MONETA J. SLEET, JR. (1926 - 1996) Mrs. Coretta Scott king and her daughter Bernice at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Atlanta.
Silver print, 1968. 356x279 mm; 14x11 inches. Signed and dated in white ink, lower right.
For 13 years, Ebony magazine photographer Moneta Sleet, Jr. chronicled pivotal moments in the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life. He was there in 1955 when King organized the Montgomery bus boycott, in 1964 when King won the Nobel Peace Prize, and he was there on April 9, 1968, when King was mourned at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. When Coretta Scott King discovered that the press pool covering Dr. King's funeral included no black photographers, she alerted everyone, if Moneta Sleet was not allowed into the church, there would be no photographers at all. This iconic photograph Sleet took of Mrs. King woefully holding daughter Bernice won a Pulitzer Prize, making Sleet the first African-American photographer to win the highest honor for news.
