News Photo with an Impact

From Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

There are pictures everywhere every day in the media, especially in the news. Photographs often help tell to explain a story, or sometimes explain the story on their own. The saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" certainly holds true, especially in this picture from August 7th, 1930 in Marion, Indiana. The two men shown lynched are Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. They were both accused of robbing and murdering a white man, then raping his girlfriend. A mob broke both of the accused out of jail the next day, beat them, and then Shipp and Smith were both hanged. Studio photographer Lawrence Beitler took the picture. This photo did an extraordinary job of capturing one of the darker times this country has gone through. There are a lot of faces in this crowd surrounding the bodies of Shipp and Smith, but none of them seem to be very remorseful. It appears that most of the crowd is busy staring at the bodies, however the people that are looking at the camera seem to be just fine with what just happened and some even seem to be enjoying themselves. One man in the middle is even pointing up towards the bodies as if to make sure that they are the focus of the shot. There is a large sense of indifference as to what just happened throughout the crowd.  This photo is not just a picture of two bodies hanging from a tree though. This is a portrait of racism in the 1930's captured in just one picture.