Jeering Mob, Birmingham, Alabama

Artist Charles Moore (American, 1931-2010)

CultureAmerican

Date1963

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 9 1/16 × 13 3/4 in. (23 × 34.9 cm)
Overall, Paper: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)

InscribedBlack star stamp with photographer's credit, identified as "Birmingham Riots" and dated in pencil with various numberical notations in ink and pencil on print verso, 0012046

Credit LinePurchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank and the Art Purchase Fund

Object number97.29

Not on view

DescriptionPeople taunting a policeman on the street during a demonstration.

Label TextCharles Moore American, 1931−2010 Jeering Mob, Birmingham, Alabama, May 3, 1963 Gelatin silver print (photograph) Jeering Mob. Wagging their fingers at an officer (left), youthful Negroes taunt police. Provocation like this, to most whites, is a wide-open invitation to full-scale racial warfare. – LIFE (May 17, 1963) Students chant and dance in front of a policeman amid boycotts and anti-segregation protests in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. “The Negroes of Birmingham know what they want and how they want to get it,” wrote LIFE magazine in 1963, accompanying a photograph of this rally. Such images of defiance were rare in the national media and would have appeared threatening to many white viewers, although this policeman holds a long billy-club. Authorities attacked these students with dogs and water cannons later that day. Museum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank 97.29 Exhibition HistoryThe Chrysler Museum of Art, "Appeal of this Age: Photography of the Civil Rishts Movement" 12/21/96-3/2/97. "Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, from the Museum Collection", THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART, NORFOLK, VA, February 6 - May 31, 1998. "Civil Rights Photography," Newseum, Arlington, Virginia, January 8 - April 30, 2001. "The World of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, June 20, 2007 - May 25, 2008 "Women and the Civil Rights Movement," Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, June 14 - October 30, 2016. "Come Together, Right Now: The Art of Gathering," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, October 11, 2020 - January 3, 2021.Published ReferencesSteven Kasher, THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY, 1954-68, (New York: Abeville Press Publishers, 1996), 103.