He removed stereotypes to show the possibilities of the human spirit, even when it was brutalized. The significance of this collection of photographs - and Parks' work, for that matter - is evident in every image. He also photographed fashion for Vogue and Ebony magazines. He was 53 at the time of the assignment and had just completed a profile on Muhammad Ali. May Carmichael serving her children, Lynette and Stokely, at Lynette's wedding dinner in the Bronx, New York, in 1967. With the exception of the five published images, the photographs in the exhibit have never been seen before.

He was the first African American photographer hired by Life, working for the publication from 1948 to 1972. Parks shot the photos on assignment for Life magazine, which published five photos of 25-year-old Carmichael and Parks' accompanying essay in May 1967. Some 53 of his 700-plus photos of that time are featured in 'Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power.' The exhibition, made possible by the Gordon Parks Foundation, runs Oct. Parks spent four months covering Carmichael. Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, including Carmichael (on right wearing sunglasses), walking to the Watts rally in Los Angeles in 1967. He saw art and dignity in the struggle for civil rights, and his photographs captured that beautifully. While the nation often depicted Black lives in turmoil and awash in violence, Parks looked at the world differently. He navigated through Black communities with his camera as a way to humanize them.

Gordon parks stokely carmichael