Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 106

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) [William Hudson, photographer.] Iconic photograph of police dogs attacking a Birmingham protester. Photograph, 7¼ x 10 inches, captioned in negative; inked date stamp and pencil caption on verso; minor wear, small abrasion in upper right corner. Birmingham, AL, [3 May] 1963 (7 August 1963 print)

Additional Details

In April and May 1963, Martin Luther King led a major campaign to draw attention to Birmingham, Alabama, then known as the most segregated city in America. During this campaign, King was arrested and wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. Two weeks after his release, local students filled the downtown streets for another protest, which Sheriff Bull Connor dispersed with attack dogs and high-powered water cannons. Associated Press photographer Bill Hudson took this shot (the most famous image of his long career) of a German Shepherd lunging at high school student Walter Gadsden, which appeared in newspapers across the country the following day.