The Branigan Cultural Center will present a new exhibit titled “I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970,” opening on Tuesday, September 2, and running through Saturday, October 18, 2025. The exhibition will be held in the Shannon Room.
This exhibit covers the civil rights movement during the 1960s in the American South. During this decade, African Americans gained important rights such as desegregation of public spaces and voting access. The photographs included in the exhibition were taken by amateurs, local photojournalists, and internationally known photographers. The images highlight how the civil rights movement became part of everyday life in the South.
“In assembling the exhibition, Southern folklorist, author, and curator William Ferris and his research team sought out photos taken by local activists and news photographers, who documented the history taking place before their eyes. Viewers of the exhibition will recognize photographs of protestors who carried signs with messages like “I Am a Man,” or who sat at segregated lunch counters as iconic images associated with the movement. Many of the photographs have rarely been seen until now.”
The exhibition is a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts. It was adapted from an earlier show produced for Pavillion Populaire in Montpellier, France by the Center for Study of the American South at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Funding for that French exhibit came from City of Montpellier with administration by Gilles Mora.
The Branigan Cultural Center is located at 501 N. Main Street and operates from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; on Saturdays it opens at 9 a.m. Admission is free to all visitors. The museum can be accessed via RoadRUNNER Transit Route 1 Stop 1.
More information is available at lascruces.gov/museums or by calling (575) 541-2154/TTY 711.
