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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With James Allen
Aired May 11, 2002 - 09:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Our live coverage continues here at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photographs is the exhibit that we're talking about.
From 19 -- from 1882 to 1968, 5,000 lynchings were recorded. Countless others went not recorded. Well, Billie Holiday drew attention to them in her song "Strange Fruit."
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BILLIE HOLIDAY (singing): Southern trees bear a strange fruit...
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PHILLIPS (voice-over): They are images that will haunt you, teach you, and remind you about a time where some of America's worst crimes against humanity took place.
MARY LOMAX: What changed my mind was the Jewish Holocaust, where people said, Oh, it's not true, they -- it's propaganda. I thought the same thing when I saw this...
PHILLIPS: Leon and Mary Lomax can relate to these brutal photos and postcards of lynching victims. They grew up around it. Their parents survived it.
LEON LOMAX: It reminds me of why my parents told me certain things about how to conduct my life. I didn't know it then as a boy, but I can understand now what they were attempting to tell me, without saying what the consequences could be.
MARY LOMAX: It's a part of our history, and it should be seen. And it's an emotional experience when you see it, you know, to see what happened to so many people, and a lesson to be learned from it.
PHILLIPS: Without Sanctuary will call you to witness a legacy of human cruelty and prejudice. It will move you, and it will anger you, no matter what your color, no matter what your background.
Shaken and disturbed, England's Prince Andrew toured this exhibit with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s family. He couldn't finish the tour. Neither could a number of other visitors. DAVID LARDNER: I thought it was very disturbing. It was -- some of it was hard to look at. Some of the stories were very hard to read. But once again, it's necessary to educate yourself on the subject, just once again to keep the things from this -- like this from ever happening again.
PHILLIPS: There was controversy about bringing these photos to Atlanta. The arts community battled over that decision for a year. Some people thought these pictures were too graphic, others worried it would open up old wounds by bringing people face to face with the dark side of the South.
FRANK CATROPPA, MARTIN LUTHER KING NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK: It is the story of this country, and it must be told. To really understand the struggle for civil rights in the United States, you have to understand issues like lynching, segregation, slavery.
PHILLIPS: After the Civil War, this illegal mob violence became a party. Historians say it became a weapon of social control, wielded against America's immigrant populations. But as you can see by these horrific photographs, it became a way to terrorize black people.
CATROPPA: When you go through the exhibition, it's really difficult not to examine yourself and to see, you know, How do I treat other people?
PHILLIPS: When you look at these pictures, you will see the dignity of men like Frank Embry, the pride of George Hughes. You will come to terms with a painful past, history and faces meant to provoke and to inspire -- inspire justice and reconciliation.
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HOLIDAY (SINGING): Black bodies swinging in the sun...
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CATROPPA: It can't help but get you thinking about your own attitudes toward your fellow man.
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HOLIDAY (singing): Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree...
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PHILLIPS: Jim Allen, owner of these photographs, joining us once again, been with us all morning.
Let's talk more about Frank Embry from Missouri as we look at this picture.
JIM ALLEN, OWNER, EXHIBIT PHOTOS: This is the most important picture in the collection. Frank Embry stands after being whipped by five white men who relayed the whip until they were exhausted, 1899. It's the photograph that's missing in slavery that we can't find. He speaks to us. He stares directly into the camera lens and directly forever into his murderers' souls.
He is the black Adam in the white Bible.
PHILLIPS: These are the people that we're remembering today as our coverage continues. Be back after a break.
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