February is Black History Month, the time of year to celebrate the influence Black figures have had not just on the country but also on the world.
Today, the Edison Public Library recognizes photographer, composer, author, and film director Gordon Parks.
Parks was born in 1912, one of fifteen children in the farming community of Fort Scott, Kansas. After his mother died when he was 14, he was sent to live with extended family in St. Paul, Minnesota, but after months of arguing over his presence, he was left to fend for himself on the streets at the age of 15. He survived by working a variety of odd jobs as a bus boy, a traveling waiter, and piano player in a local brothel.
After buying his first camera at the age of 28, Parks taught himself photography. His camera skills caught the attention of the wife of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis—Marva Louis—who encouraged Parks to move to Chicago to seek better opportunities. He was lauded for his work capturing the myriad experiences of African Americans across the city and eventually became the first Black staff photographer for Life magazine.
In the 1950s, Parks was commissioned by National Educational Television to direct a series of documentaries on Black ghetto life, which led to his later work in Hollywood as one of the few Black directors to create major motion pictures. Parks best known project was the 1971 detective film Shaft, which starred Richard Roundtree as the titular character and created the genre of films known as blaxploitation.
Parks was also a talented writer, having written multiple books on the art and craft of photography in the late 1940s. He wrote a semi-autobigraphical novel called The Learning Tree in 1963, which he later adapted into a motion picture.
Gordon Parks created a quiet but lasting legacy. His photography helped to shine a light on the plight of poor Black Americans, highlighting the disconnect between the upper and lower classes. He even changed the face of Hollywood with Shaft, changing the public’s opinion of Black action heroes. And even though blaxploitation as genre received criticism from groups like NAACP for perpetuating Black stereotypes, it became popular with some sections of the Black community for portraying African Americans and Black culture as protagonists and not just villains or sidekicks.
