“So people get ready,
for a train to Jordan
Picking up passengers coast to coast
Faith is the key, open the doors and board them
There’s hope for all among those loved the most”
—”People Get Ready,” The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield)
That song, a 1965 gospel tune that became a mainstream hit, was adopted as a victory anthem for the civil rights movement, which, after more than ten years of social unrest, prevailed against segregation on July 2nd, 1964. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the Toledo Museum of Art is presenting People Get Ready: 50 Years of Civil Rights, a selection of works on paper from the TMA’s collection.
Ernest Withers’s photography
Some of the most historically significant photographs in the exhibit might be those of Ernest Withers, an African-American photographer working for the press at the time. “He had a pretty unique position in that he was African-American, and he was able to travel with and be a part of many of the protests,” said Tom Loeffler, who channeled over 20 years of experience in the TMA’s Works on Paper department into curating People Get Ready. Withers would take part in the events he covered—for instance, he painted signs for the Memphis Sanitation Strike. He wasn’t always against the establishment, though—Withers was one of the first ten African-Americans to join the Memphis Police Department, and in 2010 it was revealed that he had been an FBI informant.
Withers’ most enduring contribution to photographic history might be his documentation of the murder of Emmett Till, an African-American Chicagoan who was executed for, supposedly, flirting with a white woman in 1955 (Till’s murder was also immortalized in Bob Dylan’s “The Death of Emmett Till,” for a Youtube link, see this story online at toledocitypaper.com/July-Issue-3-2014/The-Gospel-of-Photography). Withers photographed the Emmett Till murder trial, and prints of those images and others from Withers’ portfolio, I Am a Man, form a central part of the TMA exhibit.
One of the most striking images in the collection might be photographer David Levinthal’s rendition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Levinthal re-created scenes from the famous novel using pewter figures, and then photographed them in striking, dramatic lighting.
More than photographs
There’s more to the exhibit than just photography, however. People Get Ready also includes two-dimensional art and sculpture from artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, who made expressionistic and political sculptures and paintings in Mexico after the United States government revoked her passport.
Loeffler sees the exhibit as more educational, an exhibit aimed more at those who never experienced the civil rights movement firsthand. “In writing the labels I was trying to get that across, the importance of the time and what was going on, and the things that led up to it,” he said. Though the exhibit collects the thoughts of fine artists, People Get Ready also invites TMA visitors who may have had firsthand experience with the civil rights movement to leave their own thoughts and recollections on Post-It notes at a central exhibition point.
Loeffler’s already begun going through some of the notes, and paraphrased one that struck him powerfully: “It wasn’t all that long ago that it was against the law to kiss someone of another race in public. We have indeed come a long way, not far enough, but we have made some progress.” Comments like that one will be available on TMA’s website, alongside the entire People Get Ready, complete with Loeffler’s label copy.
People Get Ready runs through Sunday, September 21. Hitchcock Gallery, Toledo Museum of Art, 2445 Monroe St. 419-255-8000.
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