The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is currently showing “Photographs from the Memphis World, 1949 – 1964”: “The Memphis World, an African American newspaper published from 1931 to 1973, chronicled the complexity and variety of its readers’ lives. The paper covered politics, education, religion, social organizations, the arts, civil rights, business, and sports. In marked contrast with the reporting in white newspapers, the World, like many black newspapers, celebrated the accomplishments and documented the challenges faced by the city’s diverse population.”

The catalogue talks at length about the newspaper and the photography, and this following quote by Circuit Court Judge D’Army Bailey wonderfully describes both: “We had our portraits made to reinforce our own stereotypes, which were positive. We saw ourselves as sharp. Our shoes were shined, our pants were pressed, and we were well presented. We had a lot of self-pride, and pictures provided an affirmation of how clean we were in our own mind. We weren’t sending messages to white people. We were sending messages to each other, sharing evidence of our vision of ourselves to our friends and family and carrying those visions forward to posterity. Everything critical to our growth and sustenance was supplied by blacks within the black community, and for us, photography provided an extension of ourselves at our best.”

The exhibitions shows photographs from the photographic archives of the Memphis World that the museum acquired in late 2006, or, more accurately, “the collection may be all that remains” of those archives. The photographs were then “reunited with their captions” by looking through microfilm archives at the Memphis Public Library, and research was done on the subjects.

The catalogue is on sale at the museum shop, but if you email them, they will hopefully be willing/able to sell it to you online/over the phone.

All images were provided by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The museum’s chief curator, Marina Pacini, alerted me to the show and was kind enough to help me with the images - thank you! Image credits (in the order of appearance, from top to bottom):

Clarence Blakely, American
ALL SET FOR THE PET DOG SHOW, July 9, 1954
Silver gelatin print
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Purchase; funds provided by Sara and Kevin Adams, Deupree Family Foundation, Henry and Lynne Turley, Kaywin Feldman and Jim Lutz and Marina Pacini and David McCarthy

Reese Studio, American
MISS CLARA ANN TWIGG SEEN WITH OUT-OF-TOWN GUESTS,
August 25, 1956
Silver gelatin print
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Purchase; funds provided by Sara and Kevin Adams, Deupree Family Foundation, Henry and Lynne Turley, Kaywin Feldman and Jim Lutz and Marina Pacini and David McCarthy

Reese Studio, American
MRS. J.O. PATTERSON, June 22, 1957
Silver gelatin print
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Purchase; funds provided by Sara and Kevin Adams, Deupree Family Foundation, Henry and Lynne Turley, Kaywin Feldman and Jim Lutz and Marina Pacini and David McCarthy

American
FOOTE HOMES SCHOOL STUDENTS RETURNED, July 2, 1960
Silver gelatin print
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Purchase; funds provided by Sara and Kevin Adams, Deupree Family Foundation, Henry and Lynne Turley, Kaywin Feldman and Jim Lutz and Marina Pacini and David McCarthy

R. Earl Williams, American, 1920-1954
BISHOP J.O. PATTERSON, April 23, 1954
Silver gelatin print
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Purchase; funds provided by Sara and Kevin Adams, Deupree Family Foundation, Henry and Lynne Turley, Kaywin Feldman and Jim Lutz and Marina Pacini and David McCarthy

Irving C. Smith, American
FAMOUS PARISIAN MODEL, March 11, 1956
Silver gelatin print
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Purchase; funds provided by Sara and Kevin Adams, Deupree Family Foundation, Henry and Lynne Turley, Kaywin Feldman and Jim Lutz and Marina Pacini and David McCarthy