The 1960­–1970 decade was a momentous time for the civil rights movement in the American South. It was an historic decade that unleashed both hope for the future and profound change as public spaces were desegregated and as African Americans secured their right to vote. I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970 displays a wide range of photographs taken by amateurs, local photojournalists, and internationally known photographers. Together, they provide a vivid visual story of the evolution of the civil rights movement and shed light on the movement’s integration in daily living in the American South. I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1070 opens January 18, 2026 at the Museum & Cultural Center at 5ive Points.

Southern folklorist, author, and curator William Ferris and his research team sought out photos taken in the heat of the civil rights movement, by activists or local news photographers, who documented history taking place before their eyes. Viewers of the exhibition will recognize the photographs of protestors who carried signs with messages like “I Am A Man” or sat at segregated lunch counters as iconic images associated with the movement, while numerous other photographs presented in the exhibition have rarely been seen until now. Key events include James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi, Ku Klux Klan gatherings, the Selma Montgomery March in Alabama, the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, Martin Luther King’s funeral, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the Mule Train.

The decade was a pivotal moment that both marks change, and also reminds us how far wehave to go. The photographs inI Am A Man: Civil Rights Photographs inthe American South,1960–1970remind us of their enduring resonance today and beyond as future generationscontinue to fight for justice for all humankind.

This exhibition has been adapted from an exhibition, originally produced for the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier, France, by the Center for Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The French exhibition was funded by the City of Montpellier and administered by Gilles Mora, director of the Pavillion Populaire.

This exhibition is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. ExhibitsUSA sends more than twenty-five exhibitions on tour to over 100 small-and mid-sized communities every year. These exhibitions create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurture the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities. For more about ExhibitsUSA, email MoreArt@maaa.org or visit www.eusa.org

About Mid-America Arts Alliance: Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) strengthens and supports artists, cultural organizations, and communities throughout our region and beyond. Additional information about M-AAA is available atwww.maaa.org

About the Curator: William Reynolds Ferris was born and raised in an anti-segregationist family on a farm in Mississippi. He taught as assistant professor in the English Department at Jackson State University (1970–72), associate professor in the Afro-American and American Studies Programs at Yale University (1972–79), professor of anthropology and founding director of the Center for Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi (1979–97), and as professor of history and Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2002–17), where he is now the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus. The former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1997–2001), Ferris co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 2019, his Voices of Mississippi project received two GRAMMY Awards. Other honors include the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities, the American Library Association’s Dartmouth Medal, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the W.C. Handy Blues Award, and the Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.