Civil rights photographer: 'You could feel the fear'

The High Museum of Art will include some of his images in "Road to Freedom," its survey of civil rights photography opening next month. A one-man show opened last weekend at Jackson Fine Art in Buckhead.

Davidson, a 74-year-old native of Oak Park, Ill., talked about his work and experiences at the gallery.

Q: How did you become interested in civil rights?

A: I had spent a year in 1959 photographing a Brooklyn street gang. I applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship to keep working along those lines, documenting American youth.

Someone suggested I go along with the Freedom Riders, the young people who were challenging segregation on interstate buses. I didn't know much about civil rights at the time. That experience changed my life.


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