The Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies announces an exhibit of Elaine Tomlin’s groundbreaking work for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as part of Sarahfest. During her career as the only Black woman staff photographer for the SCLC, she captured images of Civil Rights Leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. and helped to influence the outcome of the Civil Rights Movement by documenting countless demonstrations and marches, including the Selma to Montgomery March, during her thirty-year career. The reception on September 27th at 6 PM at the Powerhouse will featureTomlin's family and friends sharing insights into this remarkable unsung visual historian and her vital contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.

Some of the images in the exhibit and presented at the reception will be seen publicly for the first time or the first time in many years as her home was broken into in 1987 and most of her life’s work was stolen. Thankfully, Tomlin has the foresight to store over 3,000 negatives for safekeeping. 

The exhibition is being curated and contextualized by UM journalism professor and Isom faculty-in-residence Alysia Burton Steele as part of her research for her doctoral dissertation.