Calvert McCann photographs

The wonderful collection of Calvert McCann photographs has been digitized and are now available on ExploreUK.

Above: Dunbar High School student, Deloris McDowel, at a lunch counter sit-in at the Lexington F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter

The Calvert McCann photographs (dated 1961-1964; 3.7 cubic feet; 7 boxes) consist of 20 black and white photographic prints depicting the Civil Rights Movement in Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky. The photographs show sit-ins at lunch counters, demonstrations in downtown lexington, Louis Armstrong refusing to cross a picket line at the Phoenix Hotel, and the March on Frankfort led by Martin Luther King, Jr, Ralphy Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, and Jackie Robinson.

Above: March on Frankfort led by (from left) Martin Luther King, Jr.; Ralph Abernathy; Wyatt Tee Walker; and Jackie Robinson
 
Calvert McCann (1942-2014) was a teenager when he began participating in marches and demonstrations as part of the civil rights movement in Lexington in the 1960s. While a part time employee at Michael’s Photography Store in downtown Lexington, McCann began to document these experiences on a Pentax 35mm camera that he carried everywhere. He photographed demonstrations in downtown Lexington, sit-ins at lunch counters, protests at the Phoenix Hotel, and the March on Frankfort led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Much of the footage he took remained undeveloped until the early 2000s when McCann gave the film to Gerald Smith. Smith used the images in his book Black America Series: Lexington, Kentucky.

Above: Henry Jones and his younger brother leading a demonstration on Lexington’s Main Street, circa 1960s

Remembering the 1964 Civil Rights March in Frankfort

On March 5, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led ten thousand people on a peaceful Civil Rights march in Frankfort, Kentucky. The rally supported a bill to desegregate public accommodations in Kentucky. Dr. King and several other leaders gave speeches backing the proposed bill and met with Gov. Breathitt. After the march, a group of people led by Frank Stanley, Jr., staged a hunger strike in the House gallery to coerce legislators to pass the bill. It never made it out of committee, but the subsequent Civil Rights Act of 1966 was passed in large part to the influence garnered by the march and hunger strike. For further details and photographs from this march, see the Jim Curtis photograph collection on Civil Rights in Kentucky.

Jim Curtis Photograph Collection on Civil Rights in Kentucky now online

The Special Collections Research Center recently digitized the Jim Curtis Photograph Collection on Civil Rights in Kentucky, which is now available on ExploreUK. The collection comprises 13 photographs documenting the March on Frankfort, Kentucky, held on March 5, 1964, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jackie Robinson. Other figures depicted in the photographs include Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, Frank Stanley, Jr., and Kentucky Governor Edward T. Breathitt. For more information about the collection and to view the photographs, visit http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7gqn5z7t3j_1_1/guide.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (right) and Jackie Robinson (left) taking notes during march, Georgia Davis Powers on extreme right over King's shoulder, 1964

Group of people staging a hunger strike with signs reading Give me freedom or death! around their necks listening to a radio, 1964