Sandra K. Friday
In 1967 Parks was asked by
Life
magazine for whom he worked to do a photo essay on why black people were rioting and why they were so discontented. He located the Fontenelle family in a tenement in Harlem and visited them daily, becoming involved for years in their struggle. One of the photos he took of Norman Jr. reading in bed is a provocative complement to "Black Muslim Schoolchildren."
The title of this photo
, "
Norman Jr. Reading in Bed," (
HPA
, p. 233), sounds promising: a boy reading in bed. But what we see is a joyless adolescent, under a grey blanket, wearing his jacket, most likely because there is no heat, lying on a mattress against a wall with three large holes in the plaster that exposes the lath underneath. It is not clear whether there are sheets on the bed or whether the striped fabric is pillow-ticking, the covering over the mattress.
"Black Muslim Schoolchildren" conveys optimism that books and education will be the answer for the children in the photo, but I have a sinking feeling, looking at Norman Jr., that his book is not enough to lift him out of the morass of his poverty. Even in the composition of the photo, Norman is horizontal, lying on the bed against a decrepit wall with holes in the plaster, signifying emptiness; in a sense, he is already down. In "Black Muslim Schoolchildren," verticals make up most of the composition and the bright-eyed boys are about to move forward into their future.
