Through the Camera’s Lens, Uncover L.A.’s Vital Role in the Civil Rights Movement

During a 1963 speech to a crowd of nearly 40,000 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the question of how Angelenos could contribute to the civil rights movement: “The most important thing that you can do is to set Los Angeles free, because you have segregation and discrimination here, and police brutality.”

It was a photograph of this particular moment, taken for Time Magazine, that became emblematic of the civil rights movement and Dr. King's status as an icon. This was of special importance, seeing as photographs taken in L.A. were rarely included in early studies of the civil rights movement. Photographic records typically focused on Southern states and left the imagery and impact of people and institutions in other parts of the country out of the narrative.

Marching West: The Los Angeles Civil Rights Movement in Photographs (Getty Publications, $45) illuminates the dynamic history of civil rights activism in Los Angeles and explores how the medium of photography both witnessed and advanced the fight for Black equality. Over 100 images, some of which have never been previously published, reveal connections between the local and national movements and document the actions of Western coalitions, religious leaders, Hollywood stars, and concerned citizens. Drawn from the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), the Getty Research Institute, and other Southern California collections—including prints by Harry Adams, Howard Bingham, Charles Brittin, Joe Flowers, Vera Jackson, and Charles Williams—this unprecedented volume presents less familiar but essential stories about American progress toward social justice.