Soledad O'Brien in CNN's "Pictures Don't Lie"

Soledad O'Brien with Andrew Withers, Ernest Withers' son
from the CNN documentary "Pictures Don't Lie."
Photo via Black America Web

"Pictures Don't Lie" Shows the Many Layers of Ernest Withers

Pictures Don't Lie airs Sunday 2/20 at 8-9 p.m. ET on CNN.

"The story, when it emerged last September, was a shocker: Ernest Withers, one of the most iconic and important photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, a man who intimately documented countless historic events, was also an informant for the FBI, passing on information about everyone from local Memphis gangs to Martin Luther King.

Withers' family, O'Brien said, was 'stunned and hurt' when the news emerged. They had to contend not only with what the revelations meant for Withers' legacy as an icon of the Civil Rights movement, but also with what they meant for his relationship with them.

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien knew Withers the way everyone else did: through his pictures. Withers’ snapshots of Emmett Till’s mutilated corpse and striking Memphis sanitation workers holding signs that say “I Am A Man” are two of the most famous photographs of the Civil Rights era. He became the premiere black photographer of the Civil Rights Movement in the South during the 1950s and 1960s, and gained unparalleled access to the leading figures of the day. (One of his most famous pictures is a rare snapshot of Martin Luther King lying in his bed and reading a newspaper.) The news that Withers had had a double life from 1968 to 1970 as an FBI informant was as stunning to O'Brien as anyone else, and led her to make the latest documentary in her “In America” series.


Pictures Don’t Lie focuses on Ernest Withers: his life, his work for the FBI, the effect that the revelations about him have had, and, finally, the photographs that made him famous.

O’Brien said that the “many layers” of the story were what drew her to it: a man whose photographs were undeniably valuable—including some, such as his picture of Emmett Till’s body, which were nearly earth-shaking—and who was deeply entrenched in his community was also watching that community and telling the FBI what he had seen. For O’Brien, the story allowed her to examine the Civil Rights era from many different angles—the relationship between law enforcement and the black community, the black journalism of the period, and the reaction of some of the movement’s leading luminaries to the startling news of Withers’ FBI ties.

excerpted from : Soledad O'Brien's 'Pictures Don't Lie' Looks At Civil Rights Photographer Ernest Withers' FBI Ties

"Pictures Don't Lie" Debuts This Weekend

This weekend, CNN's Soledad O'Brien looks at a story from the Civil Rights era that has an air of mystery.

Why did Ernest Withers, the renowned Memphis civil rights photographer, also act as a paid informant for the FBI?

Here is a review from http://www.washingtonpost.com

Withers had intimate access to the top civil rights leaders of the day, especially Martin Luther King Jr., but also to some of the movement's more militant fringe. It all began in 1955, when Withers, who had specialized in photographing black celebrities, took intentionally shocking open-casket pictures of Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager who was beaten and shot in Mississippi. From there, Withers was always on the scene, all across the South.

'Pictures Don't Lie' is a thoughtful exploration of the debate that has gathered around Withers's legacy, as well as an opportunity to consider the breadth of his work. After he died in 2007, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Withers was secretly paid to provide government agents with insider details, whereabouts and names. Activist and entertainer Dick Gregory, an early subject of Withers's pictures, tells O'Brien that he now thinks of the photographer as a 'black Judas' who betrayed the trust of those he photographed.

Withers 1975

Others - including Andrew Young, Earl Caldwell, Maxine Smith and three of Withers's children - are far more circumspect and forgiving, to the point of wondering if he even caused any harm. Withers made unforgettably historic images without much pay or recognition, which may have made the FBI's offer more tempting. He took the secret to the grave, and there it might have remained, except that his name was not redacted from certain FBI documents made available through a Freedom of Information Act request.

'Pictures Don't Lie' is refreshingly open to nuance, and O'Brien conducts precise interviews with people still trying to understand Withers's motives. The theme comes back around to the striking quality of his photos. Some may look at the pictures differently now, but the point is that they are looking.

Pictures Don't Lie airs Sunday at 8-9 p.m. ET on CNN.

"Pictures Don't Lie" on CNN

Watch a video trailer for Soledad O'Brien's next CNN documentary. It's about Ernest Withers, the controversial civil rights photographer turned FBI informant.

"Pictures Don't Lie" will air Sunday, Feb 20 at 8pm EST.