Delving into the life of Memphis photographer Ernest Withers, popular historian Preston Lauterbach (Beale Street Dynasty) offers readers a new vantage point on a pivotal time in United States history. Withers began his informal training in photography as a teenager. In the army, he received a formal education in the art and its related technology as part of his basic training. And when he deployed to the South Pacific during World War II, Withers picked up a side gig taking pictures for soldiers to send home to their sweethearts and parents.
He later served a short stint as one of the first African American police officers in Memphis, but fate intended him to be behind the lens of a camera. He photographed rhythm and blues musicians like Ruth Brown, B.B. King and Ray Charles, as well as a then-unknown young white man by the name of Elvis Presley. Withers defied a judge and snapped the now iconic image of Mose Wright identifying J.W. Milam while seated in the courtroom during the Emmett Till murder trial. Following the Montgomery boycott, he rode an integrated bus with a young Martin Luther King, Jr., photographing him with Ralph Abernathy.
Through a deep dive into the events of this period, Lauterbach evaluates the complexity of Withers--the conservative veteran who felt allegiance to his country; the photojournalist who functioned as a confidential informant for the FBI.
Withers's credo was "The Pictures Tell the Story," and Lauterbach allows them to tell as much of the photographer's story as possible. He fills in the remainder with stellar narrative skills. His fastidious research, storytelling expertise and passion for the subject make Bluff City an engrossing, fascinating biography that reads like an espionage thriller. --Jen Forbus, freelancer