1966 memphis african american photographer Ernest Withers Pepsi Photo TENNESSEE

Description

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Vintage original 1966 (date from Calendar on the wall behind the subjects) showing early Black Pepsi Cola executive (out of Atlanta but I think he was a native of Birmingham Alabama)
George Brown handing over a Pepsi prize or scholarship check (for 0 so likely a prize) to a beautiful, smiling young African American woman. A handsome young black guy looks on as does an older black man perhaps the young woman's father or school principal.
Photo is 8x10 inches.
Photograph is stamped on the verso by noted, legendary African American photographer Ernest C. Withers whose photo studio was at 327 Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.
ABOUT ERNEST WITHERS:
Ernest C. Withers (August 7, 1922 – October 15, 2007) was an African-American photojournalist. He documented over 60 years of African-American history in the segregated South, with iconic images of the Montgomery bus boycott, Emmett Till, Memphis sanitation strike, . . . "black" . . . league baseball, and musicians including those related to Memphis blues and Memphis soul. In 2010, it was revealed that Withers was recruited and paid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO program to inform on the US Civil rights movement for nearly two decades, beginning shortly after his first photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. - [BUT READ BELOW].
Ernest Withers' work has been archived by the Library of Congress and has been slated for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, D.C.
Ernest C. Withers was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Arthur Withers and Pearl Withers of Marshall County, Mississippi; he had a step-mother known as Mrs. Minnie Withers.
He took his first photograph in high school after his sister gave him a camera she received from a classmate. He met his wife Dorothy Curry of Brownsville, Tennessee (they remained married for 66 years), at Manassas High School in Memphis, Tennessee.
During World War II, he received training at the Army School of Photography. After the war, Withers served as one of Memphis' first African-American police officers.
Withers and his wife Dorothy had eight children together. His business was called Withers Photography Studio.
Withers enjoyed traveling, visiting family members and entertaining guests at his home, including Brock Peters, Jim Kelly, Eartha Kitt, Alex Haley, Ivan van Sertima, Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture), and many others from the entertainment world and black consciousness movement. He attended Gospel Temple Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He was also an all-round (high-school to professional) sports enthusiast.
Withers was active for approximately 60 years, with his most noted work being the images captured of the Civil Rights Movement.
He traveled with Martin Luther King Jr. during his public life. Withers' coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial brought national attention to the racial violence taking place during the 1950s in Mississippi, among other places. Withers appeared in a TV documentary about the murdered 14-year-old entitled The American Experience: The Murder of Emmett Till.
Withers served as official photographer for Stax Records for 20 years.
In 2007 Withers died from the complications of a stroke in his hometown of Memphis.
FBI Document Release
In 2013, the FBI released documents relating to Ernest Withers in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The documents begin in 1946 with the FBI investigating Withers as a possible communist, as he was a member of the United . . . "BLACK" . . . Allied Veterans of America (UNAVA) after serving in World War II, and the group was thought to have communist ties.
A 1968 document contains the first reference to an informant, ME 338-R(Ghetto), widely believed to be a reference to Withers and inferred by the FBI's responses to FOIA court actions. ME 338-R(Ghetto) provided a variety of general information, including pictures and brief descriptions of meetings and events. There is limited specific information, commonly relating to a militant group named the Invaders. ME 338-R(Ghetto) recorded the violence and connections of the Invaders including a leaflet on the manufacturing of firebombs, and links to prostitution.
ME 338-R(Ghetto) was an informant for two years, 1968 through the final report in 1970, with 19 reports that include some reference to the informant. A total of 10 pictures were provided by the informant in the released documents.
Ernest Withers died years before the FOIA request was made, thus no direct response was possible. However, at the 2000 Withers exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, Withers said he had FBI agents regularly looking over his shoulder and questioning him. "I never tried to learn any high powered secrets," Withers said. "It would have just been trouble.…[The FBI] was pampering me to catch whatever leaks I dropped, so I stayed out of meetings where decisions were being made."
Civil rights leader Andrew Young commented after the release of the FBI file: "The movement was transparent and didn't have anything to hide anyway."
The Ernest Withers Museum and Collection opened in Memphis, Tennessee, on Beale Street in May 2011. The Museum features images of Ernest Withers spanning the eras of his work, while the complete archive is held in an offsite location. The Withers Museum and Collection is approximately 7,000 square feet.
A chance to own an original, "signed" (with his rubber stamp -
NOT AUTOGRAPHED
) photo by this great Tennessee Black photographer.
only the slightest wear to this original 1966 photo; fine condition
__________________________________________________________
(the fine print ... [sigh] ... but please read :-)
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