Marble
University of Notre Dame
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Red Jackson, Harlem Gang Leader

Date

1948

Creator

Gordon Parks

Location

Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

A leading interpreter of the African American experience, Gordon Parks was a leading photojournalist and fashion photographer. He was an author as well as a poet, musician, composer and a filmmaker. In 1948, Parks so impressed LIFE magazine editors that he was given the chance to pursue his own photoessay, on teen gang warfare in Harlem. He met Leonard "Red" Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners gang, who allowed him to observe their activities over several weeks. Parks witnessed the petty crimes and street fights, but also photographed gang members opening a fire hydrant to cool the neighborhood children on a sweltering day. This symbolic image of cultural incarceration shows Jackson on lookout in an abandoned house when the Midtowners were under attack by a rival gang, the Sabers. It appeared in LIFE magazine in November 1948, in the first photoessay in the magazine by an African American photographer. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)

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A leading interpreter of the African American experience, Gordon Parks was a leading photojournalist and fashion photographer. He was an author as well as a poet, musician, composer and a filmmaker. In 1948, Parks so impressed LIFE magazine editors that he was given the chance to pursue his own photoessay, on teen gang warfare in Harlem. He met Leonard "Red" Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners gang, who allowed him to observe their activities over several weeks. Parks witnessed the petty crimes and street fights, but also photographed gang members opening a fire hydrant to cool the neighborhood children on a sweltering day. This symbolic image of cultural incarceration shows Jackson on lookout in an abandoned house when the Midtowners were under attack by a rival gang, the Sabers. It appeared in LIFE magazine in November 1948, in the first photoessay in the magazine by an African American photographer. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
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  • A leading interpreter of the African American experience, Gordon Parks was a leading photojournalist and fashion photographer. He was an author as well as a poet, musician, composer and a filmmaker. In 1948, Parks so impressed LIFE magazine editors that he was given the chance to pursue his own photoessay, on teen gang warfare in Harlem. He met Leonard "Red" Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners gang, who allowed him to observe their activities over several weeks. Parks witnessed the petty crimes and street fights, but also photographed gang members opening a fire hydrant to cool the neighborhood children on a sweltering day. This symbolic image of cultural incarceration shows Jackson on lookout in an abandoned house when the Midtowners were under attack by a rival gang, the Sabers. It appeared in LIFE magazine in November 1948, in the first photoessay in the magazine by an African American photographer. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
  • A leading interpreter of the African American experience, Gordon Parks was a leading photojournalist and fashion photographer. He was an author as well as a poet, musician, composer and a filmmaker. In 1948, Parks so impressed LIFE magazine editors that he was given the chance to pursue his own photoessay, on teen gang warfare in Harlem. He met Leonard "Red" Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners gang, who allowed him to observe their activities over several weeks. Parks witnessed the petty crimes and street fights, but also photographed gang members opening a fire hydrant to cool the neighborhood children on a sweltering day. This symbolic image of cultural incarceration shows Jackson on lookout in an abandoned house when the Midtowners were under attack by a rival gang, the Sabers. It appeared in LIFE magazine in November 1948, in the first photoessay in the magazine by an African American photographer. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
  • A leading interpreter of the African American experience, Gordon Parks was a leading photojournalist and fashion photographer. He was an author as well as a poet, musician, composer and a filmmaker. In 1948, Parks so impressed LIFE magazine editors that he was given the chance to pursue his own photoessay, on teen gang warfare in Harlem. He met Leonard "Red" Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners gang, who allowed him to observe their activities over several weeks. Parks witnessed the petty crimes and street fights, but also photographed gang members opening a fire hydrant to cool the neighborhood children on a sweltering day. This symbolic image of cultural incarceration shows Jackson on lookout in an abandoned house when the Midtowners were under attack by a rival gang, the Sabers. It appeared in LIFE magazine in November 1948, in the first photoessay in the magazine by an African American photographer. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
  • A leading interpreter of the African American experience, Gordon Parks was a leading photojournalist and fashion photographer. He was an author as well as a poet, musician, composer and a filmmaker. In 1948, Parks so impressed LIFE magazine editors that he was given the chance to pursue his own photoessay, on teen gang warfare in Harlem. He met Leonard "Red" Jackson, the 17-year-old leader of the Midtowners gang, who allowed him to observe their activities over several weeks. Parks witnessed the petty crimes and street fights, but also photographed gang members opening a fire hydrant to cool the neighborhood children on a sweltering day. This symbolic image of cultural incarceration shows Jackson on lookout in an abandoned house when the Midtowners were under attack by a rival gang, the Sabers. It appeared in LIFE magazine in November 1948, in the first photoessay in the magazine by an African American photographer. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
Gordon Parks (American, 1912 - 2006)
1948
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
2007.008.002
African American
African diaspora
gang
New Yorker
windows
© The Gordon Parks Foundation
Not on view, please request access
14 x 11 in. (35.5 x 28 cm)
Humana Foundation Endowment

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at RMMACollections@nd.edu.