Danny Lyon Civil Rights Movement Analysis

Danny Lyon is a New York City based photographer who was heavily involved in the civil-rights movement. According to Vince Aletti from The New Yorker magazine, Lyon ended up in a Georgia jail in 1962, with Martin Luther King, Jr., in a nearby cell. A year later, he was given the opportunity to become the staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Lyon had a passion for social change so he fully immersed himself in the cultures and communities he documented. Throughout the period of the civil-rights movement, he recorded marches, sit-ins, arrests, and the aftermath of bombings. The subject matter of The March on Washington exemplifies two African American boys participating in the March on Washington, fighting for their jobs and freedom. The purpose of this event was to bring attention to the political and social injustices that African Americans persisted to face across the country.

The Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968) was a period of mass protest against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern

“For nearly two weeks in early May of 1963, national and international audiences rose each morning to images of violence, confrontation, and resistance splashed across the front pages of their major newspapers” (Raiford). Photographers captured the daily brutality that African Americans faced at the hands of white southerners. These photos revealed the truth to the world and challenged the audiences to think for themselves. Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong supporter of photography. He believed that these powerful photographs were important in galvanizing support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and changing public opinion on white supremacy. He commended photography for the ability to expose injustices that were once difficult to prove. Photography during this time was authentic and raw because photographers were able to capture real life events as they truly