Jun 27, 2024 - Sale 2675

Sale 2675 - Lot 76

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) [William Hudson, photographer.] Iconic photograph of police dogs attacking a Birmingham protester. Photograph, 11 x 8 inches, captioned in negative by Associated Press, "provided for use . . . end of the decade editions," with newspaper inscriptions and date stamp on verso; minor wear. Birmingham, AL, 3 May 1963 (December 1969 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.