Articles

We are pleased to announce that two popular traveling exhibitions are returning to circulation this year: March to Freedom and Behold the People: R. C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas, 1949–1961. Both exhibitions are presented in partnership with the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin.

March to Freedom

In 1965, renowned photojournalist James "Spider" Martin was the youngest freelance photographer at the Birmingham News. His images of Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, galvanized public opinion in support of protesters. Martin joined the historic march from Selma to Montgomery later that month in two capacities: as a member of the media and as a participant in the struggle for racial equality. Through Martin’s camera, March to Freedom follows a determined group of marchers, both Black and white, as they tried on three different occasions to take their cause to the steps of the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery.

March to Freedom is currently on display at the Texas City Museum.

Behold the People: R. C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas, 1949–1961

R. C. Hickman was a Dallas photographer whose thousands of images produced from 1949 to 1961 document life in an African American community in Texas. His photographs depict a community largely invisible to white Americans—thoroughly a part of mainstream America by virtue of accomplishment and lifestyle but excluded from it because of race. His images reveal his awareness of the broad community context within which individuals survive, grow, and understand themselves.

Behold the People is currently on display at the Kerr Regional History Center in Kerrville.

March to Freedom and Behold the People are now available for rental through the Humanities Texas traveling exhibitions program. To learn more about reserving these exhibitions for your venue, please contact our exhibitions coordinator at exhibitions@humanitiestexas.org.