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I Am a Man

1968, printed 1994
(American, 1922–2007)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 21.6 x 37.7 cm (8 1/2 x 14 13/16 in.); Paper: 40.3 x 50.3 cm (15 7/8 x 19 13/16 in.)
L. E. Holden Fund 2023.53
Location: not on view
Copyright
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Did You Know?

Black photojournalist Ernest C. Withers is celebrated for his documentation of six decades of the fight for racial justice in the American South.

Description

In 1787 English potter Josiah Wedgewood created an anti-slavery medallion which bore the phrase “Am I not a man and a brother?” In March 1968, striking Black sanitation workers in Memphis inverted that phrase, declaring instead of asking: “I am a Man.” Their version became a modern rallying cry for equal treatment.
I Am a Man

I Am a Man

1968, printed 1994

Ernest C. Withers

(American, 1922–2007)
America

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