen admits that he occasionally behaved like a knucklehead, growing up in Baltimore. But he was not so irreverent as a tenth grader that he could see an image of Emmett Till鈥檚 open casket and not find it arresting.
The story of the 14-year-old Black boy who was lynched in Mississippi became widely known because his mother, , asked a press photographer to document Emmett's funeral. The horrifying 1955 photographs depicted tangible evidence of how violent racial hatred was plaguing the U.S., catalyzing the civil rights movement.
鈥淏ack then, I was like, 鈥榃ow, that happened so long ago. It would never happen now,鈥欌�� Allen said, recalling the first time a high school history teacher showed him the images.
Yet, roughly 10 years later, Allen himself would capture searing images of protests and civil unrest in Baltimore after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who died in police custody. Allen's reverberant black-and-white image depicting a protester running from a line of charging police officers made the cover of Time magazine that year and is in the Smithsonian collection.
Allen鈥檚 photographs highlighting the effects of police brutality on Baltimore鈥檚 Black community are part of the new 鈥淚mpact of Images鈥� campaign, inspired by the power of photographs like the ones of Emmett printed nearly 70 years ago in Jet magazine. The exhibit, curated by Lead With Love, is in collaboration with the studio and production company which goes into wide release Friday.
The collection includes the celebrated work of Black photographers and photojournalists from the civil rights and post-civil rights era, such as Gordon Parks, Kwame Brathwaite and Ernest Withers, alongside work from photographers of the generation. It will , a Black-owned gallery.
鈥淲hen I became a photographer, I started understanding,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淚鈥檓 nothing but a conduit, doing something that has been passed down from generation to generation. We are truthful revealers. We are storytellers. We are light bringers.鈥�
Another featured photographer, No茅mie Tshinanga, took up photography as a young teenager. Much of her professional work is about showing Black people when they are not in pain, grief or anguish.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter who you are, whether you鈥檙e a notable figure or someone walking down the street like, your existence is enough,鈥� the Brooklyn-based photographer said. 鈥淭hat is the importance of showing that flip side of just us being.鈥�
The collection includes Tshinanga鈥檚 regal portrait of the late, pioneering Black actress Cicely Tyson. There鈥檚 also a photograph of a Black man on a beach, eyes shut and head tilted as though he is taking in a healing breath of sea breeze.
Tshinanga first saw the image of Emmett's open casket as a teenager. Like Allen, she didn鈥檛 fully grasp its continued relevance until one of her generation鈥檚 versions was splashed across social media in 2014.
鈥淚 remember Mike Brown鈥檚 photo and just like everyone trying to figure out what was happening and just kind of processing that,鈥� she said, referring to an image of the lifeless body of Michael Brown, left for hours in the middle of the street after the Black 18-year-old was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
鈥淎nd so once that image was ingrained in my head, it made me understand Emmett Till鈥檚 image,鈥� she said.
In the late summer of 1955, Till-Mobley put her son on a train from Chicago to visit family in her native Mississippi. She warned Emmett he was bound for a place where his safety depended on his ability to mute his outgoing, uncompromising nature around white people.
In the overnight hours of Aug. 28, Emmett was taken from his uncle鈥檚 home at gunpoint by two vengeful white men. Emmett鈥檚 alleged crime? Flirting with of one of his killers.
Three days later, a fisherman on the Tallahatchie River discovered the teenager鈥檚 bloated corpse. An eye was detached, an ear was missing and his head was shot and bashed in.
鈥淭hey would not be able to visualize what had happened, unless they were allowed to see the result of what had happened. They had to see what I had seen,鈥� Till-Mobley said in a 2003 memoir. 鈥淭he whole nation had to bear witness.鈥�
Till-Mobley handpicked Jet photographer David Jackson, a Black man who had spent much of his career documenting the horrors of Jim Crow segregation in the South, to take the controversial images of her son鈥檚 body at a funeral home in Chicago.
The vast majority of U.S. news outlets worried that they would drive away readers and advertisers if they printed graphic images of the teenager鈥檚 body 鈥� but not publishers in the Black press. John H. Johnson, the late founder of Jet and Ebony, dared to show what happened to Emmett.
鈥�(Johnson) said, 鈥業f his mother asked me to do it, I was gonna do it no matter what,鈥欌�� said Margena Christian, a senior lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former editor and writer at Jet and Ebony. She worked for a decade with Johnson, who would occasionally recount the thought process behind Jet's coverage.
Jet discontinued its print edition in 2014, but president Daylon Goff said the now-digital brand continues to promote its legacy as the outlet that fearlessly told Emmett鈥檚 story.
The images of the teenager鈥檚 open casket are a turning point in the plot of 鈥淭ill,鈥� the first-ever feature-length retelling of the atrocity and Till-Mobley鈥檚 pursuit of justice. In her research for the film, director Chinonye Chukwu learned that Till-Mobley was 鈥渧ery intentional鈥� in how she shared the story of her son鈥檚 murder with the world.
鈥淚t was no accident that she chose a Black photographer for the photo,鈥� Chukwu told The Associated Press. 鈥淪he knew what she was doing and she knew the importance of us telling our own story.鈥�
Reggie Cunningham, another featured 鈥淚mpact of Images鈥� photographer, began taking photos during the Ferguson uprising over Brown鈥檚 death. While many photos showed pain and confrontations between residents and police, his images included depictions of joy and a sense of community in the predominantly Black suburb of St. Louis.
Years later, after his wife and another prominent voice from the Ferguson protests, Brittany Packnett-Cunningham, gave birth prematurely to their son, he documented their bond. Those black-and-white photos are part of the image collection.
鈥淚t was about how much she loves him and the joy that she brings him in her motherhood,鈥� Cunningham said. 鈥淭hat is the story that I really wanted to tell.鈥�
These are the images he wants his son accustomed to seeing as he grows up, Cunningham said: 鈥淚n my work, I seek to tell these stories and spread awareness of the full expanse of Blackness, in an effort to create an affinity for our experience.鈥�
Brothers and ZuCot Gallery managing partners Onaje and Omari Henderson said people coming to see the exhibit won鈥檛 feel like they are 鈥済oing into a repast after a funeral.鈥� Instead, they said, visitors will see a showcase of resiliency.
The collection 鈥� which can be viewed every Saturday and by appointment on weekdays until Nov. 13 鈥� also includes personal photos from the Till family, stills from the movie, and images from Ebony and Jet.
In addition to the exhibit in Atlanta, a mural bearing the likenesses of Emmett and Mamie Till-Mobley is up at The Beehive, a Black-owned space in South Los Angeles. New Orleans-based artist Brandan 鈥淏Mike鈥� Odums, whose artwork was recently featured on the cover of actor Will Smith鈥檚 autobiography, dedicated the mural alongside artist Whitney Alix last weekend.
Before completing the mural, Odums told the AP Till-Mobley鈥檚 courage in telling her son鈥檚 story through arresting photographs anchors him in his mission as an artist.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what the power of our images, the power of our voice does,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t ripples into spaces and rooms where people might not be ready to have the conversation. But the ripples go far and wide.鈥�
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Aaron Morrison is a New York City-based member of the AP鈥檚 Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: .
Aaron Morrison, The Associated Press
