Jeering Mob, Birmingham, Alabama

Artist Charles Moore (American, 1931-2010)

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)

ClassificationsCivil Rights Movement

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

Object number97.29

Terms

Policeman
People
Civil Rights
Birmingham, AL
Black
White
Birmingham, Alabama

On View

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