Bleak Beauty Blog

https://snccdigital.org/people/danny-lyon/
It is hard to reconcile the SNCC and the Black Bloc. In 1962 the SNCC and its precursors the Freedom Riders, were the cutting edge of the liberation struggle, a struggle that would end with the destruction of segregation as the law of the land in thirteen southern states. The radical, risk taking actions of the SNCC did often provoke violence. As a photographer I was looking for action; dramatic photographs of the struggle, not just pictures of people picketing (boring). My successes were photographs of arrests, often physical and violent, attacks on protestors, photographs of children inside jails, and the aftermath of the murderous Birmingham bombings. Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, later the Weathermen, all pushed a political stake into the ground. “If you don’t like the protestors you have now, we are here waiting.” Or as Malcolm famously said “the ballot or the bullet”. And our beloved slave holding, slave loving, hypocritical genius, Jefferson, who wrote, “The tree of Liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots.”
A Movement now exists in Amerika, a common enemy “the Donald” and a common threat, Fascism, has over night united multiple struggles. It is exactly what the Movement needs.
The Black Bloc is growing, as it should. The fight is not about the right to use a bathroom. The fight is for the survival of Planet Earth, the only home, we and the people of every political persuasion, including the Trumpites will ever have.