Injustice in Focus: The Civil Rights Photography of Cecil Williams

Presented by Claudia Smith Brinson 

Witnessing peaceful protests, police violence, and the lives of ordinary citizens called to action during the turbulent Civil Rights Movement, Cecil Williams became one of the few Southern Black photojournalists to document civil rights activism in South Carolina. Active throughout the state, Williams captured pivotal movements including the arrival of Thurgood Marshall in Charleston for the arguing of Briggs v. Elliott, a landmark case that was the first in the twentieth century to challenge the constitutionality of racially segregated schools. Nearly two decades later, Williams’ photography documented the aftermath of South Carolina’s infamous Orangeburg Massacre.

Coauthor Claudia Smith Brinson presents first-hand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina alongside images taken by Cecil Williams in her latest book Injustice in Focus: The Civil Rights Photography of Cecil Williams. Working with Williams, she documents both his life behind the camera and the decades-long struggle for equality in the South. Claudia Smith Brinson is a newspaper journalist with over thirty years of experience as a senior writer for Knight Ridder Media. She taught writing courses at the University of South Carolina and Columbia College. During her career, she won more than thirty awards at the state, regional, and national levels and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of Hurricane Hugo.

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