Staring through a camera lens on March 21, 1965, Matt Herron walked backwards across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

He was documenting the historic third march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., which protested for equal voting rights.

“It was probably the most intense five days of shooting of my life,” Herron said.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the march, his collection of 160 photos taken at the event is being displayed at the “Selma to Montgomery” exhibit at ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse from Feb. 7 through March 28. ArtRage will also host a panel discussion on Monday from 7–9 p.m. with six central New Yorkers involved in the ongoing civil rights movement.

The exhibit and the panel are meant to reflect on the civil rights movement in the mid-1900s and the state of civil rights in the country today. The panel consists of retired Judge Langston McKinney, activist and former Syracuse University professor John Brulé and current SU professor and director of the Cold Case Justice Initiative Paula Johnson.

The discussion will highlight on a personal level what is happening in Herron’s photos, Johnson said. The panel will also be a forum to talk about activism and what was happening in the North while the civil rights movement took hold in the South, she said.

Barrie Gewanter, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union central New York chapter, who will be moderating the panel on Monday night, said it is important to look back and talk about what was at stake in Selma in 1965.

“Someone said, if you don’t learn from history, you’re bound to repeat it,” Gewanter said.

Gewanter also said it is clear there is still work to be done for the civil rights movement, as the issue of race in America resurfaced after the shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Gewanter said even though she can’t go back in time and march in Selma, she is marching for the continued advancement of the civil rights movement through her work.

Johnson agrees with Gewanter, saying that the struggle for civil rights has never ended.

“It’s important for people to understand the meaning and courage of everyday people who were part of a movement to make the promise of democracy realized and they sacrificed a lot,” Johnson said.

One of Herron’s motivations for the collection was to show that the movement was more than the famous faces. Many black children, Herron said, only remember King and Rosa Parks, but the marches in Selma were the result of years of work by thousands on a local level. He said he hopes the exhibit will create discussion and spark a more truthful, nuanced view of the events that took place 50 years ago.

Johnson’s Cold Case Justice Initiative at the College of Law investigates unsolved racially motivated cases from the years surrounding the Selma marches. She said the exhibit shows the faces of farmers, workers and teachers, who provided the backbone of the movement on a local stage. The photos are a way of learning about their struggle through art, she added.

Gewanter said people will be able to look at the photos and contemplate both civil and human rights at ArtRage.

Herron himself will be coming to Syracuse in March to talk at both ArtRage and SU about his time as a photojournalist and the various events he witnessed on the job.

Said Herron: “We all lived in an atmosphere of fear and paranoia. One never knew when a peaceful situation would turn violent.”

Published on February 16, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu