9 Iconic Photographs from African American History

These iconic photographs below were selected from the book Through the African American Lens by TIME magazine. Many of the images in the book are taken by famous photographers such as Spider Martin, Gordon Parks, Ernest C. Withers, Wayne F. Miller, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, serve as a view into the dynamic history of Americans of African descent.

Photographer Zack Brown shooting dapper men in Harlem, ca. 1937. (Eliot Elisofon—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin)

Elks Parade, Harlem, 1938. (Jack Manning—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Estate of Jack Manning)

African American Jewish Congregation in Harlem, children studying, 1940. (Alexander Alland—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Alexander Alland Jr.)

An afternoon game at Table 2, from the series The Way of Life of the Northern Negro, 1946-1948. (Wayne F. Miller—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Wayne F. Miller)

Ernie Banks, Larry Doby, Matty Brescia, Jackie Robinson, Martin's Stadium, Memphis, Tennessee, 1953. (Ernest C. Withers—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Ernest C. Withers Trust)

Althea Gibson holding a Wimbledon trophy plate, July 1957. (Michael Cole—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Michael Cole Cameraworks/All Rights Reserved)

Douglas Burns, Charles Henry Sayles, and Alfred A. Neal sitting on a porch swing, 1958. (Rev. Henry Clay Anderson—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

James Baldwin by his typewriter, Istanbul 1966. (Sedat Pakay—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Sedat Pakay)

A boy in front of the Loews 125th Street movie theater, 1976. (Dawoud Bey—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Dawoud Bey)

(via Shooting Film)