“The Rev. Harold Middlebrook, a longtime civil rights leader in Memphis and Knoxville, says he is not bothered that the late Memphis photographer Ernest Withers, noted for his black and white images depicting racial struggles, was disclosed this month as an FBI informant.”
- In a June 7, 1966, photograph, Ernest Withers, right, marches with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., second from left, in the March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson, Miss. At center is Rev. James Lawson. (Fred Griffith / The Commercial Appeal)
Middlebrook: Photographer’s legacy greater than informant work for FBI
Knoxnews
By Georgiana Vines
July 18, 2012
“He said if the FBI was ‘foolish’ enough to pay Withers for photographs taken from at least 1958 until 1972, as the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported earlier this month, ‘glory to him. He did not betray us in any way.'”
- In an April 4, 1969, photograph, Rev. Harold Middlebrook, far right, and photographer Ernest Withers, at center with camera, march on the first anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in Memphis. Jesse Jackson is behind Withers. (Harold Middlebrook/Special to the News Sentinel)
“Middlebrook speculated Withers accepted money for his photos from the FBI to support his family. Withers was not always paid for his photographs, he said.”
“‘I just regret that with the sacrifices he did make that his reputation and good name will now go down in infamy after his death,’ he said.”
Ernest Withers, seen in 2007, ran his business from various shops on Beale Street for decades. (Penny Wolfe/The Commercial Appeal)
“‘He gave his photos to Jet magazine to open and show what really happened in Mississippi,’ Middlebrook said. ‘It was because of pictures that Withers took that he gave information and a view of what was happening. If he discovered a way to make some money (from the FBI) to feed a large family, I am not really, really not upset.”
“Exhibits on photography by Withers and others throughout the country depicted what was going on in the civil rights struggle, Middlebrook said.”
Ernest Withers in his studio February 1990. (Michael McMullan/Commercial Appeal)
“‘It opened up historical data in the study of the civil rights struggle,’ he said.”
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