| Abstract |
"Hundreds of stunning images from black history have long been buried in the New York Times archives. None of them were published by the times--until now. This remarkable collection is the result of the care and dedication of four committed staff members at the New York Times who made an unwitting discovery. In 2016, Times photo editor Darcy Eveleigh found dozens of never-before-published photographs from black history in the musty envelopes and crowded bins of The Times archives. She and three colleagues, Dana Canedy, Damien Cave, and Rachel L. Swarns, began exploring the often untold stories behind the images and chronicling them in a series entitled "Unpublished Black History" that ran in print and online editions of The Times in February 2016. It garnered millions of views on The Times website and thousands of comments from readers. Unseen showcases those photographed and digs even deeper into The Times archives to include 175 photographs and the stories behind them in this extraordinary collection. Among the entries is a 27-year-old Jesse Jackson leading an anti-discrimination rally in Chicago; Rosa Parks arriving at a Montgomery courthouse in Alabama; a candid shot of Aretha Franklin backstage at the Apollo Theater; Ralph Ellison on the streets of his Manhattan neighborhood; the firebombed home of Malcolm X; Myrlie Evers and her children at the funeral of her slain husband, Medgar; a wheelchair-bound Roy Campanella at the razing of Ebbets Field; a behind-the-scenes photo shoot with Arthur A. Mitchell, cofounder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and his principal dancers; images of peaceful and organized demonstrators at Resurrection City in 1968 that contrast the photographs of disorder and theft dominating the coverage of the time; and a series by Don Hogan Charles, the first black photographer hired by The Times, capturing life in Harlem in the 1960s. Why were these striking photographs published? Did the images not arrive in time to make the deadline? Was it simply that The Times was then more about words than images? Were they pushed aside by the biases of editors, whether intentional or unintentional? Eveleigh, Canedy, Cave, and Swarns explore these questions and more while uncovering stories that were never told in the newspaper and others that have mostly been forgotten. Unseen dives deep into the The Times' archives to showcase this rare collection of photographs and stories or the very first time."--Jacket. |
