"Demonstrators Seek Protection from the Assault by Firemen in Birmingham, Alabama"
Charles Moore, American, 1931 - 2010
negative 1963; print date unknown
Gelatin silver print
Image: 9 3/16 × 13 1/8 in. (23.3 × 33.4 cm)
Sheet: 11 × 13 15/16 in. (27.9 × 35.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W '18 Fund
2015.15.2
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, on reverse, lower right, in graphite: © Charles Moore; inscribed, upper right, in graphite: ST1185
Label
Pressed against a building, three Black teenagers try to shield themselves from the pressure of firehoses said to be able to “peel bark off a tree or separate bricks from mortar.” The young people were part of the peaceful demonstrations in May 1963 known as the Children’s Crusade. The first day of the protest saw the arrests of six hundred children, some as young as eight years old; when a thousand more turned up to protest the next day, they were met by weaponized police, attack dogs, and firehoses. Images of the violent response to the protest led President John F. Kennedy to express his support for federal civil rights legislation.
From the 2026 exhibition Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, curated by Amelia Kahl (Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programming) and Alisa Swindell (Associate Curator of Photography)
Course History
ANTH 73.01, Main Currents in Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Winter 2022
SOCY 2.01, Social Problems, Kristin Smith, Winter 2022
HIST 10.04/AAAS 20.02, Dartmouth Black Lives, Julia Rabig and Darryl Barthe, Fall 2022
Sociology 2.01, Social Problems, Kristin Smith, Winter 2023
History 96.38, 20th Century US Social Movements, Julia Rabig, Fall 2023
Anthropology 73.01, Main Currents in Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Spring 2024
Psychological & Brain Sciences 54.04, Forensic Psychology, Anne Corbin, Summer 2024
Writing 5.20, Foundations at Dartmouth, Doug Moody, Fall 2024
Studio Art 17.09, Photographer as Activist, Anthony Romero, Winter 2025
Writing 5.23, Foundations of Dartmouth: Samson Occom, Edward Mitchell, and the History and Cultures of Native American, African American, and “Minority” Students at Dartmouth College, Doug Moody, Winter 2025
Geography 21.01/International Studies 18.01, Global Health and Society, Anne Sosin, Spring 2025
Exhibition History
Civil Rights, Photographs of the Movement for Equality in America, 1956-1968, Lee Gallery, Winchester, Massachusetts, Fall 2014.
Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 20, 2025 - July 11, 2026.
Provenance
Lee Gallery, Winchester, Massachusetts; sold to present collection, 2015.
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