The Photograph

The Photograph. . The most famous photograph of the Freedom Rides and one of the most iconic of the Civil Rights movement was taken by a freelance photographer for The Anniston Star. Joe Postiglione, called “Little Joe” by his friends, was tipped off by the Greyhound bus station manager on the evening of May 13, 1961 that something was brewing for the next day., He arrived at the bus station early the next morning before 8 o'clock and waited around. When he was asked by a local Klansman why he had a camera, he quickly improvised: “Hell, don't ask me. Ask Ken. You all sent for me.” Referring to Ken Adams, the local Klan leader, ensured Postiglione was left alone, but he remained cautious as he clicked away., His photos of the bus burning ran in the Star the next day and afterward were purchased by other news organizations, ultimately provoking national and international outrage. Without the widespread press coverage Postiglione's photographs helped ignite, historian Ray Arsenault says the moral drama of the 1961 Freedom Rides might never have reached the broad audience necessary to force change., Two days later on May 16, “Little Joe” was interviewed by the FBI, identifying people and the sequence of events. When he and his family became the targets of death threats and vandalism to their cars, the FBI provided 24-hour protection, walking his younger children to school. The whole family was ostracized and he was hung in effigy at a Klan rally on Quintard Ave. Ultimately, the family left the area – never to return., Postiglione died in Kentucky in 1995. The photos disappeared from the Star's records, and no one knows what happened to the negatives. A set of the photos came to light in 2005 when a local law firm that had defended the attackers found them in files they were sorting for destruction. The firm, Merrill, Merrill, Mathews and Allen donated their copies to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.