White students protesting the enrollment of black students, Montgomery High School, Montgomery, Alabama

© 1963, Flip Schulke

White students protesting the enrollment of black students, Montgomery High School, Montgomery, Alabama

Currently not on view

White students protesting the enrollment of black students, Montgomery High School, Montgomery, Alabama,

September 10, 1963

Flip Schulke, 1930–2008; born New Ulm, MN; died West Palm Beach, FL
for LIFE magazine
2010-225

Schulke’s photo for Life magazine shows white students protesting the desegregation of a Montgomery, Alabama, high school in 1963. The juxtaposition of this photo with Hugo Gellert’s image of racial solidarity (below) highlights how protest is a means of civic
engagement afforded to groups with vastly different ideological positions, and that the boundaries of Americanness—and the rights and privileges it affords—are always shifting and contested.

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More Context

Almost ten years after the decision of Brown v. the Board of Education, the first black student to attend a white public school in Alabama enrolled on September 9, 1963. The next day, Schulke captured white students protesting integration and revealed, in the expressions of the students, their necks taught with tension, the implacable hatred of the crowd. While many famous photographs associated with the civil rights movement record the commitment of its leaders and activists, this image presents a vivid reminder of what they found themselves up against.

Information

Title
White students protesting the enrollment of black students, Montgomery High School, Montgomery, Alabama
Dates

September 10, 1963

Maker
Flip Schulke
for LIFE magazine
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
35.4 × 27.4 cm (13 15/16 × 10 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of William J. Salman, Class of 1955
Object Number
2010-225
Place Depicted

North America, United States, Alabama, Montgomery

Culture
American
Type
gelatin silver prints, black-and-white photographs, photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
students, men, figures (representations), schools, women, books, racial discrimination

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