"Come Let Us Build a New World Together": SNCC and Photography of the Civil Rights Movement

"Come Let Us Build a New World Together": SNCC and Photography of the Civil Rights Movement

This essay considers the vital yet contentious role photography played in the mobilization, expansion, consumption, and memorialization of the modern civil rights movement through an examination of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Photo Agency in the years 1962-64. Placing special emphasis on SNCC posters, I argue that through their use of photography, SNCC created a formidable independent media structure that substantively influenced the course of the civil rights movement. Moreover, the images SNCC's photographer-activists produced provide cues and clues for contemporary viewers to better understand and incorporate the lessons and legacies of the 1960s freedom struggle.