The 'Road' to Civil Rights

In his victory speech, President-elect Barack Obama noted "the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta" -- the pivotal images of the civil rights movement that cannot help but be seen as milestones on the road to his own triumph.

Those are the exact images you'll find captured in a new show of civil rights photographs presented by the nascent National Museum of African American History and Culture -- a show that comes at an especially good time. "Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968" features nearly 200 photos, drawn mostly from the collection of Atlanta's High Museum of Art, with images of the March on Washington in 1963, the Little Rock Nine and many of the movement's leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

But look closely and you'll find some major surprises that make this show worth a visit: photos of the burned-out station wagon belonging to slain rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner that was dredged from a Mississippi swamp empty but said a lot about what happened to the young men; Rosa Parks being fingerprinted (if you read the details, you learn it wasn't her first arrest, but her second); the first desegregated bus ride in Montgomery, snapped by a photographer with the wits to rise early enough to catch the first bus out (there in front are King and fellow boycott leader Ralph Abernathy).

The most stunning might be Steve Schapiro's iconic photograph of the Tennessee motel room King was staying in when he was assassinated in 1968. Schapiro was among the first to be allowed into the room. What he shot was a simple elegy to a man who was both an icon and a human being: There is King's open briefcase, King's copy of Soul Force newspaper, King's rumpled shirt and copious plastic foam coffee cups. And in the background, a television news program, clearly delivering news of the civil rights leader's death.

This show stops at 1968, but a companion exhibition of contemporary paintings, sculpture and video works referencing the civil rights era continues the theme. The shows, which began this month, are open through March 9. Free. 10 a.m.-5:30 a.m. daily (closed Christmas day). The Smithsonian's S. Dillon Ripley Center, lower-level International Gallery, 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW. 202-633-1000 or visit http://www.si.edu/exhibitions.

-- Lavanya Ramanathan

The District

Today

EXHIBIT Election Season Ends, and So Does This Politically Themed Show "Herblock's Presidents: Puncturing Pomposity" at the National Portrait Gallery opened in May; now, with the elections over, this selection of editorial cartoons by the winner of multiple Pulitzer Prizes is set to close in a couple of weeks. The show features nearly 50 cartoons by the late Herbert Block, who worked for this very newspaper for more than half a century. Free. 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. daily through Nov. 30. Eighth and F streets NW. 202-633-1000.

Monday

FILM "Goya" Kicking off a seven-film Artists in Film series of movies from East and West Germany (before reunification, of course) and Switzerland, the Goethe-Institut in Chinatown screens Konrad Wolf's 1971 picture about Spanish artist Francisco de Goya and his brushes with the Inquisition. In German with English subtitles. $6; members, $4. Monday at 6:30 p.m. 812 Seventh St. NW. 202-289-1200.