TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – P.H. Polk’s rich photographic record of African American life in Alabama is examined in “Moments of Dignity,” a University of Alabama-produced television documentary that airs on Alabama Public Television at 10 p.m., Monday, June 10, 2002.
Polk took pictures of all sorts of African Americans in Alabama — from tenant farmers in tattered overalls to polished and starched members of the emerging black middle class posed for a family portrait.
His granddaughter, Anoa Monsho, narrates the documentary. “My grandfather’s pictures captured the essence of historic Tuskegee and the changing face of America,” she says. “And within his images you will find the hopes and dreams, the joys and sorrows of middle class and poverty-stricken African Americans — people struggling to find their place in the rural South.”
Polk was born in Bessemer in 1898 and was a gifted musician as well as an artist. He was one of the first graduates of the photography department of Tuskegee Institute.
After graduation he worked in the Mobile shipyards and then moved to Chicago where he painted Pullman railway cars. On the weekends, he went door-to-door taking family photographs. In 1928 he returned to Tuskegee to become a faculty member in the photography division of the Tuskegee Institute, located in Tuskegee, and opened a photography studio. After a brief stint in Atlanta in late 1938 and early 1939, Polk moved back to Tuskegee and in 1939 became Tuskegee Institute’s official photographer. He kept that position until the time of his death in 1984.
“Moments of Dignity” was produced by Dwight Cammeron for The University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio.
Editor’s Note: A copy of the documentary is available for your review. Contact Elizabeth Smith for more information.
Contact
Elizabeth M. Smith, UA Media Relations, 205/348-3782, esmith@ur.ua.edu
Source
Brent Davis, public information manager, CPT&R, 205/348-8629