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2022, Whose America?
At the age of sixteen Gordon Parks left his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas because of the racial discrimination he experienced. Later, in 1950, Parks traveled throughout the Midwest to interview and photograph his former classmates to see how segregated life had affected them, creating a series titled Back to Fort Scott.
Parks’ photograph Sunday Morning depicts a married couple, Pauline Terry and Bert Collins, holding a worn-out Bible, on their way to church. Pauline was Parks’ high school classmate from Fort Scott who had moved to Detroit, Michigan. In the following decade, although segregation was not technically legal in Michigan, it was present in the form of “White Flight,” the exodus of whites from the city to avoid intermingling with the growing black population.
Text by Amanda Munoz, Washburn studentLabel
2024 post:
Throughout 2024, we're looking back at the 100 year history of art at the Mulvane. This work by celebrated American photojournalist Gordon Parks is part of the series "Back to Fort Scott." For these works, Parks tracked down childhood friends from his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas to see how segregated life had affected them. "Sunday Morning" depicts Pauline Terry (Parks' high school classmate) and her husband Bert Collins on their way to church.