Ernest Withers

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Ernest Withers (August 7, 1922 – October 15, 2007) was an African American freelance photographer famous for his black and white images of the segregated South in the 1950s and 60s, Negro league baseball, and the Memphis blues scene.

His images captured Americana for nearly 60 years, preserving the good and the bad, in particular, racism. He traveled with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his public life. Withers' coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial brought national attention to the racial violence taking place in, among other places, Mississippi, in the 1950s. Withers appeared in a TV documentary about the murdered 13-year-old entitled The American Experience: The Murder of Emmett Till.^[1]

He died from the complications of a stroke in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. ^[1]

[edit] Publications

Worley, William (1998). Beale Street: Crossroads of America's Music. Addax Pub Group Inc. ISBN 1886110182.
Withers, Ernest (2000). Pictures Tell the Story : Ernest C. Withers Reflections in History. Chrysler Museum of Art. ISBN 0940744686.
Withers, Ernest (2001). The Memphis Blues Again: Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs. Studio. ISBN 0670030317.
Withers, Ernest (2005). Negro League Baseball. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810955857.