Karen E. Haas Livres

In the spring of 1950, Gordon Parks returned to his hometown in southeastern Kansas to create a series of photographs for Life magazine, focusing on the issue of segregated schools and their effects on black children before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Fort Scott, the town he had left over twenty years prior, served as a backdrop for revisiting his early memories, many of which involved racial discrimination. Parks sought to reconnect with his junior high school graduation class, discovering that only one member remained in Fort Scott while the others had migrated to cities like St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbus, and Chicago in search of better opportunities. Traveling to these urban centers, Parks photographed his friends and their families in various settings—on porches, in parlors, and at work—while interviewing them about their decisions to leave the segregated environment of their youth for the North. Although his photo essay and cover were set to appear in Life in spring 1951, they were ultimately sidelined due to the political climate, specifically Truman’s firing of General MacArthur, and the work was never published.