On The Way Out: Civil Rights leader Reverend Ralph Abernathy shakes hands with a police officer after serving a 20-day sentence at the District of Columbia jail for attempting to lead an unlawful assembly on the Capitol grounds. Abernathy is the leader of the Poor People's Campaign, Washington DC.

Ralph Abernathy (1926-1990) was a Baptist minister who, with Martin Luther King, Jr., organized the historic Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Abernathy co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was a major Civil Rights figure, serving as close adviser to King and later assuming SCLC Presidency.

Associated Press ID #080502012018

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

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:

• Arrest
• Civil Rights Movements
• Demonstrations
• District of Columbia Jail
• Injustice
• Police
• Poor People's Campaign
• Poor People's Campaign
• Racial Discrimination
• Reverend Ralph Abernathy
• Reverend Ralph Abernathy
• United States Capitol
• Unlawful assembly

• Image Dimensions: 7 x 9 11/16 in. (17.78 x 24.61 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 8 x 9 7/8 in. (20.32 x 25.08 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen