The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin is home to the Flip Schulke Photographic Archive, one of the most historically important collections documenting the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
A close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. throughout this pivotal era, Schulke eventually compiled the largest known single archive of images of Dr. King and his family. Donated to the university’s Briscoe Center in 1999, Schulke’s photographs not only show King at public events, but also provide a candid view of his daily life, with many images never before seen by the public. Schulke’s photographs have another tie to the university campus, as the statue of Dr. King on East Mall is modeled after one of his images.
Schulke’s 10,000 photographs of the civil rights era are part of larger collection of 300,000 original images, including acclaimed photographs of Jacques Cousteau, Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali and the space program. To learn more about the Flip Schulke Photographic Archive and see more images from the collection, see the collection’s finding aid and the Briscoe Center’s digital database.
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The 18th annual community march celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. will begin with a rally at the Martin Luther King Jr. Statue on the university’s East Mall at 9 a.m. on Jan. 16. More information about the celebration is online.
