Gordon Parks Exhibit Coming To Mobile Museum

Gordon Parks, Department Store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, Archival pigment print. | mobilemuseumofart.com

The Mobile Museum of Art is kicking off the special exhibit, “Gordon Parks: Segregation Story in Mobile, 1956,” in a free grand opening at 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on January 16. The exhibit, which will run until September 5, features photos captured by prominent photographer Gordon Parks during Jim Crow. His photos document the everyday activities and rituals of one extended black family, the Thorntons, in Mobile and Shady Grove, Alabama, during segregation. The images were originally published in a 1956 photo essay as part of an assignment for Life but have since come to be world-renowed for helping inspire the Civil Rights movement. In an adjacent gallery, a timeline of Mobile Civil Rights events and African-American history spanning 1900-2020, compiled by Commissioner Merceria Ludgood and historians Sheila Flanagan and Scotty Kirkland, will also be on view.