Robert Sengstacke, Civil Rights Photographer

Brought to you by Raoul Deal and Nicolas Lampert:

Robert Sengstacke, Monday, April 24th
2:00pm - 3:15pm
ACL 120

Robert Senstacke’s photographs over the past fifty years have received national as well as international recognition and acclaim. He was the head photographer and photo editor at the Chicago Defender, one of the most important and influential African American papers in the country. During the Civil Rights Movement, Sengstacke documented the movement in the South and in Chicago. The New York Times in 1987 during a review of his work defined him as "one of the most significant photographers of the Civil Rights generation."

His photographs of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have been featured in numerous exhibitions and books. Stanford University's History Department selected 100 of Sengstacke's photos that were used to chronicle the life and times of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Other Sengstacke works have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, the DuSable Museum of African-American History, the Museum of Science of Industry, Spellman College, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Circle Campus the University of Illinois Urbana campus, and the University of Minnesota.

Other works have appeared at the renowned Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The Schomburg Center, now part of the New York City Public Library system is a repository of 50 of Sengstacke's King photographs. Sengstacke is also noted as the first African-American photographer from Chicago to have a major exhibition to appear in Chicago's Loop at the main branch of the Chicago Public Library in 1969.

Sengstacke's work as a photographer has led him to travel the world over. His development as a photographic artist would forever be changed by his experience. The rich cultural influences of ancient societies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Jamaica would add a world-perspective and insight that further hone his craft. Outside of his work at the Chicago Defender, Sengstacke was Muhammad Speaks first non-Moslem staff photographer. He has also been an artist-in-residence at Fisk University and the General Manager and the Publisher of the Memphis Tri-State Defender.