Posted: February 5th, 2010 Tonya Jameson

The Civil Rights Movement has always fascinated me. I watched the documentary “Eyes on the Prize.” I read books about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., FBI surveillance of black leaders and anything related to the struggle.

As an intern at the Montgomery Advertiser, I drove down the streets where protesters marched. I peered at the church where King preached and the home where he lived. It’s the closest I’ve been to the movement as a journalist.

This week, I met a journalist who was in the thick of things. Matthew Lewis photographed the March on Washington, the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and JFK’s funeral.

On Monday, Lewis was part of the throng of people celebrating the opening of the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro.

Feb. 1 also marked the 50th anniversary of when four N.C. A&T students — Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond and Ezell Blair Jr. — sat at the lunch counter to order food. Their sit-in ignited college students to protest throughout the South. The museum is in the old Woolworth building where the sit-in took place.

The main attraction is the long, L-shaped lunch counter with its cracked seats and shiny-chrome appliances. Behind the counter are LCD screens playing a narrated re-enactment of the sit-in.

During the opening, I listened as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Gov. Bev Perdue and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Tom Perez made perfunctory speeches. They talked about bravery, continuing the fight, sacrifice and, of course, the importance of the political wrangling of today.

The speaker who move me the most, however, didn't take the stage.

I met Matthew Lewis as he took photos of people admiring his historic photos of protests and marches that line the wall outside the auditorium. In the '60s, Lewis was a freelance photographer for the Baltimore Afro-American and other publications.

Civil Rights museums typically have a wall of photos that acknowledge people who were killed while fighting against injustice. The Greensboro museum chose, instead, to feature hundreds of mug shots of people arrested during the movement. While they didn't die, these countless unsung heroes did risk their lives to change America.

Lewis’ exhibit also documents those brave people. The Pulitzer-winning photographer's work is at the museum through August. You'll see a fiery Fannie Lou Hamer, a fresh-faced Andrew Young, a stoic Julian Bond and so many other leaders of the movement.

Then there are pictures of everyday people marching, walking, sitting and fighting for justice.

“I didn’t know I had these photographs, how important it was until years and years later,” he said. “These are some of the great civil rights leaders.”

Whether you’ve heard of them or not.

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