N-YHS Exhibit Honors the 50th Anniversary of the Selma March

Just days ahead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights march in January of 1965, the New-York Historical Society opened last Friday an exhibit of the historic photographs of Stephen Somerstein. As a student newspaper's picture editor, Somerstein joined and documented the protest march with "five cameras slung around my neck," he recalled. He snapped about 400 photographs over the 54-mile journey--of the leaders, the marchers, and of those who either cheered or jeered from the sidewalks.

Freedom Journey from 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein is on view through April 19.

Image: Stephen Somerstein, young civil rights marchers with American flags march in Montgomery, 1965. Courtesy of the photographer, via the New-York Historical Society.