The Digital Journalist has the story behind the Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken by Stanley Forman of an anti-busing rally that was held in Boston on April 5, 1976.

It’s in essay form, taken from the book The Soiling of Old Glory: The Story of a Photograph That Shocked America by Louis P. Masur.

The picture, taken by Stanley Forman at an anti-busing rally held at Boston’s City Hall Plaza on April 5, 1976, won the Pulitzer Prize for the Boston Herald American spot news photographer.

A portrait of unthinkable racial hatred, the photograph punctured the nation’s comfortable illusion that the struggle over civil rights was primarily a Southern phenomenon, and it crystallized Boston’s reputation as a racist city. Following the assault, the man at the center of the frame, who is none other than Landsmark, proclaimed that someone tried “to kill me with an American flag.”

The photograph presents a sickening sight. Landsmark is being grabbed from behind. He seems to be struggling to free himself as a large crowd looks on. The flag bearer’s feet are planted, his hands firmly grasping the staff, his eyes focused on his target. His hair flows back as he prepares to lunge forward. Attacker and victim are forever frozen in time, and we feel trapped beside them. We can glance away, but we cannot escape the horror of what we imagine the next instant will bring.

The image served as a harsh reminder that the triumphs of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s had turned tragic. Progress had been made, but alongside it stood backlash and failure. Americans cherished stories of wrongs righted, of darkness yielding to light, but Forman’s picture provided a poisonous counter-narrative. The brotherhood of man was a worthy ideal, and it even seemed at times that a strong foundation had been laid for its realization. But in a claustrophobic courtyard, a white man turned the American flag against a black man, and the ideal crumbled.

You can get the full story at The Digital Journalist which has all the background info on how the famous photo was taken.

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