The first exhibition to explore the role played by visual images in shaping, influencing, and transforming the fight for civil rights in the United States, Color Pictures explores a myriad of images in multiple formats and sensibilities and in various contexts.

The photographs of the civil rights movement constitute the deepest and broadest photographic documentation of any social struggle in American history. Like freedom songs, photographs were integral to the movement, encapsulating feelings and strategies, furthering solidarity, and spreading knowledge.