Prominent Memphis photographer Ernest Withers shot some of the most iconic images from the Civil Rights Movement.
He photographed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his room at the Lorraine Motel. He captured Moses Wright, Emmett Till’s great-uncle, as he pointed a finger at the men accused of killing the Chicago teenager.
He photographed the integration of the University of Mississippi and King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy as they rode on one of the first desegregated buses in Montgomery.
And, according to a new book by Memphis journalist Marc Perrusquia, he was also a paid FBI informant.
Credit: Karen Pulfer Focht
Credit: Karen Pulfer Focht
Withers , a former Memphis police officer, was well-known in the movement and was widely trusted by its leaders and foot soldiers. He ran a popular studio on Beale Street and worked as a freelancer for national publications such as Jet and Ebony.
“Ernest was Google back in the day,” said Perrusquia, who learned of Wither’s “double life” from a retired FBI agent and, later, documents retrieved through open records requests.
“He knew everyone in the black community in Memphis and his reach was pretty big.”
All which made him a valuable asset, said the author, who reported on Withers in 2010 for The Commercial Appeal.
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Perrusquia will discuss and sign copies of his book, “A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, 101 Auburn Ave. N.E. The event, sponsored by the library, Charis Books & More and Charis Circle, will also include a conversation with Mary Hooks, a Black Lives Matter organizer and Southerners on New Ground; and Bobby Doctor, former director of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in Atlanta.
His book comes out just days before the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination in Memphis.
It’s well known that the FBI kept files and surveillance on hundreds of people, the most were law-abiding citizens who were protesting government policies, Jim Crow and the Vietnam war.
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Wither’s daughter, Rosalind Withers, hasn’t read the book but for years has defended her father.
Withers, founder and executive director of the Withers Collection Museum and Gallery in Memphis, said allegations that her father being a spy have “no merit.”
“I do know the FBI interacted with my father because of his power in journalism and his ability to be in the middle of the movement,” she said. “My father was respectful to the authority of the FBI as a government entity, but in terms of him being an informant and being there to corrupt and disrupt the movement, no, not at all.”
Her father died in 2007.
The extent of the damage done to the movement is hard to determine, said Perrusquia.
He said it’s important to understand the times and Withers, who served in the military. Was he motivated by money or patriotism?
Indeed, the movement had its detractors, even in the black community.
In his book, Perrusguia spoke with several people in the movement .
Some people still consider him a friend. Others say he is a Judas.
In his book, Perrusguia interviewed Kathy Roop Hunnien. Withers took her wedding photographs but also reportedly gave information about her to the FBI. She said she suffered years of depression after losing her job when it surfaced that the FBI had a file on her.
“This man has ruined my life,” said Hunnien, in the book. “betrayal? Betrayal isn’t even the word.”
The Rev. Harold Middlebrook was active in the Memphis movement and was friends with both King and Withers.
If the FBI paid Withers to spy on the movement, “the the FBI was dumber and Withers was smarter than I had given any of them credit for,” Middlebrook, a graduate of Morehouse College, said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constituion. “I thought he was one of the finest men I knew.”
Was he an informant?
“I didn’t think about it,” Middlebrook said. “I hated the thought but I didn’t think about it because I really appreciated the fact that at least our story was told. I won’t use the word betrayed because Ernest Withers had a lage family. He had children to feed. A proposition was probably made to him and he took advantage of it. I’m just gratefull that he was present to make sure our story was told.”
Perrusquia doesn’t think Wither’s double life eclipses the good he did in documenting the movement. The extent of the damage done to the movement is hard to determine.
It’s a very nuanced story.
“I tried to avoid judging Ernest,”he said. “I know there are individuals who feel betrayed...those opinions vary.”
“You’ve gotta understand that Ernest was a hometown hero,” said Perrusquia. “His house in on the National Registry. He is a legitimate civil rights hero. When you think about it, you get goosebumps really.”
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