Montgomery Mugs

In late February 1956, authorities in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted and arrested the leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott. Their fingerprints and mug shots were taken. Several of the mug shots have already been published, but The Smoking Gun has now put them all on the net. They include the well known -- Ralph D. Abernathy, Euretta Adair, P. M. Blair, P. E. Conley, Moses W. Jones, MD, Martin Luther King, Jr., E. D. Nixon, Rosa Parks, S. S. Seay, and Mrs. A. W. West, Sr. -- and the little known -- Sam Barnett, Mose Bishop, Otis A. Carlton, Isiah Ferguson, Addie J. Hamerter, Alberta James, Eli Judkins, and Cora McHaney. At some point, while the photographs were still in the police department's hands, someone used a purple crayon to scrawl"Dead -- 4-4-68 -- Dead" on King's photograph.

If you care to click through them, there are many other photographs, as well. They are a fascinating study of Montgomery's black elite and its much broader working class. By the time these photographs were taken, white Montgomery knew that it faced a challenge that was broadly based in the black community. So, there are men in bib overalls and men in three pieced suits, with gold chains and watch fobs across their vests. Women like Mrs. Adair and Mrs West, who were socially prominent and economically secure, dressed to the nines for their pictures to be taken. Already, they knew that black Montgomery had done something in which they could all take pride. It took a little while longer for most of the rest of us to recognize that. Thanks to David Garrow of Homerton College, Cambridge, for the tip.