BUSING IN CLINTON, TENNESSEE (1956/57) Photo

Np, 1956/1957. Vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) black-and-white double weight photo. Crease in upper right corner, holograph notes in pencil on verso, near fine.

Twelve African American students integrated the previously all-white Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee. They were among the first to participate in desegregation of southern schools following the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. However, on September 1, the White Citizens Council and Klan launched full-scale rioting in Clinton. Cars were overturned, windows smashed, and Black citizens were threatened.

In this photo a single African American student, with his head slightly bowed, is in the forefront, and behind him there is a jeering mob of whites.