Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, Michigan, 1950.

A Lost Story of Segregated America

From LIFE’s First Black Photographer

In 1950, Gordon Parks traveled to his hometown in Kansas to

capture the impact of school segregation in America. The photo

essay never ran, but his images and the story behind them have

resurfaced after 65 years in obscurity

St. Louis, 1950.

Columbus, Ohio, 1950.

Untitled, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Kansas City, Missouri, 1950.

Mrs. Jefferson, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Uncle James Parks, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Untitled, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Tenement Dwellers, Chicago, 1950.

Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Untitled, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Chicago, Illinois, 1950.

Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Railway station entrance, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1950.

Gordon Parks (American, 1912-

2006)

The photos capture a particularly disturbing moment

in American history, captured via the lives of an

African American family, the Thorntons, living under

Jim Crow segregation in 1950s Alabama.

Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006), Black classroom.