Wed 10/26-4/2/23
Wed 10/26 @ 7PM
Back in 2016, the Maltz Museum hosted an exhibit called This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement. It featured the work of nine photographers who captured the fight for African-American voting rights in the south in the 1960s, offering an inspiring message of activism and persistence in the face of violent resistance.
That exhibit has been touring the country and now returns to the Maltz Museum just in time for another election in an era when voting rights are under increasing threat. We’re now seeing the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning parts of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, along with mixed decisions on redistricting designed to mute the voices of Black voters, and increased voter restrictions imposed by Republican politicians across the country.
More than 150 black & white photos will be on view, divided into five sections:Black Life in the Deep South, Organizing for Freedom, State and Local Terror, Marching Against Fear, and Black Power. The museum expanded the exhibit with video footage, life-size installations, and material about voter suppression today (there’s plenty of that!)
“We added a new section for this run,” says he museum’s managing director David Schafer. “We are in a voting year, and this exhibition is about Americans participating in democracy. That’s why we chose to add a new section on voter suppression, then and now. What happened 50 years ago is highly relevant to what is happening today.”
To kick off the exhibit, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr., longtime pastor of Cleveland’s Oliver Institutional Baptist Church, and his son, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, will host an event launch called Otis’ Dream, a screening of the film of that name about Otis Moss Sr. and his attempt to vote in Georgia in 1946 when it could have been life-threatening to do so. Moss Jr was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Following the film, Cleveland newsman Leon Bibb will moderate a discussion with his son and grandson about ways in which they’ve tried to carry on his legacy.
From October 26-30, visitors can see the show for just $5 general admission.