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Time of Change (National Guardsmen protecting the Freedom Riders during their ride from Montgomery to Jackson, Mississippi)
Time of Change (National Guardsmen protecting the Freedom Riders during their ride from Montgomery to Jackson, Mississippi)

Time of Change (National Guardsmen protecting the Freedom Riders during their ride from Montgomery to Jackson, Mississippi)

Artist Bruce Davidson (American, born 1933)
Date1961; printed later
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 8 7/8 × 12 15/16 inches (22.54 × 32.86 cm)
Sheet: 10 15/16 × 13 7/8 inches (27.78 × 35.24 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2014.18.5
SignedSigned on sheet verso, center, in pencil: "Bruce Davidson"
Inscribednone
MarkingsOn sheet verso, bottom edge, in pencil: "PF111801" On sheet verso, lower right corner, in pencil: "61-15-12 / 18" On sheet verso, upper right corner, upside down, in pencil: "10/20-15/20+10+16"
On View
Not on view
Gallery Location
  • L10
Collections
DescriptionImage of an African American woman with armed soldiers standing nearby.Gallery Label

Riding on that bus with the Freedom Riders, I became sensitized, and the exposure developed my perception. At that point, I decided to continue to follow the path toward freedom and justice known as the Civil Rights Movement. -Bruce Davidson In 1961, the Freedom Riders, a group of students and civil rights activists, traveled by bus across state lines in the American South to protest segregation. The woman in this photograph stands amid armed members of the National Guard, who were tasked with protecting the protestors on their dangerous journey from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi.

Bruce Davidson initially joined the Freedom Riders to document their trip, but the experience prompted him to become an active participant in the fight for civil rights.

Copyright© Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos
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