On March 13, 1965, Milwaukee civil rights activists marched through the city in protest of the police actions that occurred on “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama. 2,500 demonstrators marched from the Congress of Racial Equality’s headquarters to the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
The photographs, which come from the papers of Milwaukee civil rights activists Jay and Hinda Larkey, are rather blurry, which is quite a contrast when compared to the Milwaukee Polonia photographs. The quality of these photos serve as a reminder that when people create records, they generally are not thinking about the possibility that the pictures they take or letters they write might one day be preserved in an archive. That quality is one of the attributes that makes archival records so important; they were created as a byproduct of everyday life, rather than with any particular intention.
These photographs can be found in our March on Milwaukee Collection:
03-March to protest recent police action in Selma, Alabama, March 13, 1965
06-March to protest recent police action in Selma, Alabama, March 13, 1965
11-March to protest recent police action in Selma, Alabama, March 13, 1965
All through February, we’ll be posting and reblogging Black History Month posts as much as possible. Representation matters. Black history matters. Acknowledgment is power.
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