Telfair Museum of Art Presents Freedom's March: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in Savannah by Frederick C. Baldwin

Extensive series of related educational programs and events free to the public

Freedom's March - Photo by Frederick C. Baldwin This fall, the Telfair will present Freedom's March: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in Savannah by Frederick C. Baldwin, on view at the Jepson Center for the Arts from September 24, 2008- January 11, 2009. Organized by the Telfair Museum of Art, Freedom's March will feature approximately fifty blackand white photographs on long-term loan to the museum, courtesy of the artist. The public is invited to view the exhibition free of charge during the first week of its showing.

"On the eve of perhaps the most decisive and racially significant presidential election in our nation's history, we are reminded of the volatile struggle for freedom and equality that set the stage for this momentous event," said the Telfair's director, Steven High. "Nearly a half century after the civil rights movement of 1963-64, Freedom's March revisits a pivotal period in America's past, reprising the Telfair's historically-relevant 1983 show We ain't what we used to be: Photographs by Frederick C. Baldwin."

Baldwin's imagery, which chronicled events in Savannah during this critical time, is especially notable in that it documented the city's largely non-violent desegregation in 1963, before it was mandated on a federal level. Serving as a national role model for the era, Savannah became a training ground for many of the future leaders of the movement.

Frederick Baldwin was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, where his father served as a United States diplomat. After receiving his B.A. from Columbia College in New York, Baldwin launched a career as a freelance photojournalist. He moved to Europe and became involved in a series of groundbreaking Arctic expeditions and was the first to film polar bears from underwater. He has photographed for LIFE, National Geographic, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek and the New York Times among others.

In 1963, Baldwin returned to Savannah, where he had lived intermittently as a youth and where his mother still resided. He soon became engaged in the burgeoning local civil rights movement, volunteering his services as a photographer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Baldwin depicted the local Ballot Bus; the exhaustive efforts to convince potential voters to register and the resulting long lines of African Americans at the courthouse; protest marches and prayer meetings; and finally, the transcendent moment of Dr. Martin Luther King's visit to Savannah. Today, Baldwin's photographs serve as potent reminders of the struggle for equality in Savannah, and as evidence of the powerful role of photography in documenting and validating that struggle.

This compelling and timely exhibition will be accompanied by an informative illustrated catalogue containing photographs from the period, essays by notable contributors including Savannah mayor Otis Johnson, as well as numerous interviews and commentary by area residents who participated in this defining moment in our local and national history.

Also accompanying the exhibition is an extensive series of related programs and exciting educational events organized by the museum and community partner institutions including the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Trinity Methodist Church, Savannah State University, the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, the Georgia Historical Society, and many more. All programs are free of charge unless otherwise indicated. Please visit our website at www.telfair.org for complete program details, partner information, and an online podcast containing narrations of oral histories from community members who were active in the local civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Funding for this exhibition has been provided through a Museum and Community Connections grant from MetLife Foundation and by the City of Savannah.

Located in the heart of Savannah's historic district, the Telfair Museum of Art is the oldest public art museum in the South. It is comprised of two National Historic Landmark Buildings-the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Owens- Thomas House-and the contemporary Jepson Center for the Arts.