Danny Lyon

a group of 28 photographs, each signed, numbered, and with the photographer's 'Bleak Beauty' stamp, dated in pencil, on the reverse, cornered onto a mount, with date, sequential numbering, and caption in pencil on the reverse, 1962-64, printed in 1996 (28)

Gift of the photographer to the Poughkeepsie Day School, 1996

These prints, on double-weight paper with a surface sheen and cornered into white board mounts with clear plastic corners, are in generally excellent condition. There are occasional tiny deposits, likely original retouching, on some of the images (most noticeable on numbers 10, 19, 20, 22, 25).
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In the summer of 1962, Danny Lyon hitchhiked south to document the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.  As the first staff photographer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lyon captured the sit-ins, protests, marches, and energy of the movement.  Lyon immersed himself in the organization, documented its work, and the resulting photographs made the tumult publically visible.  As Julian Bond, a founding member of SNCC, states, ‘[t]hese pictures are SNCC. They are history and art, and like the best art, they were/are functional too’ (quoted in Danny Lyon: Photo Film, p. 10).

The plates are as follows:

1.  Demonstrators at the "all white" swimming pool, Cairo, Illinois, 1962

2.  Demonstrators at the "all white" swimming pool, Cairo, Illinois, 1962

3.  SNCC field secretary, later SNCC chairman, now congressman, John Lewis, and others pray during a demonstration, Cairo, Illinois, 1962

4.  Drinking fountains in the Dougherty County Courthouse, Albany, Georgia, 1962

5.  Eddie Brown, former gang leader and movement activist is arrested, Albany, Georgia, 1962

6.  Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy are escorted from the court house to the jail house, Albany, Georgia, 1962

7.  Albany, Georgia, 1962

8.  A year after the freedom rides, segrgation signs are still outside the bus terminal, Jackson, Mississippi, 1962

9.  A year after the freedom rides, segregation signs still stand outside of the bus terminal, Nashville, Tennessee, 1962

10. Waiting for James Meredith, the first African American to register at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, 1962

11.  Arrested for demonstrating in Americus, teenage girls are kept in a stockade in the countryside, Leesburg, Georgia, 1963

12.  The march on Washington, D. C., August 28, 1963

13.  Highway patrolmen outside the site of the bombed 16th Street Baptist Church, where four young girls were murdered, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963

14.  Crowds wait along the funeral route of the girls murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963

15.  SNCC workers outside the funeral:  Emma Bell, Dorie Ladner, Dona Richards, Sam Shirah and Doris Derby, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963

16.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., just before he spoke at the funeral of the four murdered girls, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963

17.  The entrance to City Cafe, Selma, Alabama, 1963

18.  Sheriff Jim Clark arrests two young men demonstrating for voter registration on the steps of the federal building, Selma, Alabama, 1963

19.  A home in the Mississippi delta, 1963

20.  The local police force pose for a photograph as ministers from the National Council of Churches march to the local church, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1963

21. SNCC field secretary Charles Sherrod and Randy Battle visit a supporter in the countryside.  Sherrod is currently a member of the Albany City Council, Southwest Georgia, 1963

22.  Arrests during mass demonstrations downtown, Atlanta, Georgia, Winter 1963-64

23.  An anonymous woman who has come upon a mob abusing demonatrators, with kicks, blows and burning cigarettes.  She holds the mob at bay and protects the demonstrators, Atlanta, Georgia, Winter 1963-64

24.  High school student Taylor Washington is arrested at Lebs Delicatessen, his eighth arrest, Atlanta, Georgia, Winter 1963-64

25.  A Toddle House has the distinction of being occupied during a sit-in by some of Americas most effective organizers.  In the room are Taylor Washington, John Lewis behind Judy Richardson, George Green and Chico Neblett, Atlanta, Georgia, Winter 1963-64

26.  Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper froma family of twenty, evicted for trying to register, beaten in the Winona jaoil, SNCC field secretary from Ruleville, and future Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party candidate for congress.  Miss Hamer is now recornized as one of the truly extraordinary women of American history, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

27.  Clifford Vauhs, a SNCC photographer, is arrested, Cambridge, Maryland, 1964

28.  Gwen Gillou, a SNCC member from Alabama, conducts a literacy class during Freedom Summer, Rulevile, Mississippi, 1964