Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Baltimore

Freed found in photography a medium that allowed him to "wander with a purpose" and provided the ideal means for exploring complex issues of social violence and racial discrimination. He was an important proponent of building meaning through series of photographs, and in 1968 published an important book-length documentary project on the civil rights era in America, "Black in White America". Freed began the project by photographing African American neighborhoods around New York City; he then purchased a car and began traveling throughout the South. Not only did he document important moments in the civil rights movement, he lived them, binding his own experiences with those of his subjects. This photograph shows a rally surrounding Dr. King’s return to the United States after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.