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Behold the People R.C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas, 1949–1961 by R.C. Hickman Preface by Barbara Jordan |
R.C. Hickman has assured that a significant part of the American experience will not be ignominiously assigned to the dust bin of history. . . . These photographs are powerful reminders that, for much longer than many believe, black Americans have been an important part of mainstream America. Only the daunting factor of race has kept them invisible. These are images of the ordinary lives of extraordinary people who succeeded in spite of all the obstacles in their path, and who eventually demanded and, in important ways, won their rights. R.C. Hickman's photographs are important documents that capture a significant moment in twentieth-century American life.—Barbara Jordan, from the preface
This remarkable book reproduces over one hundred photographs taken by R.C. Hickman, a professional photographer whose exceptional work provides a fascinating visual record of life in Dallas's black community during the three decades following World War II.
Born in Mineola, Texas, in 1922, Hickman moved with his family to Dallas, where his father worked at the Baker Hotel as a cook. While in the army during World War II, Hickman acquired his knowledge of photography by watching a fellow soldier develop official pictures of military combat. He learned quickly and soon became an official army photographer.
After the war, he returned to Dallas and joined the staff of the Dallas Star Post as a photographer and salesmen. He also worked as a freelance photographer for Jet magazine, several newspapers in the East, and for the NAACP. His work led him to photograph notables such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Louis, and others when they visited Dallas.
Hickman's work as an NAACP photographer captures the visual evidence of racial segregation and the struggle to end it in north Texas—images that Dallas's major news media generally refused to report. He sometimes worked under hostile, even dangerous conditions. "I stood with one foot on the running board of a Buick and one on the ground," Hickman later recalled about one memorable experience. "I had my camera cocked and the engine running." On one occasion Hickman's picture-taking ended abruptly when a carload of angry segregationists chased him from Mansfield to Fort Worth.
Hickman also served as the "unofficial" community photographer for black Dallas throughout the 1950s. He recorded the events large and small that marked the lives of ordinary people as they worked and played and yearned for their own fair share of the American dream.
The 109 striking duotone photographs reproduced in this book are taken from the 3,000 photographic negatives in the R.C. Hickman Photographic Archive at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. This book is designed and printed by the award-winning Wind River Press.
R.C. HICKMAN still lives in Dallas where he owns a small business and is active in community affairs. BARBARA JORDAN, former United States Representative from Texas, teaches at the LBJ School at the University of Texas at Austin.
Number Three in the Barker Texas History Center Series
Behold the People
ISBN 0-87611-136-3 $29.95
LC 94-2947. 9x12. 140 pp. 109 duotone photographs.
Texas History. African American History. Photography.
Publication Date: October 1994.
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