About This Image

Henry Clay Anderson ran the Anderson Photo Service in Greenville, Mississippi from the late 1940s to the '60s, and during that time every aspect of African-American life came before his lens. Though highly segregated, Greenville was the site of a thriving middle-class, African-American community—an aspect of American life that is all-too-rarely documented. Pictured is a young couple, dancing at their high school prom--a location that Anderson would have often been called upon to document, as he was also the local school's photographer.

From a portfolio of 10 prints, printed in an edition of 10, posthumously from Anderson’s original negatives by Laurent Girard. This image is #8 of 10.

This photograph is accompanied by a copy of an award-winning documentary about Mr. Anderson's photographs and the stories surrounding them: Separate, But Equal - winner of the 2011 HBO Best Documentary Film award at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (made by Shawn Wilson).

Illustrated in "Separate But Equal," PublicAffairs: New York, 2002. p. 40.