Tag Archives: Bob Fitch

Bob Fitch Alabama Photo ID Project:2

Candidates for Office 1966. Far left Rev Lonnie Brown; 5th from left in striped sweater, Rev John Ward
Candidates for Office, Alabama 1966. L to R: James Calhoun, Donnie V. Irby, James Perryman, James Robinson, Rev Frank Smith, Rev Lonnie Brown
Ann Braxton, Tax Assessor Candidate, Marengo County AL 1966 with family in Demopolis

Bob Fitch photos ©Bob Fitch Photo Archive Stanford University. All rights reserved. Photos may be shared for educational non-commerical and identification purposes only.

Civil rights photographer Bob Fitch www.bobfitchphoto.com, activist, friend and historian, has asked for assistance in identifying some of his historic photos of the first African-American candidates who ran for election in Alabama in 1966. Few of them were elected the first time out but they paved the way for others who finally won in majority Black counties. Some photos are of those who worked on campaigns, friends and families. All were taken in Alabama 1965-66. These photos are part of the Bob Fitch archives at Stanford University Libraries and will soon be available for all to view and share, free of charge.

37-318-41 37-318-42 copy: AL CAND indoors [where?] with railing Left to Right: dark suit, Lonnie Brown, candidate for Wilcox County Commissioner,
2nd_______
3d female
4th_______
5th Striped sweater, Albert Turner
6th Sampson Crumb, candidate for Dallas County Sherriff
7th____________________
8th____________________
9th_______________________
10th______________________

37-310-5 Calhoun, Donnie V. Irby, James Perryman, James Robinson, Rev Frank Smith, Rev Lonnie Brown

To preserve the memory of the courageous local leaders, we ask your help in providing ID by name, county, office the candidate ran for and the # of the photo. You may post responses in the “leave a comment” box below, or e-mail me, Maria Gitin, civil rights veteran and author of “This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight.” Find my contact information at www.thisbrightlightofours.com

Congratulations Bob Fitch Photography Archive Acquired by Stanford University Library

So proud and grateful to Bob Fitch for allowing me to use 4 of his previously unpublished photos in “This Bright Light of Ours.” They are among his earliest civil rights photos, taken in 1966 when visiting Wilcox County to record the work of Dorothy Cotton and Septima Clark on the Citizenship Education Project and when he accompanied Dr. King after civil rights martyr David Colston was murdered. www.thisbrightlightofours.com

Bob Fitch and other civil rights veterans singing at "This Bright Light of Ours" westcoast book launch Feb 20, 2014

Bob Fitch and other civil rights veterans singing at “This Bright Light of Ours” westcoast book launch Feb 20, 2014. ©Samuel Torres Jr

From Stanford http://library.stanford.edu/collections/bob-fitch-photography-archive Fitch’s photographs have been featured in two Smithsonian traveling exhibits and are reproduced globally in print, film and electronic media. Fitch’s photographs have appeared in numerous books over the past decades, from his documentation of the counter-culture community in San Francisco (Hippie Is Necessary, 1967) and his work chronicling the non-violent civil rights movement and leaders (My Eyes Have Seen, 1971), including publication of his iconic photographs of Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Cesar Chavez, Pete Seeger, Dorothy Day, Stokely Carmichael, Fathers Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Ron Dellums, David Harris and Joan Baez, to more recent works such as Richard Steven Street’s Photographing Farmworkers in California and the anthology This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement.

More Praise for “This Bright Light of Ours”

 

“THIS BRIGHT LIGHT OF OURS is a thoughtful, concise, multi-level, artful and thoroughly researched narrative of Maria Gitin’s summer as an Anglo volunteer voter registration worker in Camden, AL.  With candid, almost innocent precision, she exposes her multi-adventure summer experience which includes: lives of her co-workers and an intimate, historic and present exposé of African Americans in a rural back-water town challenging brutal and cleverly subtle oppression. This book is captivating because it presents so many documented stories about courageous ‘ordinary’ people. “  – Bob Fitch, photojournalist, My Eyes Have Seen [correct title, Glide Publishing, 1972]  May 2, 2014

I just finished reading the book and I loved it. At numerous points it had me in tears. And I very deeply appreciate your focus on the numerous and varied foot soldiers. Those are the stories most easily forgotten and too seldom told. – Gordon Gibson, Unitarian pastor, civil rights activist, Knoxville, TN – April 14, 2014

I’ve just bought your book and started to read it. It is absolutely compelling. I couldn’t put it down! I admire you greatly for your achievement and perseverance in realizing your vision.The book is clearly organized and written. Surely it will serve as a testimony of that vital time for generations to come.– Mary Swope, retired fine arts teacher, SCOPE volunteer. San Francisco, CA April 16, 2014

Maria Gitin tells her own story on her own terms, giving readers an honest rendering of one woman’s experience on the front lines of struggle against a deeply entrenched system of racial oppression.  Her book is a worthy companion piece to Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi and Ned Cobb’s superb Alabama narrative All God’s Dangers. 

Clarence Mohr, Chairman, History Department, University of South Alabama,
Mobile, AL – April 8, 2014

More about the book: www.thisbrightlightofours.com

lorez Final book coverJkt_Gitin_final

 

My Heart is Filled With Gratitude

Many generous folks contributed over the past seven years to This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight, a memoir and collection of true stories from the last large integrated voter registration drive during the Freedom Summer of 1965.

Fifty-five courageous individuals entrusted me with their stories of living in a violent, racist community while fighting for their voting rights in Wilcox County, Alabama. My beloved SNCC friends, Charles “Chuck” Bonner and Luke “Bob” Block (https://thislittlelight1965.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/img327.jpg) kept me honest as I recreated our teenage civil rights work and play. Wilcox County community leaders opened doors, answered endless questions and become dear friends including: W. Kate Charley, Sheryl Threadgill, Alma King, and John Matthews. Civil Rights photographer Bob Fitch (http://www.bobfitchphoto.com/) shared historic images that enrich the work immensely.

For generous encouragement, and expert counsel over the years, huge appreciation goes to brilliant author-scholar, Lewis V. Baldwin. (www.amazon.com) For consistent and accurate fact checking, terminology, and political theory, my hero is Bruce Hartford, lay historian and web manager for the national Civil Rights Veterans website (www.crmvet.org). Scott E. Kirkland, researcher and curator of the Museum of History in Mobile, AL, played a vital role in the placement of this book, as a champion for an accurate portrayal of the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project, designed and spearheaded by civil rights hero, Hosea Williams.

Author-activist Bettina Aptheker, the late James Houston, and Benet Luchion provided early encouragement. Developmental editor Cassandra Shaylor helped shape the book for interest. Historian Martha Jane Brazy of University of South Alabama enthusiastically embraced the work during its final year, generously offering me graduate student level attention. Willy Siegal Leventhal’s unending fight for recognition of the SCOPE (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOPE_Project) project was and is an inspiration.

Thanks to my beloved cousin, Jeanne Hanks, and my friend, Debbie Kogan, for empathetic listening during my years of obsessing about this project. Deep appreciation goes to my publicist, Joy Crawford-Washington of BGC Communications, for tireless support and warm friendship. To my yoga teacher, Amey Matthews for teaching me flexibility and strength are not opposites. And to Lauren Mari-Navarro for insights and resources. To Joan for fun & friendship.

Photo by Charley Hatfield, Aptos, CA

My husband, Samuel Torres Jr., offered me freedom to pursue the project, frequent and much-needed critiques, archival research, copyright management, proof-reading, tough talk and tender love, and took great photos. I can never thank him enough, but I am working on it!

Thank you all! Have a great Thanksgiving!  And Keep on Keepin’ On! – We have a long ways to go to achieve real racial and economic justice in the world!

The book has been retitled: This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight, and will be published by University of Alabama Press in January 2014. Speaking engagements and book-signings are being scheduled now. Please contact: Joy Crawford-Washington, bgccommunications@gmail.com for more information.