Freedom! Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement by Diana Davies

In honor of Martin Luther King Day 2010, we selected images from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage's Diana Davies Photograph Collection. Davies began her career as a musician and became a photojournalist in the 1960s. During that time she documented Newport Folk Festivals, anti-poverty and Civil Rights movements, and farm workers' struggles. Her images, which give us an up-close view of events, also share a passion for the sometimes unsettled, sometimes celebratory moments of the Civil Rights period. You may also want to read a piece by Maurice Berger, cultural historian and curator, who reflects on how photographic images were used to forward the civil rights movement in the 1960s. See more photographs by Diana Davies. View the finding aid for the Diana Davies Photograph Collection. Click the image to view the slideshow.

Merry Foresta is the Former Director of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative.