Civil Rights Childhood: Picturing Liberation in African American Photobooks

Katherine Capshaw, Author

The unexpected and evocative role of children’s photographic books in cultural transformation and social change.Civil Rights Childhood explores the function of children’s photographic books and the image of the black child in social justice campaigns for school integration and the civil rights movement. Drawing on works ranging from documentary photography and popular historical narratives to coffee-table and art books, Capshaw shows how the photobook—and the aspirations of childhood itself—encourage cultural transformation.

Civil Rights Childhood: Picturing Liberation in African American Photobooks book cover