“Whites and Colors”. Elliott Erwitt. 1950

“People hate each other because they are afraid of each other; afraid because they don’t know anything about each other; they don’t know because they don’t communicate, but they can’t communicate because they are separated”
This is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., the most famous African-American Baptist preacher and leader of the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Martin Luther King was the first active figure in the black movement in the United States, the very first fighter for the civil rights of blacks. He fought discrimination, racism, segregation. He had to pay for his ideals and https://www.artlook.us/service/elopement-videography/ with his life: in Memphis, when King was 39 years old, he was mortally wounded by a sniper.
The photo “Whites and Coloreds” shows how severe segregation was in the United States (forced separation of a certain group of people: blacks from whites, whites from blacks). How stupid! Even people of different skin colors should drink from different water fountains.
But this is not the most humiliating thing that African Americans had to endure. For example, in public transport, the first four rows were for whites. A special sign hung: “Only for whites”, and if suddenly there was not enough space for them, blacks were obliged to give up their place.
In public places, schools, the situation was no better.
Blatant injustice in everything!
This is exactly what Elliot Erwitt wanted to tell with his photograph “White and Color”, whose black-and-white photographs, made in a satirical manner, are incredibly popular all over the world.