Ernest C Withers was a noted Memphis photographer, an artist, who passed this week. I actually knew some of his work before I knew who he was.
Take a moment to browse through some of his work here. He documented the civil rights movement, music, and sports. I have no doubt that you to will recognize some of his images.
Dr.Benjamin Hooks said of his friend he had a burning desire to shoot pictures. That is what makes an artist, a burning desire to capture the world in his or her medium. I think his images illustrate that art can change the world. Art in any medium matters, words and images however transcribed are real. While I am never going to be a famous photographer, make a living at it, or achieve recognition, it makes no difference to me. When I take a picture I am pleased with I am talking to the world. I am telling you who I am. It is my language, the thoughts and feelings I cannot truly articulate. That is why when any of us engage in our artistic self however clumsy it may be, it is essential to ourselves and others.
Mr.Withers got his start in the Army Corps of Engineers and after the war was one of a handful of Black Memphians to become a police officer. He was later dismissed under questionable circumstances Mr.Withers once said he arrested the wrong bootlegger. In that era, in Memphis while I know no further details, I can guess he pissed off the wrong white guy. After that, he turned to photography full time.
His son recalls that he loved Memphis and people in general. He was a kind soul who often saved the rest of his meals after eating in restaurants to give to the panhandlers.
After the travesty of the Emmett Till trial he self published a booklet of photographs that got attention from the Black press. This led to an exhaustive documentation of the civil rights movement. When we arrived back from vacation, and saw a newspaper headline about his death, I knew who it was immediately, because I recognized his depiction of striking janitorial workers in Memphis.
After Dr. Martin Luther King died, Mr.Withers was allowed into the morgue but refused to take pictures. As his son notes he could have made a lot of money taking those pictures. So, remember him for what he refused to do as well as what he strove for.
One diary cannot do him any kind of meaningful tribute. He was a great American, a tireless and enthusiastic artist, and while his agent called him the greatest African American photographer of all time to me he was an inspiration, a great photographer to stand against any who documented social history.