Smithsonian curator reflects on intimacy of photos of Martin Luther King Jr., others in collection

03:18

March 01, 2022

Walter Ray Watson, NPR

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his daughter Yolanda King (1962). (James Karales)

NPR's Walter Ray Watson recently spoke to Smithsonian curator Aaron Bryant about Black photography and history.

Bryant is a curator of visual culture at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. He focused on a couple of images from Harlem, part of the Smithsonian's collection.

Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, circa 1953. (Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, gift of the Mamie Till Mobley family) — (Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, gift of the Mamie Till Mobley family)

Michael B. Jordan speaks at a Black Lives Matter — Los Angeles protest in Century City, Calif., in 2020. (Tommy Oliver)

This segment aired on March 1, 2022.