Historic Pictures by Clark Atlanta University Alumnus Housed In Permanent Collection at the National Museum of African American History and Culture
ATLANTA (Sept. 13, 2016) Nearly 50 years ago Clark Atlanta University alumnus Horace Henry (CC ’71) attended the very first ecumenical service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Moments before he and a group of his Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers dashed out of their dorm rooms in Brawley Hall headed to the service, something occurred by happenstance. Henry made a snap decision to take with him a camera he had just received as a hand-me- down. He didn’t know it then, but that decision would catapult him into the history books decades later.
Once Henry and his then-Clark College crew arrived at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, he says he was given unprecedented access to everyone in attendance. So, he whipped out his camera and began capturing dozens of pictures illustrating the raw emotions of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, other close family members and friends who were there. By the end of the service he had recorded what is now regarded as the largest, private collection of images taken at that memorial.
“It was divine intervention that I was there to capture those pictures,” said Henry, who didn’t even fully understand how to operate the camera.
After collecting dust in an old shoebox for years, Henry eventually published the historic images in a book titled “One Day In January.” Now, he is set to receive a new honor for the photos. That’s because all of Henry’s pictures taken on that historic day will be housed in the permanent collection of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Henry says this huge honor is less about him, and more about the generations to come who will always have access to his images. “My legacy is the photographs are there for the world to see for years to come,” he explained. “That’s my contribution as a photographer.”
