Documenting Discrimination: Marion Palfi Photographs

Exhibition

Sean Barker, curator

April 17, 2004–June 13, 2004

South Balcony, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, which brought an end to racial segregation in public schools, the Spencer is pleased to present this exhibition, organized from the Spencer’s collection by Sean Barker, KU doctoral student and the museum’s curatorial intern in photography. Documenting Discrimination: Marion Palfi Photographs features 26 images by Palfi, a self-described "social researcher" whose powerful pictures document the poor, the lonely, and the victims of prejudice and discrimination in America from the late 1940s through the late 1960s. Palfi, born in Berlin, Germany, was active as a socially concerned photographer in the United States from the 1940s until a few years before her death in 1978. This small exhibition will include her photographs that show instances of racial segregation enforced by Jim Crow laws during the late 1940s. Palfi referred to these as Signs of Discrimination; in keeping with that title, many of the images document signs in public places such as restaurants and bus stations that reflect a racial prejudice supported by law. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education US Supreme Court ruling, ending racial segregation in public schools, we will present Marion Palfi photographs in the North Balcony Gallery. Palfi, born in Germany, was active as a socially concerned photographer in the US. The small exhibition will include her photographs that show instances of racial segregation during the 1940s.This installation of photographs by Marion Palfi is presented in acknowledgment of the fiftieth anniversary of the May 17, 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education.