Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren vog Obam here. Earnest Withers might
Speaker 1: not be the best known name of the civil rights movement,
Speaker 1: but he was the best known photographer. As a photojournalist,
Speaker 1: Withers captured incredible images of key moments in American history,
Speaker 1: from the iconic image of Emmett Till's open casket to
Speaker 1: the now legendary shot of black sanitation workers standing shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder in Memphis, Tennessee, carrying signs that read I
Speaker 1: Am a man. Withers photos spread awareness about the injustices
Speaker 1: facing black America, but his legacy got a little more complicated.
Speaker 1: In the Commercial Appeal newspaper, which covers Memphis, discovered the
Speaker 1: Withers essentially lived a double life, having worked as a
Speaker 1: paid informant for the FBI for years. So was he
Speaker 1: essentially a traitor to the civil rights movement that he's
Speaker 1: so eloquently photographed or is there more to his story?
Speaker 1: Ernest Withers took photography lessons in the U. S. Army
Speaker 1: while he served during World War Two in the Pacific Theater.
Speaker 1: After the war, he worked as a beat cop on
Speaker 1: Beale Street in his hometown of Memphis, as one of
Speaker 1: the first black police officers on the force. Thanks to
Speaker 1: that beat, he was able to photograph some soon to
Speaker 1: be legends in music history, from B. B. King and
Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin to Icanina Turner. Withers was prominent in the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement. He was the only photographer to document
Speaker 1: the entire Emmett Till murder trial, and he captured images
Speaker 1: of doctor Martin Luther King Junior and Ralph David Abernathy
Speaker 1: riding the first desegregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. He also
Speaker 1: photographed the Little Rock nine at Central High School in
Speaker 1: Arkansas in nineteen fifty seven, after Brown versus the Board
Speaker 1: of Education outlawed segregation in public schools. Other noteworthy pieces
Speaker 1: in American history that he photographed include the Montgomery bus boycott,
Speaker 1: the Black Panther Party, and the Lorean Motel after m.
Speaker 1: L Ka's assassination. After Withers died from a stroke in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, Commercial Appeal reporter Mark Paris Kia
Speaker 1: started working on Weather's biography for the paper. That's when
Speaker 1: a former FBI agent told him that they never bothered
Speaker 1: to bug Kings meetings because they had Withers, but he
Speaker 1: refused to tell Paris Kiya. More So, the reporters spent
Speaker 1: years investigating the story, petitioning the FBI with Freedom of
Speaker 1: Information Act requests to discover the truth of this informant,
Speaker 1: until after a lengthy lawsuit, many of withers classified records
Speaker 1: were released. That's when Periskia finally determined that Withers in
Speaker 1: fact worked as an informant for the FBI throughout the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. Why the FBI was monitoring the movements of
Speaker 1: civil rights activists isn't totally clear, but history has shown
Speaker 1: that then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover believed the king
Speaker 1: was influenced by communists. However, Weather's motivations are not understood.
Speaker 1: Some think he was in it for the money to
Speaker 1: support his family of eight children, though it is possible
Speaker 1: that he had some anti Communist feelings himself. A few
Speaker 1: of his sons fought in the Vietnam War. He also
Speaker 1: had a history of corruption. He lost his job as
Speaker 1: a police officer for bootlegging whiskey, though Periskia points out
Speaker 1: that at that time the Memphis Police Department was rampant
Speaker 1: with corruption. But in nine Withers was also caught up
Speaker 1: in a cash for clemency scandal with a Tennessee judge,
Speaker 1: where criminals were basically able to buy their way out
Speaker 1: of prison. Weathers testified against the judge, having cut a
Speaker 1: deal with the state, but even with the stakes that high,
Speaker 1: he never revealed his work for the FBI. After the
Speaker 1: news about Weathers having been an informant broke in, It's
Speaker 1: been received with mixed feelings. Some civil rights leaders felt
Speaker 1: that they were betrayed and their confidence abused. Others, like
Speaker 1: Ambassador Andrew Young, who was a lieutenant of m l K,
Speaker 1: told The New Yorker that he's not surprised because at
Speaker 1: the time they felt the FBI bugged everything, but they
Speaker 1: didn't suspect Weathers himself. Dr Manning Marrable, then a professor
Speaker 1: of African American studies at Columbia University, told The New
Speaker 1: Yorker it's important to remember the time within which he
Speaker 1: lived and the inordinate pressure to inform. The best thing
Speaker 1: we can say about Weathers is that he played a
Speaker 1: dual role as an informant who undoubtedly disrupted the movement,
Speaker 1: but also as a photographer who used his talents on
Speaker 1: behalf of advocacy, social justice and equality. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article Earnest Withers, iconic civil rights photographer
Speaker 1: and FBI informant, on how stuff Works dot Com, written
Speaker 1: by Diana Brown. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com as produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang and Ramsey Young. Four more podcasts from
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