Curating “Movement and Memory Through the Lens of Danny Lyon”

Post contributed by Ama Kyereme, Curatorial Intern for the Archive of Documentary Arts (24-25) and curator of “Movement and Memory Through the Lens of Danny Lyon.” The exhibit is on display in the Rubenstein Library Photography Gallery through November 2, 2025.

In 1962, Danny Lyon, then a college student at university of Chicago, hitchhiked from Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, to document segregation to document segregation, and to join the Civil Rights Movement. Brought in by James Forman to work as the first staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lyon traveled across the U.S. South documenting the conditions that initially prompted him to action. Armed with his camera, he made his way into spaces that his Black colleagues typically couldn’t go. From the Leesburg Stockade in Virginia to the Toddle House diner sit-in in Atlanta, the photographs Lyon made captured the ethos of the civil rights era. Facing hostile police and armed guards wielding bayonets, Lyon often placed himself in the middle of action to represent in photographs what he was experiencing.

Peaceful protests are foundational to the Civil Rights Movement, but violence is inextricable to the Movement’s history. That violence, both visible and invisible, is on full display in several photographs selected for this exhibition, from protests arrests to the funeral for the girls bombed in Birmingham, AL. While Lyon did not hold back from documenting the volatility of the revolution as he witnessed it, he focused his camera on capturing the Movement as it was to him and those around him. He directed the camera just as much towards moments of stillness, depicting the reality of the Movement within the image, as well as between and beyond the frame. He made evidence of organizing, protesting, rest, grief, and celebration, all equally deliberate actions towards an investment in an imagined future. Many of the images Danny created during this period became synonymous with SNCC and the Civil Rights Movement, and through their circulation were key in bringing about social and political change. The images of the young girls imprisoned in the Leesburg Stockade in Virginia were critical in making the public aware of the condition these girls were in, and ultimately led to their release. In this way, there is a cycle of action that Danny’s photographs take part in. Danny’s impulse to follow the action leads him to take photographs, and in turn he takes action through the intervention of taking a photograph. The photograph then goes on to act as a catalyst for other social and political action based on the content of the image. In addition to the iconic and spectacular images of the era, this exhibit includes images that provide a more comprehensive narrative of SNCC activism, through depictions of the South as a geographic hub, the role of women and youth, and the involvement of the church and religion as equally critical parts of the Civil Rights Movement.

Sixty years after these images were taken, they are still moving people to social action. Today, Lyon’s photographs raise questions regarding their social and political implications, as well as the nature of representation itself. Motifs repeat in Lyons’s photographs, including the U.S. flag, gestures of solidarity, the appearance of cameras, prompting us to consider their presence and repetition. Much like the images of segregation that motivated Lyon to join the Movement, the images curated for this exhibition are intended to interrogate the same social injustices, leading us to examine our own role in the face of the same inequity. The exhibit attempts to complicate how we engage with historical images of the Civil Rights Movement through re-exposure to iconic images of the past and images of violence. The exhibit rejects the historicization of trauma that is sometimes associated with documentation on the Civil Rights Movement, which places the events and issues of the photos in the past when they were created and not acknowledging the many factors and system that created these conditions that still persist.

The opening of the show culminated in a panel discussion to further interrogate the legacy of these images and their contemporary function to better understand the role of the documentary camera in the archive, in social justice activism, and in creating a national visual culture. For the panel, I was joined by Mattison Bond and Brandee Newkirk, who are both involved in work dealing with the history of Civil Rights activism in the South and the visual culture that persists as a result. We discussed the nature of representation of student activism and the social reverberations and political implications of the photographs in the exhibit. Expanding into present day, the role of the camera in not only documenting the moment, but also in promoting movement and social action was also central to the conversation.

The discussion began with an examination of the role of women in SNCC and other activist spaces. Several women are featured throughout this exhibit, including a portrait of Euvester Simpson and photograph of Judy Richardson at the Toddle House diner sit-in. These women, and many others, feature in the larger Danny Lyon collection such as Gloria Richardson, Ella Baker, and Fannie Lou Hamer, and have maintained an extensive public presence through their activism. Several of the photographs, however, also feature unnamed women, whose contributions were just as critical to the movement, yet they are often left out of a popular historical narratives and commemorations. For the panel, I was interested in how the stories of these women deepen our understanding of the movement as a whole. Panelists were asked how the role of women in activist spaces like SNCC was represented in Lyon’s photographs, and they provided more insight as to where these images fit in greater canon of representations of Black women popularized in civil rights era. The role of women, especially Black women, is instrumental in the organizing efforts of the Civil Rights movements. Brandee Newkirk, Art, Art History & Visual Studies PhD candidate whose research focuses on representations of Black women in expressions of Black trauma and Black joy, brought up the interest in wellness and self-care by Black women activists. Throughout the movement, people trained their bodies and minds to take on the task of enacting social change. One such example is Rosa Parks’ dedication to practicing yoga, viewing the commitment to mental wellness and physical self-care as radical acts. Mattison Bond, the Movement History Initiative Coordinator, mentioned the conversations surrounding women activists, especially in SNCC, often leave out an insider perspective. Moreover, there was a very deliberate and conscious way women participated in organizing, yet many contemporary narratives minimized the involvement of women to the domestic or secretarial tasks, providing reductive accounts of the contributions made to organizing efforts made by women. Operating out of Duke’s John Hope Franklin Research Center, the Movement History Initiative works with SNCC veterans and today’s activists to tell the story of The Movement from the ground up, preserving the legacy of grassroots organizing and the Black freedom struggle. Through the photographs and oral history projects, like those from the Movement History Initiative, we can gain more representative understanding of the women of SNCC and their leadership in the Movement.

Given that the collection is part of the university library and the exhibition space is open to a student audience, questions came up on student activism and the presence of hope despite the harsh social and political conditions, especially considering the resonances with current students. The lifecycle of Lyon’s photographs also came up in discussion of the lasting effects of SNCC’s conscious focus on creating and intentionally distributing image of the Movement. We can look back and see evidence of these deliberate actions towards an investment in the future of equity and justice in the student activists depicted in the images. We can also see this through the camera lens of Danny Lyon and the use of images by SNCC through circulation these of images in pamphlets and posters. The Danville pamphlet was instrumental in documenting the work of SNCC and the injustice they were fighting against by circulating information on the state of their movement out to the general public. Presently, SNCC still uses these pictures to promote their mission and honor their legacy. In this way, through the exhibit, we can understand how SNCC’s use of Danny’s image extend beyond the photograph itself and into the aspects of life that it captures, and in this case, what it uncovers or makes evident.

Throughout his time at SNCC, Danny expressed hesitance to incorporate stories about the Civil Rights Movement as a whole that he did not take part in. Instead, he felt like his work should be a representation of what he witnessed. In this way, the exhibit also explores Danny’s role as a SNCC photographer regarding how he reckoned with the demands and responsibilities of the Movement alongside his own artistic endeavors. The material in the vitrine provides context to the photos in the exhibit by putting into writing some of the decision making Danny was doing while documenting for SNCC. Beyond that, these materials also place a direct focus on Danny as an individual. Including letters from Danny to others, we get an insight into his perspective on the images and the larger movement as a photographer, an artist, a SNCC employee, a son, a friend, and a student. Specific emphasis is placed on Danny Lyon’s status as a college student and the greater network of student led activism he was involved in, as well as his own struggle to find his place within the Movement and SNCC, especially in his last years of involvement. In his photography, Lyon refused to take an objective perspective. However, as the general focus of SNCC and other civil rights activists at the time began shifting towards the Black Power Movement, he questioned the presence of his perspective, saying in a letter to his parents in February 1964, “I have a responsibility in my work here, which frankly I hate. Somehow, because of the movement and the conditions of the country I feel forced to face that responsibility.” Despite this, Danny maintained a resolve that was indicative of his dedication to the Movement and viewed his work as confirmation of that. In 1965, the U.S. Information Agency made a request to use Lyon’s images of the passing of the Civil Rights Act and of Black history in America more generally. In their request form, there was explicit instructions given to not include any images of violence towards Black people. Danny responded in a letter to Ruth Traurig, U.S. Information Agency Chief of Research and Acquisitions, expressing his disinterest in contributing to them providing a false image and story of American history. He mentioned the violence and destruction he witnessed as truths of the Movement, and rejected the request for this reason. His commitment in this way is not only revealed in his writing, but it can also be identified in his photographs. As a white man, Danny had access that many of his fellow Black SNCC photographers and photographers of color did not have. Within the exhibit, the image of Clifford Vaughs, a SNCC photographer, is emblematic of the state cognitive dissonance Danny must have needed to be in to capture images of such violence at that proximity. The image depicts Vaughs’ arms and legs starched akimbo by National Guard officers as they arrest him. The flash from Danny’s camera illuminating the frame as fellow SNCC photographer is arrested begs one to look at what lies in the shadows.

SNCC leadership also took advantage of this access, often assigning Danny to take images of counter protestors or police officers who wouldn’t immediately question or regulate his presence. SNCC communications director Julian Bond wrote that SNCC utilized photographers with a focus on the function of the camera to document their work, yet “Danny Lyon took this function and made art.” In this way, this exhibit is concerned with how photographs can reveal the lived experiences of a movement, where objectivity is rejected in favor of subjectivity in the relationship between art, documentary, and social justice. It challenges the traditional notion that the documentary camera is objective. It assumes camera does not have an object eye. Instead, the camera participates in the action as an observer, exposing, illuminating, and revealing the lived experience of a movement. Through this exhibit, the audience is also encouraged to contemplate the role of the camera in the archive and the reciprocal relationship between the two. What does it mean to look at these images and consider how they interact in the world beyond their role as evidence of the Movement? Many of these iconic images continue to circulate, and the spirit of the revolution they captured still resonates with current movements.