{"id":83386,"date":"2015-01-15T13:02:14","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T18:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=83386"},"modified":"2021-01-21T15:09:28","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T20:09:28","slug":"photographing-mlk-in-1964-george-conklin-53-focused-on-the-final-frames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/15\/photographing-mlk-in-1964-george-conklin-53-focused-on-the-final-frames\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing MLK in 1964, George Conklin ’53 focused on the final frames"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This black-and-white photograph shows Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at an interfaith rally at San Francisco\u2019s Cow Palace in May 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A beam of light illuminates King at the podium, as if conferring a celestial blessing. George Conklin \u201953 remembers the scene well. He took the photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at an interfaith rally at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on May 30, 1964. (Photograph by George Conklin ’53)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Conklin and his photograph received a DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award from the Religion Communicators Council, a national interfaith association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award recognizes the photo\u2019s installation at San Francisco\u2019s McLaren Park, overlooking the Cow Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engraved on a stone, the photo is part of a \u201cmusing station\u201d on the park\u2019s new Philosopher\u2019s Way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
2021 Update<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Now 89, George Conklin ’53 is sheltering at home in Berkeley, Calif., “shouting thanks to postal and delivery workers.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

In 1964, Conklin, an ordained United Church of Christ minister, was communications director for the Northern California Council of Churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was photographing King\u2019s appearance using Kodak Tri-X, the go-to film of the day for photojournalists who prized its high speed \u2014 meaning they could shoot in difficult, low-light conditions without a flash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s what Conklin was doing on the night of May 30, 1964. \u201cThe long evening wore on, the humidity in the vast hall increased and I could see the beam appearing. I got up and took the last frames of a 36-frame roll.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conklin has also photographed such notables as Cesar Chavez, theologian Karl Barth, Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah bunker and then-Sen. Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI often say, \u2018Join the church and see the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sense, Conklin\u2019s photography is part of his ministry. \u201cI have expressed the ideas of action for justice and social change through my avocation of photography.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A beam of light illuminates King at the podium, as if conferring a celestial blessing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":83387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11009],"tags":[1444,165,5709],"class_list":["post-83386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-college","tag-bates-history","tag-history","tag-martin-luther-king-jr-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83386"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137970,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83386\/revisions\/137970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}