Tommy Langston
Tommy Langston (born c. 1924; died October 24, 2013) was a photographer for the Birmingham Post-Herald.
On Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 1961, a Trailways bus from Atlanta with Freedom Riders on board arrived at the Birmingham Trailways Station where the Riders were accosted by Ku Klux Klan members and National States Rights Party militants. Langston was at Acton's Camera Store near the station. He caught wind of the commotion and snapped an infamous photograph of the mob in action. His flash attracted the Klansmen's attention, however, and Langston fled as far as the parking lot before he was caught, his camera smashed, and he was beaten. Langston then managed to make it back to the newspaper. His camera was subsequently recovered with the film still intact.
The photo was published five-columns wide in the next morning's paper and attracted national attention because it showed FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe in the violent mob. It was one of the first times the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement got significant local coverage. The photo was then picked up by wire services and appeared around the world. In Japan, it embarrassed businessman and segregationist Sidney Smyer in front of the International Rotary Club. He returned to Birmingham and began working to remove Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor, who had kept the Birmingham Police Department away during the attack, from office.
Meanwhile Langston and his pregnant wife, Tommie, temporarily moved from their Southside apartment to her parents' in Shelby County. Editor Jimmy Mills had to make a special trip to see Langston and convince him to return to work.
Langston finally retired from the Post-Herald in 1989, after 38 years with the paper.
References
- Patterson, Nick. (November 21, 2012). "A quiet, unassuming hero." Weld for Birmingham.
- Carlton, Bob. (August 4, 2013). "Birmingham 1963: Photographers were on the front lines to capture the civil rights movement." The Birmingham News.