NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale Presents "The Movement: Bob Adelman and Civil Rights Era Photography"

On Saturday, January 18th, 2014 from 5PM to 8PM, the NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale will inaugurate an exhibition in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,  featuring the imagery of renowned photographer, Miami Beach-based Bob Adelman.

"The Movement: Bob Adelman and Civil Rights Era Photography," presented by AutoNation, will be on view throughMay 17, 2014.  Press Preview will be held at 4PM and remarks by Isaac Newton Farris, Jr. nephew of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr will be mentioned at 5PM.

Adelman’s unique vantage point at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement led him to produce some of that era’s most iconic images.

Featuring 100 black-and-white and color photographs, the exhibition will provide a context in which viewers can revisit these years of struggle and consider how and why certain images have become emblematic of the era.

Between 1963 and 1968, Bob Adelman was a photographer for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and other civil rights organizations.

His work granted him unique access to the movement’s most important events and figures, and he forged close ties with such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr. , Malcolm X, John Lewis, and James Baldwin.  

Events documented in the exhibition include: the Freedom Rides; the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations during which demonstrators were hosed and attacked by police dogs; the 1963 March on Washington, which culminated in Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech; voter registration drives; the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March; and Martin Luther King, Jr funeral.

A number of the photographs on view in the exhibition have never before been published.

Adelman has photographed cover stories for many magazines including Esquire, Time, Life, New York, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, and Paris Match, and has photographed or written more than a dozen books and produced many others, including King: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Abrams, 2004).

He has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA grant, and several Art Directors Club Awards. His photographs have been exhibited the Smithsonian, the American Federation of Arts, and other institutions, and are included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Additional support for this exhibition is provided by Simkins Hollis Law Group, PC, in  loving memory of Dr. Anna Atkins Simkins, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee, Inc, the Community Foundation of Broward  and W Fort Lauderdale.

This event is free and open to the the public. RSVP required moareservations@moafl.org 

NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale is located at One East Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33301.