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I am a Man
On View
On view
Object number2002.53

I am a Man

Maker (American, 1922 - 2007)
Date1968
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage: 7 1/2 × 12 7/8 in. (19.1 × 32.7 cm)
sheet: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Ronda Stryker
Exhibition History"It Speaks to Me" KIA School Commons (Feb. 3 - May 1, 2005). "Energy and Inspiration: African American Art from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (Jan. 13 - Apr. 14, 2006). "Embracing Diverse Voices: African-American Art in the Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts," KIA Galleries 3&4(Oct. 3 - Nov. 29, 2009). "Embracing Diverse Voices: 80 Years of African-American Art," KIA Traveling Exhibition, Bakersfield Museum of Art (Dec. 13, 2012 – Mar. 10, 2013). "Embracing Diverse Voices: 90 Years of African-American Art," KIA Traveling Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX (January 17 - March 20, 2016). "Embracing Diverse Voices: A Century of African-American Art," KIA Traveling Exhibition, North Carolina Central University Art Museum (October 7 - December 12, 2016). "Resilience: African American Artists as Agents of Change," at the KIA (September 14, 2019 - February 16, 2020) "Framing Moments: Photography from KIA's Permanent Collection," KIA (Feb. 6 - May 16, 2021) "Resilience: African American Artists as Agents of Change," [Travel Version] at the Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI (June 6, 2021 - August, 15, 2021)Label TextAn Army photographer during World War II, Ernest C. Withers returned to the U.S. and began documenting Black life in the segregated South of the 1950s and 1960s. These two compelling black-and-white photographs from Withers’ vast archive were taken in Memphis nearly seven years apart, documenting the struggle for civil rights in the American South. The first, taken during a 1961 protest on Main Street, shows William Edwin Jones pushing his daughter in a stroller while wearing a sign declaring “Daddy, I Want To Be Free.” The second, made during the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike, depicts demonstrators carrying “I Am A Man” signs, protesting unsafe working conditions following the deaths of two workers. Together, the images emphasize demands for dignity, safety, and respect, linking two different moments of activism to the broader movement for civil rights and labor justice. [Label Text: For the People: America at 250 Exhibition, June 27 - October 4, 2026]