Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963, Marion Palfi

Artwork Overview

Marion Palfi, Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963
Marion Palfi, Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963
Marion Palfi
Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963
1963
Marion Palfi
1907–1978
Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963, 1963
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 23.5 x 34.5 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 9 1/4 x 13 9/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in
Credit line: Gift of Marion Palfi
Accession number: 1973.0163
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Separate and Not Equal: A History of Race and Education in America
Ten years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Palfi continued to capture the state of the Civil Rights Movement through her candid photographs. She was the first photographer to arrive in Greenwood, Mississippi, to document the town’s civil unrest, including a powerful moment in which the African American community joined hands to sing “We Shall Overcome” following the destruction of the voter registration building. Her photographs were later used by the United States Department of Justice to bring lawsuits aimed at eradicating segregation in Greenwood and surrounding Leflore County. Palfi also documented the famous Chicago school boycott, during which 200,000 high school students stayed home and 10,000–20,000 marched to protest the continued segregation of public schools. Discriminatory housing codes and carefully drawn boundary lines meant most schools in Chicago failed to integrate in any meaningful way, even a decade after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling made school segregation illegal.
Separate and Not Equal: A History of Race and Education in America
Ten years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Palfi continued to capture the state of the Civil Rights Movement through her candid photographs. She was the first photographer to arrive in Greenwood, Mississippi, to document the town’s civil unrest, including a powerful moment in which the African American community joined hands to sing “We Shall Overcome” following the destruction of the voter registration building. Her photographs were later used by the United States Department of Justice to bring lawsuits aimed at eradicating segregation in Greenwood and surrounding Leflore County. Palfi also documented the famous Chicago school boycott, during which 200,000 high school students stayed home and 10,000–20,000 marched to protest the continued segregation of public schools. Discriminatory housing codes and carefully drawn boundary lines meant most schools in Chicago failed to integrate in any meaningful way, even a decade after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling made school segregation illegal.

Exhibitions

Brosseau Center for Learning: Protest
Kate Meyer, curator
2024
Separate and Not Equal: A History of Race and Education in America
Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator
Celka Straughn, curator
2017
Documenting Discrimination: Marion Palfi Photographs
Sean Barker, curator
2004
Language of Light: A survey of the Photography Collection of the University of Kansas Museum of Art
James L. Enyeart, curator
1974
Invisible in America: An Exhibition of Photographs by Marion Palfi
James L. Enyeart, curator
1973

Citations

Enyeart, James L.. Invisible in America: An Exhibition of Photographs by Marion Palfi. Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1973.

Enyeart, James, and Elizabeth Broun, Randolph A. Youle, Ronald Schneider. Language of Light. Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1974.