First day of Memphis integration, TN

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.

These students, Michael Willis (now Menelik Fombi), Harry Williams, and Dwania Kyles, were three of the "Memphis 13," the group of thirteen first-graders who integrated four Memphis elementary schools on October 3, 1961. Willis, Williams and Kyles are depicted in the source photograph on their way to Bruce Elementary School. Three children, Michael Willis (now Menelik Fombi), Harry Williams, and Dwania Kyles, smile from a car window on their way to school as a woman, left, looks on.

Catalog date

1961

Recorded places

Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, North and Central America

Recorded subjects

African American; Children; Civil Rights; Education; Photography; U.S. History, 1953-1961

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