The challenge to confront uncomfortable realities continues through a grouping that foregrounds the contested truth—its evidence be damned—of racialized over-policing and under-protection. Works by Bruce Davidson and Andy Warhol document police repression half a century before the images displayed in conjunction with these works poured into the Documenting Ferguson archive, an initiative of Washington University’s Libraries to preserve and share digital media generated by community members after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Three digital screens cycle thematically selected images—of people, protest signs, and state officials drawn together in the subsequent uprising and the broader call and response of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Image credits:
Bruce Davidson (American, b. 1933), Arrest of a demonstrator in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963, printed later. Gelatin silver print, 8 × 11 15/16″. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, Gift of Jan and Ronald Greenberg, 2012.
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Birmingham Race Riot, from the portfolio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters), 1964. Screen print, 219/500, 20 × 24″. Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, University acquisition, 1970.
Olajuwon Ali, Day of Mike Brown Killing, August 9, 2014. Documenting Ferguson digital repository, Washington University in St. Louis. http://documentingferguson.wustl.edu/omeka/items/show/10165
Sarah Hermes Griesbach, The banner that I was handcuffed for holding, September 21, 2014,. Documenting Ferguson digital repository, Washington University in St. Louis. http://documentingferguson.wustl.edu/omeka/items/show/8558
Olajuwon Ali, Protest Photo, October 16, 2014. Documenting Ferguson digital repository, Washington University in St. Louis. http://documentingferguson.wustl.edu/omeka/items/show/10164