Willie Causey and Family, Shady Grove, Alabama
Gordon Parks, American, 1912 - 2006
negative 1956; print 2022
Archival pigment print
7/15
Image: 14 1/16 × 14 in. (35.7 × 35.6 cm)
Sheet: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W'18 Fund
2022.27.5
Geography
Place Imaged: Shady Grove, Alabama, United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Numbered, on reverse, lower right, in graphite: 7/15; Stamped, on reverse, below center, in black ink: [in square box] GORDON PARKS / This is a Certified Gordon Parks Photograph / which was printed in __ 2022 [graphite]__ and / authenticated by the Gordon Parks Foundation. / __Peter W. Kunhardt [graphite]__ / Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. / Executive Director, the Gordon Parks Foundation / c[circled] The Gordon Parks Foundation, All rights reserved
Label
Southern sharecropper Willie Causey, his wife, and several of their children gather on the porch of their home. The vibrant green of the land they live on and work, but cannot own, fills the background. Causey helped Gordon Parks as he took photographs for a photo essay on segregation in Alabama for Life magazine. The images documented everyday life, good and bad, telling a story of how African Americans in the Deep South carved out their lives in defiance of Jim Crow policies and laws. As retaliation for Causey’s assistance, local bigots later forced the Causey family from their home and the land they tended.
From the 2025 exhibition Visual Kinship, curated by Alisa Swindell, Associate Curator of Photography, Dr. Kimberly Juanita Brown, Dr. Thy Phu and Dr. Iyko Day
Course History
HIST 10.04/AAAS 20.02, Dartmouth Black Lives, Julia Rabig and Darryl Barthe, Fall 2022
Sociology 1.01, Introduction to Sociology, Kimberly Rogers, Spring 2023
Sociology 1.01, Introduction to Sociology, Kimberly Rogers, Spring 2024
Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Charis Boke, Summer 2024
Studio Art 29.01, Photography I, Julianna Foster, Fall 2024
Studio Art 30.01, Photography I, Julianna Foster, Fall 2024
Anthropology 50.58, Rural Anthropology, Anne Sosin, Winter 2025
Studio Art 29.01, Photography I, Dawit Petros, Spring 2025
Anthropology 50.58, Rural Anthropology, Anne Sosin, Fall 2025
College Course 26.01, What’s in Your Toolbox?, Casey Aldrich and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2025
Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies 65.07, Queer Popular Culture, Eng-Beng Lim, Fall 2025
Spanish 3.01, Spanish III, Paloma Ascensio, Fall 2025
Spanish 3.02, Spanish III, Paloma Ascensio, Fall 2025
Studio Art 29.01, Photography I, Dawit Petros, Fall 2025
Studio Art 29.02, Photography I, Dawit Petros, Fall 2025
Spanish 15.01, Latinx Writing & Composition, Kianny Antigua, Fall 2025
Exhibition History
Visual Kinship, Lathrop, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 30 - November 29, 2025.
Provenance
The Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, New York; sold to present collection, 2022.
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