AP Photographer Who Captured Iconic Images Of Civil Rights Leaders Dead at 97

Gene Herrick, a photographer best known for capturing iconic images of some of the most prominent figures of the civil rights movement, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, passed away this week at the age of 97.

Herrick’s iconic photographs of Rosa Parks were taken in 1956 while she was being fingerprinted following her famous refusal to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. In the same year, Gene captured a photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. smiling while being kissed by Coretta Scott King on the courthouse steps after being found guilty of conspiracy to boycott the city’s buses.

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As well as capturing some of the most prominent figures in the civil rights movement, Herrick was also a journalist who covered some of the most prominent figures of their time, including Elvis Presley, five U.S. Presidents, as well as covering Major League Baseball.

Gene began working for AP at the age of 16 in Columbus, Ohio as an office assistant. However, two years later, he transferred to Cleveland, where he lived with an AP photographer whom he often assisted. Eventually, when his roommate was unable to cover a Cleveland Indians game, Herrick was asked to take his friend’s spot.

Not long after his successful debut covering the Cleveland Indians, Herrick was promoted to be an AP photographer in Memphis, Tennessee. Despite his lack of experience, he volunteered for the Korean War in 1950, where he found himself on the frontlines covering for the Associated Press (AP).

Herrick detailed the experience of being on the front lines of Korea in 1950.

“It’s a beautiful war going on. I mean, the planes are coming in, dropping napalms, and machine guns, and right there on the mountainside, and I’ve got a picture here of wounded being carried on a litter, coming up the road right at me, and, oh, I thought, man, this is great,” Herrick recalled in 2015, laughing at the memory. “I’m bam-bamming with the old four-by-five Speed Graphic, the film pack in those days. And I look around, and some GI over in a ditch says, ‘Sir?’ I said, ‘Yes?’ He said, ‘Do you see that dirt popping up there … do you know what that is?’

And I said, ‘No. What is it?’ He said, ‘Those are bullets!’ … so I got off the road and got in the ditch with him. But I got some really nice pictures.”

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Kerrick retired from AP in 1972 but enjoyed a second career assisting the developmentally disabled in Columbus and Rocky Mount, Virginia. At the age of 91, Gene was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Rest in peace!

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