Birmingham Race Riot

Andy Warhol

1964

screenprint

20" x 24"

During the first weekend of May in 1863, non-violent protestors were marching for civil rights in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Things took a turn when law enforcement brought in dogs and fire hoses and proceeded to brutally attack the peaceful demonstrators—most of them Black, some of them children. LIFE magazine photographers Charles Moore captured the horrific events and they were printed in the May 17th issue.

Here in the screenprint Birmingham Race Riot, Warhol reproduces one of Moore’s photographs, et crops the image and eliminates any mid-tones. Warhol leaves us with a black and white image that heightens the macabre scene while acknowledging both the news source format and the extreme racial divide.

Credit

Gift of the Betty Parsons Foundation