Black History Album: The Way We Were

Believing that images are one of the most effective and powerful ways to recognize and validate the diversity and accomplishments of African Americans, over the next few weeks the editors of Black History Album will share some of their best picks of inspirational books of African American photography in honor of Black History Month. 

Today we feature, Picturing The Promise: The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington. This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name on view in the National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery at the National Museum of American History. The cover photo shows members of a Y.W.C.A. Camp for Girls at Highland Beach, Md, 1930.

Nearly a century’s worth of Scurlock photographs combine to form a searing portrait of black Washington in all its guises—its challenges and its victories, its dignity and its determination. Beginning in the early twentieth century and continuing into the 1990s, Addison Scurlock, followed by his sons, Robert and George, used their cameras to document and celebrate a community unique in the world, and a stronghold in the history and culture of the nation’s capital.

Through photographs of formal weddings, elegant cotillions, ballet studios, and quiet family life, the Scurlocks revealed a world in which the black middle class refused to be defined or held captive by discrimination. From its home on the vibrant U Street corridor, the Scurlock Studio gave us indelible images of leaders and luminaries, of high society and working class, of Washingtonians at work and at play. In photograph after photograph, the Scurlocks captured an optimism and resiliency seldom seen in mainstream depictions of segregated society.  

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