Maltz Museum’s “This Light of Ours’ is a journey through pain and triumph
As far back as pre-colonial times the plight of the African American has been one of suffering and abuse. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1794, a forced mass transfer of one million slaves from the upper South to the Deep South plantations at around 1800 swelled the slave population to over four million souls. Even with liberation following the Civil War, the problems continued as whites in the south formed supremacist groups that used terror and intimidation backed by Jim Crow laws in order to deny basic human rights to people of color.
It was not until the 1960s that encouraged by the organizational success of the Vietnam War protests and funded by benevolent organizations in the North that Blacks began making inroads to basic rights and freedoms. As illegal law after illegal law was stuck down in the South by the Federal Government under the helm of Southerner and President Lyndon Baines Johnson a new hope was brought to the masses of a people who up to this time had only known oppression.
As the Civil Rights Movement gained strength, two things help bring it to the attention of the world. One was the music which united people of all colors to be brave and stand up against tyranny. The other was the careful documentation that was done by a handful of brave and resourceful group of photographers. It was their photos and films that brought the injustice suffered by an entire group of peoples into the living rooms of the average blue collar American.
It was not an easy job following the activities of the Civil Rights Movement. Photographers were pushed, trampled, beat up, spat on and cursed at while at the same time trying to get into position to get “that memorable shot” that could change history.
Through May 14, 2017 the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage will be housing an exhibit of over 150 black and white images that chronicle the Southern Freedom Movement. “This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement” is a 4,000-square-foot multimedia exhibit that includes constructed artifacts that reflect what life was like for the Blacks in the South.
This exhibit is generously sponsored by Cleveland Browns Foundation; Cleveland Foundation; Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Humanities Center at Cuyahoga Community College; Cleveland State University; Milton and Tamar Maltz; PNC Bank; and The Treu-Mart Fund.
In all, nine activist photographers are represented by their work that illustrated the clash between two opposing forces: the white supremacist vs. the activists and volunteers of all colors.
“The power of these photographs that helped catapult long-existing inequities into the national consciousness is undeniable,” asserts Maltz Museum executive director Ellen Rudolph. “Pain, fear and hope—the emotions and momentum fueling the movement—are palpable in the images.”
The Maltz Museum has added videos, interactive works and material that include the issues still facing African Americans even today. Your journey begins in the tidy but impoverished share-cropper's shack after which you are introduced to the featured photographers. The exhibit is then divided into various themes ranging from pre-movement days through the various protests and marches up to present day.
“This exhibition is very timely,” says Museum co-founder Milton Maltz, noting its relevance to recent shootings, riots, vigils and protests in Baltimore, Charleston, Cleveland, Dallas and Milwaukee. “Ordinary people risked everything to fight for equality in the segregated South of the 1960s. The question this exhibition asks is, 50 years later, who will take up the challenge to right inequities that continue to spark anger across this country? How can we heal this open wound of racial division in America?”
“As a museum of diversity and tolerance, depictions of everyday people who stood up for justice fits perfectly with our efforts to encourage individuals to understand and accept their roles in ending intolerance and indifference," asserts the Museum’s education director Jeffery Allen. “It is as Cleveland’s own Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., a former regional director of Martin Luther King, Jr's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a Selma March participant once put it, ‘If there is no conscience in the community, we have to be that conscience.’"
Photographers featured in the exhibit include Bob Adelman, George Ballis, Bob Fitch, Bob Fletcher, Matt Herron, David Prince, Herbert Randall, Maria Varela and Tamio Wakayams. The exhibition is organized by the Center for Documentary Expression and Art (Curator: Matt Herron; Historical Consultant: Charlie Cobb Jr.; Project Originators: Leslie Kelen and Steven Kasher) with major support provided by the Bruce W. Bastian Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The films, design and exhibition experience were conceived and produced by the Maltz Museum.
Additional sponsorship for the Cleveland installation is provided by Stanley Blum; Ruth G. and Sam H. Sampliner Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland; Catholic Diocese of Cleveland; Cleveland Clinic; Forest City Enterprises; Jewish Federation of Cleveland; Alan and Karen Krause; Audrey and Albert B. Ratner; David Reynolds, Key Private Bank; RPM, Inc.; Barbara S. Robinson; Schwebel Baking Co.; and Dan and Ellen Zelman. Additional support comes from ADL Cleveland; Barry Feldman; Stewart and Donna Kohl; Noreen Koppelman-Goldstein and Barry Goloboff; Malik Law; Melamed Communications; Anne L. Meyers—Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis; Abe and Barb Miller; The Nathan and Fannye Shafran Foundation; Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland; and Donna Yanowitz.
Admission to the exhibit “This Light of Ours” is included with Maltz Museum admission: $12 adults, $10 seniors (60+) and students, $5 youth (5-11) and FREE for Maltz Museum Members and children under 5. Groups of 10 or more are eligible for guided tours and a discount with advance registration.
The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is open Tuesday – Sunday, 11a.m. -5p.m., Wednesday, 11a.m.-9p.m.. The Museum is closed Mondays. (Note: The Museum recently changed its Saturday hours to open at 11a.m.)
