James Hinton was born into a segregated society as the grandson of a man born into slavery. He is a soft-spoken man with a pleasant demeanor, despite the many injustices he has bared witness to. He spoke calmly and evenly of events that at the time provoked raw emotion and riotous action, all of which he caught on film. The Walsh Art Gallery currently has the privilege of hosting Hinton’s photographs, many of which were taken during the tumultuous decade of the 1960’s and the era for Civil Rights.
“I’ve concluded that the 1960’s was one of the most important decades in our history” Hinton said during his gallery talk, and the power which his pictures convey certainly validate his statement. It seems Hinton was in the right place at the right time throughout most of the 60’s as he was able to capture many of the decades most pivotal figures from Dr. Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, and the The Supremes, to prolific playwrights and musicians like Miles Davis.
Hinton’s images bring to life events that have otherwise been faceless within our history books or even more sadly that have been ignored or omitted altogether. This exhibit is especially pertinent to the students and members of my generation since the history currently hanging in the Walsh Gallery is one that “hasn’t really been that long ago” as Hinton said, despite the distance many younger people feel from these events.
One picture that illustrates this point is titled “Colored Only/ White Only” and was taken in rural Georgia in 1970. It is a very moving juxtaposition of images depicting the complete inequality between black and white access, and it was taken in 1970, only 30 years ago! The “colored” side of the photograph shows a metal ladle hanging against a brick wall with a spigot off to the left, while on the “white” side there is a large water fountain.
Another rather startling image was taken during the riots that occurred after the death of Martin Luther King in 1968. In the center of the picture is a man who has been badly beaten and is covered with blood. The photograph cries of police brutality against black citizens as much as the more recent Rodney King case did. As one looks at this picture, they realize that many of the same hates that contributed to this mans suffering still exists today, despite the apparent strides we have made in race relations.
The raw emotion that the Civil Rights movement stirred up is further seen in Hinton’s photograph from 1963 of a flag merchant on the streets of Chicago. The line of one of his flags underlines the words “All men are created equal” on a sign that a black protester is carrying by during a march.
As one is contemplating these words they need only to turn the corner in the gallery to realize that in fact, as far as America was concerned in the 60’s there was no such thing as black and white equality. This is evidenced in Hinton’s Tide and his Child at Home, both of which were taken in Harlem in 1967. Of Tide Hinton said, “this is called Tide, but no amount of Tide could clean or rehabilitate this apartment. I made these images to show the conditions and why a Civil Rights movement was needed.”
The feelings the Hinton was able to masterfully capture are ones not even conceivable when reading from a history book. One other image from 1968 that was “A very painful image” for Hinton to hang shows a small child sweeping the street outside his Harlem apartment. The broom is taller then the boy and the street hopelessly filled with trash, yet for Hinton and myself “there is a spirit of optimism here because you have a youthful figure trying to do the right thing.”
Aside from images of the Civil Rights Movement, Hinton also captured anti-war protests, images which strike very close to home given our current political turmoil with Iraq. Hinton said that “The country was divided at the time, there were just as many people for the war as there were against it.” These words, as well as his anti-war images are so similar to the conditions today. If one learns no other lesson form this exhibit, let it be that history seems to be sadly repeating itself. Perhaps if President Bush were to see the photograph of the small black child holding a sign that read “Why are black men killing brown men in Vietnam” he might ask himself why America is trying to invade Iraq.
Yet the 1960’s and its lessons seem to have been obscured “because it was such an unpleasant decade, so powerful. I don’t think people really understand the significance of the 60’s, people really just want to put that decade behind them,” Hinton said. This show however, puts the radicalism and turbulence of the 1960’s right in front of the viewer, so that it is impossible to deny the reality and the truth that was captured through the lens of Hinton’s camera.
The show runs until March 23 and is located at the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery at the Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University.
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