I have a weird kid. I’m sure you’re shocked. All of us lifelong Coloradans, IZ wanted to go to Kansas City, Missouri for her 21st birthday last week. She’s a serious fan of ‘cue, underground art scenes and friendly westerners.
There, we attended a Through The Lens exhibit at the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in KC — arguably the best museum in the US and seriously rivaling international institutions. The show, “Visions of African American Experience, 1950-1970,” included some of the country’s most iconic and unnerving photos focusing on the 1960s civil rights battles. If you’re in your 50s, 60s or beyond, you’ve seen these images time and again, after they appeared in places such as LIFE, Look and other national magazines.
The exhibit is enthralling and revolting at the same time. It just doesn’t seem possible I lived in a time so rife with hate and racism. I can’t believe America is poised to relive it.
Every American should be required to revisit these masterpieces by the likes of Danny Lyon, Bruce Davidson, Charles Moore and Gordon Parks and then think again about toying with presidential candidates like Ted Cruz and especially Donald Trump. Blacks, Muslims, gays, Mexicans, the targets may change, but the hate is all the same.
We won these battles once. What an atrocity it would be to make us fight again when there’s so much new work to be done.