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Seeing through Race is a boldly original reinterpretation of the iconic photographs of the black civil rights struggle. Martin A. Berger's provocative and groundbreaking study shows how the very pictures credited with arousing white sympathy, and thereby paving the way for civil rights legislation, actually limited the scope of racial reform in the 1960s. Berger analyzes many of these famous images-dogs and fire hoses turned against peaceful black marchers in Birmingham, tear gas and clubs wielded against voting-rights marchers in Selma-and argues that because white sympathy was dependent on photographs of powerless blacks, these unforgettable pictures undermined efforts to enact-or even imagine-reforms that threatened to upend the racial balance of power.

Civil rights movements --- White people --- African Americans --- Photography --- Documentary photography --- Photojournalism --- History --- Attitudes --- Civil rights --- Social conditions --- Social aspects --- United States --- Race relations --- 1960s. --- african american. --- america. --- american history. --- balance of power. --- birmingham. --- black experience. --- black protesters. --- civil rights legislation. --- civil rights movement. --- civil rights. --- critical analysis. --- historians. --- historical. --- iconic photographs. --- nonfiction. --- photograph analysis. --- photographers. --- photography. --- racial issues. --- racial reform. --- racism. --- retrospective. --- selma. --- social history. --- social justice. --- social theory. --- us history. --- voting rights. --- white sympathy.