Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama, February 27, 1960

Artist Charles Moore (American, 1931-2010)

Date1960

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 9 1/8 × 13 7/16 in. (23.2 × 34.1 cm)
Overall, Mat: 15 7/8 × 19 7/8 in. (40.3 × 50.5 cm)

ClassificationsCivil Rights Movement

Credit LineMuseum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank

Object number97.27

Terms

Civil Rights
Men
Women
Violence
Street
Black
White

On View

Not on view

DescriptionWhite men attacking black women in the street. One man uses with baseball bat in street.
Label TextCharles Moore American, 1931–2010 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama, February 27, 1960, 1960 Gelatin silver print (photograph) Sonny Kyle Livingston, a vigilante and reported KKK member, swings a baseball bat at Christine Stovall, who has dropped her purse in the gutter. Just beyond, an attacker’s swinging fist registers as a blur. Charles Moore, the chief photographer for the Montgomery Advertiser, captured this violence as it unfolded on February 27, 1960. Racial tensions had been rising in Montgomery for days. After a sit-in protest at the Montgomery County Courthouse snack bar, 250 black students had gathered in solidarity. Many more students assembled the next day at the nearby First Baptist Church, where civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy was pastor. Groups of white vigilantes armed with bats menaced black people in the area, and numerous women and at least one child reported being attacked. The image by Moore appeared the next day on front pages across the nation. Museum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank 97.27