Civil Rights Childhood shifts critical attention towards the qualities in black children's lives that received photographic attention during their day but that have faded from memory of the civil rights movement, such as childhood joy, pleasure, and creativity. Drawing on photographic theory and black cultural studies, the project examines a variety of children's photographic books, including texts by prominent authors like Langston Hughes, June Jordan, Toni Morrison, and recovers books by lesser-known black writers and artists. The project studies texts emerging from the documentary tradition ... More

Civil Rights Childhood shifts critical attention towards the qualities in black children's lives that received photographic attention during their day but that have faded from memory of the civil rights movement, such as childhood joy, pleasure, and creativity. Drawing on photographic theory and black cultural studies, the project examines a variety of children's photographic books, including texts by prominent authors like Langston Hughes, June Jordan, Toni Morrison, and recovers books by lesser-known black writers and artists. The project studies texts emerging from the documentary tradition of the 1930s, lengthy historical narratives that include photographs, books that conjoin photographic images with other visual media, and photographic picture books for the very young. By considering books that represent the struggle for citizenship to black children, the project sheds new light on the ongoing attempts by photographers and writers to intervene in stories of civil rights that ignore child involvement or emphasize child passivity. This project enables new recognition of the role of representation to advancing social justice and determining progressive race relations. Recuperating this affirmative perspective on youth during the civil rights movement complicates and extends understanding of the role of photography to integration and civil rights efforts; it permits a more expansive awareness of black child social and political experience in the wake of Brown v. the Board of Education; and it reveals the pivotal role of civil rights representation to contemporary children's perspectives on race relations.