2024 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. made an ambitious exhibit of Religious News Service photographs possible
by Emily Enders Odom | Presbyterian News Service
Thanks to a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., Presbyterian Historical Society staff designed and displayed an exhibit of photos by Religious News Service on the civil rights movement. (Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society)
PHILADELPHIA — If every picture tells a story, then the Presbyterian Historical Society has over 60,000 compelling ways to share the story of religion news reporting in the mid-20th century.
Because PHS — the national archives for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor denominations — holds a vast collection of Religious News Service (RNS) photographs, PHS staff designed and displayed an exhibit featuring some of RNS’s most powerful photos during the independent nonprofit news agency’s 90th Anniversary Symposium and Gala in New York City in September.
Founded in 1934 as Religious News Service, RNS — which changed its name to Religion News Service in 1994 — has been dedicated from its beginnings to providing fair, balanced, nonsectarian news about religion to the secular and religious press.
The PHS exhibit, titled “Faith & Justice in the 1960s: Religious News Service Covers Civil Rights,” was made possible by a Lilly Endowment Inc. planning grant to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Through some of the collection’s most powerful images, the exhibit provides a window into news coverage of the civil rights movement from 1961 to 1965, illuminating some lesser-known stories of people of faith who fought for justice, transforming the United States.
If additional funding can be secured, the exhibit could travel to other spots around the country. (Photo courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society)
“The exhibit covers well-known events such as the March on Washington and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham as well as central themes such as efforts to integrate schools and churches across the country and nonviolent responses to brutal acts of racism through the lens of religion, showing the impact of interfaith cooperation on the civil rights movement,” said Natalie Shilstut, PHS’s director of Programs and Services. “The images tell a familiar story from a lesser-known angle, or, as one viewer expressed in their survey response, ‘the events are very familiar, but the images and stories are new to me.’”
If additional funding is secured in the year ahead, PHS hopes the prototype exhibit will serve as a template to develop other traveling exhibits that will serve to tell the story of religion news reporting in the 20th century.
“Future traveling exhibits would continue to feature images and documents from the Religious News Service Collection to be displayed across the country at churches, other religious centers across faith communities, museums, and academic institutions,” said Nancy J. Taylor, PHS’s executive director. “The exhibits help further the original mission of the news service: to increase understanding, appreciation, and fellowship across religions and the secular world.”
Click here to learn more about the Religious News Service Photograph Collection.
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