Portrait of Maggie and Lillie Haynes, Josephine Irvin, and Deloris Johnson

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Martha Olson graduated from Northwestern University with her B.A. in Art in 1969, and within a year, she was working more than 800 miles away as the girls’ physical education teacher at Marion High School in Columbia, Mississippi. It was the first year of integration in Mississippi public schools. During that time, Olson photographed local students, their relatives, and other residents of Marion County, which she later compiled into a series entitled, "Marion County Mississippi: 1970-1971." A black and white photograph (from left to right) of Maggie Pearl Haynes, Josephine Irvin, Deloris Johnson, and Lillie Pearl Haynes. The girls are seated on a wicker couch with a patterned blanket on the seat. Each girl is barefoot and has her proper right leg crossed over her proper left leg. The photograph is inside a frame. The back of the frame has several inscriptions about the subject of the photograph, the photographer, and numbers. A label on the back of the frame reads: [Cheerleaders plus 2 younger sisters / First year of Integration of Mississippi School]. Metal hooks and picture wire are attached to the back of the frame.

Catalog date

1970

Recorded places

Columbia, Marion County, Mississippi, United States, North and Central America

Recorded subjects

African American; American South; Communities; Education; Families; Photography; Segregation; Youth

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