Wilfred Ussery, National Chairman of CORE, told a press conference that CORE was unable to adopt a new constitution during its convention in Columbus, Ohio. With him are Floyd McKissick, left, National Director, and Roy Innis, Associate National Director.

Floyd McKissick (March 9, 1922 – April 28, 1991) was an American lawyer and Civil Rights activist. He became the first black student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Law School. In 1966, he became leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), taking over from James L. Farmer, Jr. A supporter of Black Power, McKissick turned CORE into a more radical movement. In 1968, he left CORE to found Soul City in Warren County, North Carolina. He endorsed Richard Nixon for president that year; under President Nixon, the federal government supported Soul City. McKissick became a state district court judge in 1990. Politician and attorney Floyd McKissick, Jr. is his son.

Roy Emile Alfredo Innis (1934- 2017) was an American activist and politician. He was National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) from 1968 until his death in 2017. Initially, Innis headed the organization with a strong campaign of Black Nationalism. According to James Peck, white CORE activists were removed from CORE in 1965, as part of a plan to purge whites from the movement, then under the control of Innis. Innis co-drafted the Community Self-Determination Act of 1968 and garnered bipartisan sponsorship of this bill by one-third of the U.S. Senate and over 50 congressmen. This was the first time in U.S. history that CORE or any Civil Rights organization drafted a bill and introduced it into the United States Congress. Under Innis' leadership, CORE supported the candidacy of Richard Nixon for president in 1972. This was the beginning of a sharp rightward turn in the organization. One of Innis' sons, Niger Roy Innis, serves as National Spokesman of the Congress of Racial Equality.

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: date stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Civil Rights Movements
• Columbus
• Conferences
• Congress of Racial Equality
• Injustice
• Male Portraits
• Press Conferences
• Racial Discrimination
• Roy Innis
• Wilfred Ussery

• Image Dimensions: 5 15/16 x 8 9/16 in. (15.08 x 21.75 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin
• Sheet Dimensions: 7 1/16 x 9 in. (17.94 x 22.86 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin