Withers endured many trials and hardships as he recorded the movement with images that really did tell the story,” Lauterbach said. “But however one sees him – as either a good man or a shadowy figure – Mr. “It could very well be that Withers didn’t tell the FBI anything they didn’t already know,” said Lauterbach. While the photojournalist was providing Hoover and the FBI information on everything he could, there is no proof that anyone was actually hurt by his reports, one member of the audience suggested. While some believe that Withers was guilty of counter-spying and working against leaders of the civil rights movement, others felt the term “informant” simply did not apply. It never occurred to anyone, I’m sure, that the sticks attached to the signs were weapons of violence. “I agree that we could have all been killed or seriously hurt. ![]() After the march got started, the next thing we knew, windows were being broken, and the police moved in. “And just before the march started, a pickup truck pulled up, loaded with signs. “We were lining up for the march,” said Adkins. Bill Adkins, pastor of Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith, recalled the day of the march. My family might have been put in danger.” I’m wondering now if I might have been a target of the FBI. The rioting started, and the police came down in force. “That is, perhaps, the most damnable revelation – that those sticks were made as weapons of violence. Gray Jr., pastor emeritus of New Sardis Baptist Church. “As the rioting began, the police swooped down on marchers with excessive force.”Ī spirited exchange began between those who saw Withers’ actions as betrayal and others who leaned more sympathetically to characterize his actions. “Withers admitted buying the lumber for the sticks and the saw for the lumber,” said Lauterbach. He wanted to create as much conflict between the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference]) and the black power group. Edgar Hoover needed that violence to be pinned on the Invaders. “The Black Invaders took the blame for the violence, but they were actually there to protect Dr. King as a nonviolent leader and to embarrass him,” said Lauterbach. When the rioting broke out, it served the FBI’s purpose of discrediting Dr. “His motto was, ‘Pictures tell the story.’ The sticks that held the signs were used as weapons of violence in that first march. ![]() The famous photo that galvanized the striking workers and turned myriad eyes on Memphis showed Withers’ gift for not only framing the moment, but staging a scene. On Monday night, Lauterbach talked at length about the now iconic “I Am A Man” sign and slogan that came to embody the 1968 sanitation workers strike in Memphis and a struggle for racial equality. ![]() ![]() Those documents formed the basis for “A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement,” a book by ex-newspaper investigative reporter Marc Perrusquia. Withers was doing what he needed to do to feed his family.”ĭocuments released after his death chronicled his secret relationship with the FBI. “You have to remember that he had a wife and eight children to feed. “Ernest Withers was a man with an extreme hustle bone,” said the author. It was a combination of several factors, he contends. But, says Lauterbach, the reasons why evolved just as the man did. There is no doubt whether Withers funneled information to the FBI and was paid. Lauterbach’s book attempts a balanced and unbiased perspective on what Withers’ legacy will be: a traitorous informant who spied for the FBI or a blackmail victim forced to do as he was told. Preston Lauterbach’s new book, “Bluff City: The Secret Life of Ernest Withers” King and movement figures national and local. The late and renowned civil rights-era photographer had pretty much unfettered access to Dr. 15), allegations of counterintelligence versus arguments of unwilling victim of the FBI were passionately voiced during a discussion of Preston Lauterbach’s new book, “Bluff City: The Secret Life of Ernest Withers.”Ī capacity crowd filled the book-signing space at Novel Memphis for the event that yielded riveting exchanges regarding the life and actions of Withers. Martin Luther King Jr.’s actual birthday (Jan.
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