Police Break Up Demonstration: Police carry off two men who were part of a sit-down group at Montgomery, Alabama today. Hundreds had marched on the capitol yesterday and several attempted to continue it today. March 11, 1965

1965

Police Break Up Demonstration: Police carry off two men who were part of a sit-down group at Montgomery, Alabama today. Hundreds had marched on the capitol yesterday and several attempted to continue it today. March 11, 1965, 1965. America. Gelatin silver print, wirephoto; image: 16.7 x 22.4 cm (6 9/16 x 8 13/16 in.); paper: 20.4 x 25.3 cm (8 1/16 x 9 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2021.26 Voting rights protests in Alabama were met with resistance, arrest, and sometimes violence. The dynamism and subtle asymmetry of this unidentified photographer’s composition recall the curving placement of figures in Baroque paintings of battles and abductions. Here, though, the artist had to choose just the right moment in a real-life drama rather than having the luxury of posing models. Alabama became the focal point of struggles against the suppression of Black voters in 1965.