View Selected Images from the Exhibition
This journey began very personal. My mother, in 2006, had just died. Now, with both of my parents gone, I felt "lost." I had never understood that term used in that way before now. I felt suspended in the universe with no strings attached. Disoriented…searching for something to steady me.
While in this "fog," I found myself going through old family photo albums and I came across these beautiful black and whites of poor families in Lowndes County taken during the late '60s. At the time they were taken, I was only 5 or 6 years old, but I do have a vague memory of what was going on.
My parents moved our family from Macon, Georgia, to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1967. This was at the height of racial unrest. Kennedy had been assassinated in 1963. In 1965 Viola Liuzzo and Jonathan Daniels, both "outsiders" in Lowndes County to register Black residents to vote, were murdered. In 1968, it was King. George Wallace was Alabama's governor and “Jim Crow” loomed large. Lowndes County was a hot spot. Lowndes County was the poorest county in the state and, like every other corner of the South, was notorious for its racial violence. It came to be known as "Bloody Lowndes" for good reason. We lived in Montgomery... my parents drove the 20 miles to Lowndes County to do their work.
It was a time in America that seemed hopeless, and for the black residents of Lowndes County... it was. But for some reason, my parents and some others saw it differently. If I could ask one question, it would be...
"what did you see?"
Their goals were to help register as many eligible black people to vote as possible, raise the basic level of education in the black community and improve the living standard of Lowndes County's black residents.
They took their lives into their own hands daily.
My Daddy documented parts of their work in several beautiful black and white photographs. Finding them was like finding a trail of crumbs in the forest... I followed.
January 17-March 15, 2009
The Banana Factory
Banko Family Room Gallery
25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, PA
Meet the Artist
January 23, 2009, 6 p.m.
The Banana Factory
Banko Family Room Gallery
This event is free and open to the public.
Join Estizer Smith as she shares the incredible story behind "Back to Lowndes County."
"Welcome Home," the book based on the Back to Lowndes County project, will be available soon.
Estizer Smith grew up in the South, the youngest of six children, four boys and two girls. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in biology at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. and went on to enjoy a rewarding career teaching science to high school students in three different states.
In 2004, Multiple Sclerosis made it impossible for her to continue teaching.
"At the end of my career, and in the middle of my life, I walked into the Banana Factory and found a new beginning... photography."
Estizer combined her newfound interest in photography with her desire to enrich young people’s lives through education by becoming an instructor for the Banana Factory's B-Smart afterschool enrichment program. She now teaches digital photography to at-risk youth throughout the Lehigh Valley, and she also speaks to student groups about her ongoing documentary work.
Smith lives in Easton, Pa. with her husband Kevin, and two childrem, Kyle and Estizer.
"I use my photography in many different ways. One is for others to create family treasures. Another is as documentation of people and, sometimes, places that I feel compelled and responsible to leave record of. Still another is for me. My photography soothes my soul."
Click photo to enlarge image
"Jim Crow" Justice
In August 1965 Jonathan Daniels and 22 others were arrested for participating in a voter rights demonstration in Fort Deposit, Alabama, and transferred to the county jail in nearby Hayneville.
Shortly after being released on August 20, Richard Morrisroe, a Catholic priest, and Daniels accompanied two black teenagers, Joyce Bailey and Ruby Sales, to a Hayneville store to buy a soda. They were met on the steps by Tom Coleman, a construction worker and part-time deputy sheriff, who was carrying a shotgun.
Coleman aimed his gun at 16-year-old Sales; Daniels pushed her to the ground in order to protect her, saving her life. The shotgun blast killed Daniels instantly; Morrisroe was seriously wounded. When he heard of the tragedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels."
Tom Coleman put the gun down and walked across the town square to the courthouse. He was never convicted.
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Levert
Levert and I chatted
about the heat under the
big shade tree on the
town square.
Beneath his intimidating
appearance he was
quite vulnerable and sweet.
He offered me half his
candy bar and some of his coke.
I suspect he would
have killed for me.
People of color in the South
often have more than one persona.
Charles Darwin: "Survival of the Fittest"
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Safe Passage
After studying my father's photos, Officer Scott said, "My aunt lived in a house like that and there were two or three others on the property. I don't know if they're still there, but they might be."
My heart was lifted, only to discover that it was much too far out and impossible for me to find on my own, as I wasn't a "local". Trooper Scott was on his way home in the opposite direction.
While watching my heart break, he changed his mind. He offered to take me to the places I needed to go...
deep, in the Alabama woods.
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Niggerfoot Road
Judge Hulett was only 13 years old when my daddy's office was firebombed by the Klan. He was a paperboy and the first to see it burning that Sunday Morning.
He went on to explain that most of the houses my Dad photographed were located on Niggerfoot Road, called that because black folks were moved from one plantation to another along this road and they were always barefoot.
Driving down these dirt roads
is soothing to me,
it puts me in a trance.
The vibration of the ride,
the air in my window,
the smell of the dust, the trees, the honeysuckle.
All the spirits that walked these roads,
pass through me...
giving me their strength.
Click photo to enlarge image
Welcome Home
It was hot and humid,
but there was no sun.
The air was thick and
heavy, making my
clothes stick to me.
The only sound in the
woods seemed to be
the branches breaking
as we moved through.
And then we got to this house,
where the door was open.
Welcome Home
Click photo to enlarge image
Bloody Lowndes
This was very early morning. I took
a random road and found this property.
Very still and quiet.
For a long while... I just stood.
A "white boy" lives on the property. His black
friend had just taken him to pick up his "woman"
from her night job. They were beer drinkin'
and friendly.
There was a dead puppy in the front yard,
sectioned off by some wood.
I guess, to protect it from wild animals...
it was decaying.
I wonder how many black folks' bodies were left
Like that... to decay, under a tree.
Likely without the wood barrier.
Click photo to enlarge image
Southern Love
Mr. John Stallworth was a
gentleman I met when I pulled
off the road for help. I'd just
as soon had been a niece...
home for summer! His pride
and love for me was overwhelming.
He thought I could do anything!
He sent me away with his prize roses
and the strength to face the world.