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Private collection of Marvin Rich.

All About CORE

A twelve page pamphlet (circa 1963), written by Dan Chasen, with remarkable photographs by Bob Adelman, including the iconic image on the cover of a civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, at which fire hoses were turned on protestors. See the full photograph here.

The pamphlet describes how, for the first time:

the words of "We Shall Overcome" began to acquire reality for opponents of segregation in the Deep South. The Freedom Rides eventually desegregated 120 interstate bus terminals. But more important, they showed that non-violent action worked in the fight against racial discrimination even in the deepest part of the South. The Rides, like the sit-ins before them, demonstrated that anyone who opposed segregation--student, housewife or laborer--could drive a nail into the coffin of Jim Crow.

The photo vividly evokes the violence that civil rights activists encountered. In Marvin Rich's words, "It shows the things we did, the prices we paid."