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On September 3, 1958, Charles Moore, a young photographer for the Montgomery Advertiser,
witnessed an argument between the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and two policeman on the steps of the City Recorders' Court. Moore's good fortune that day was in stark contrast with King's. Moore was the only member of the media to witness King's subsequent arrest, and his picture of the local minister being manhandled during the police booking became one of the most significant photographs of the civil rights movement.' King was taken to the back of the jail where he was frisked, roughed-up, and tossed into a cell.2
When Life picked up the picture from the Associated Press wire on September 15, it would be the first of Moore's celebrated civil rights photos to be published in the magazine. By 1965, the photographer would grow weary of years of violence--of hatred, street battles and the searing taste of tear gas-having witnessed many of the most significant events of the era. After documenting the fighting surrounding James Meredith's bloody admission to the University of Mississippi, the dogs being turned on protesters in Birmingham, and the savagery of the civil rights march at Selma, Moore booked an around-the-world ticket on Pan Am in 1965 and would not return home for eight months.3
The impact of Charles Moore's civil rights photography endures more than forty years after Life first published his dramatic work. His photographs are among the most significant of the period and his coverage of the 1963 Birmingham riots would do far more than help publicize King's efforts; they would also lead to national outrage culminating in President Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By that time, Moore's Life photos were given credit for helping to influence the legislation's passage.4
Through use of first-person anecdotal interviews, an overview of Life letters-to-the-editor, and earlier reviews of Moore's work, this article demonstrates the photographer's contribution to facilitating the social change brought about by the American civil rights movement. It recounts how Moore gained exclusive access to cover events that were not only historically significant but also harrowing to cover. It also documents the personal recollections of journalists and civil rights movement participants who witnessed Moore's coverage. Additionally, the review of Life...