Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (1912 - 2006)

Born 30 Nov 1912 in Fort Scott, Bourbon, Kansas, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Sally (Alvis) Parks — married 1933 (to 1961) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Died 7 Mar 2006 at age 93 in New York City, New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message]

Gordon Parks is a part of US Black history. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

Gordon Parks is Notable.

Gordon Parks was awarded the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American.

Gordon Parks was an American photographer, musician, writer and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism.^[1]

Gordon Parks was the youngest child of of Andrew Jackson Parks and Sarah Ross. He was born in 1912.^[2] His father was a tenant farmer who grew corn, beets, turnips, potatoes, collard greens, and tomatoes. They also had a few ducks, chickens, and hogs. The family struggled as a result of poverty.^[3]

Gordon faced aggressive discrimination as a child and later in his life referred to Fort Scott as "the mecca of bigotry".^[4] He attended a segregated elementary school. The town was too small to afford a separate high school that would facilitate segregation of the secondary school, but Black people were not allowed to play sports or attend school social activities, and they discouraged from developing any aspirations for higher education. Gordon often recalled, later in life, that one of his teachers told black students not to go to college, since they were destined to become maids and porters.^[5]

In 1923, when Gordon was 11, three white boys threw him into the Marmaton River, knowing he couldn't swim. Gordon had the presence of mind to duck underwater so they wouldn't see him make it to land.^[6]

In 1926, when Gordon was 14, his mother died. Gordon was sent to live with an older sister, Maggie Lee, and her husband in St. Paul, Minnesota. This situation ended after a few weeks with him being turned out onto the street by his brother-in-law after an argument, leaving him homeless.^[7] Gordon remained in Mechanical Arts High School and, later, Central High, where he was captain of the basketball team, but left school in 1928 before graduating.^[8]

Gordon's first job was as a piano player in a brothel when he was a teenager. He quit after one customer stabbed another in front of him.^[9] He also performed as a jazz pianist, despite a lack of any musical training.^[10][11]

In 1929, Gordon briefly worked in The Minnesota Club, a gentlemen's club. There he was able to observe the trappings of success and was able to read many books from the club library. When the club closed following the 1929 Wall Street Crash, Gordon went to Chicago and managed to land a job in a flophouse.^[12]

Gordon's song, "No Love", composed in another brothel, was performed during a national radio broadcast by Larry Funk and his orchestra in 1932. The bandleader first heard the song when Gordon was playing it on the piano in the hotel ballroom. He invited Gordon to join his all-white band.^[13]

In 1931, Gordon married Sally Alvis in Minneapolis. Together, they had three children: Gordon Jr., David, and Toni. Gordon and Sally divorced in 1961.^[14] After the birth of Gordon Jr., Gordon Sr. toured with Larry Funk's band for about a year. When it broke up, Gordon joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and worked clearing forest land.^[15]

Gordon purchased his first camera at the age of 25 after viewing photographs of migrant workers in a magazine. The photography clerk who developed his first roll of film encouraged him to seek a fashion assignment at a women's clothing store in St. Paul, Minnesota. These photographs caught the attention of Marva Louis, wife of the boxing champion Joe Louis, who encouraged him to move to a larger city. Gordon and Sally relocated their family to Chicago in 1940, where he began a portrait business, specializing in photographs of society women.^[16]

In 1941, Gordon won the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for his images of the inner city, which contributed to being asked to join the Farm Security Administration (FSA). He began to explore subjects beyond portraits and fashion photographs, becoming interested in the low-income black neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side.^[17] Gordon created some of his most enduring photographs during this fellowship, including "American Gothic, Washington, D.C.," picturing a black woman, Ella Watson, who worked on the cleaning crew of the FSA building. In the iconic photograph, Watson stands stiffly in front of an American flag hanging on the wall, a broom in one hand and a mop in the background. Gordon had been inspired to create the image after encountering racism repeatedly in restaurants and shops in the segregated capital city.^[18] Upon viewing the photograph, mentor Roy Stryker pronounced it to be an indictment of America and that it could get all of his photographers fired. Regardless, he urged Gordon to keep working with Watson, which led to a series of photographs of her daily life.^[19]

After the FSA disbanded, Gordon continued to take photographs for the Office of War Information. In 1944, Gordon resigned from the Office of War Information, disgusted with the prejudice he encountered in Washington D.C.^[20]

Relocating to Harlem, Gordon became a freelance fashion photographer for Vogue magazine. Gordon worked for Vogue for a number of years, developing a distinctive style that emphasized the look of models and garments in motion, rather than in static poses.^[21] Despite racist attitudes of the day, Alexander Liberman, editor of Vogue, hired him repeatedly.^[22]

Gordon later followed former mentor Roy Stryker to the Standard Oil Photography Project in New Jersey, which assigned photographers to take photos of small towns and industrial centers. During this time, Gordon published his first two books, "Flash Photography" (1947) and "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture" (1948).^[23]

Gordon continued to document city images and characters while working in the fashion industry. His 1948 photographic essay on a Harlem gang leader won Gordon a position as the first black staff photographer for LIFE magazine, the nation's highest circulation photographic publication.^[24] Gordon held this position for two decades, producing photographs on subjects including fashion, sports and entertainment as well as poverty and racial segregation. He was also took portraits of African-American leaders, including Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Muhammad Ali.^[25] Malcolm X later asked Gordon to be his daughter's godfather.^[26]

Gordon's photographs for LIFE captured images of post-war America, depicting black America emerging from the Civil Rights Movement.^[27] In 1950, LIFE assigned him a photo essay on school segregation and Gordon returned to Fort Scott to photograph the bitter trials of life for African Americans in Kansas, which his mother had wanted him to escape. These pictures would never be published, bumped from the magazine by stories deemed more newsworthy.^[28]

Gordon took photos of Marilyn Monroe during the shooting of the movie "Bus Stop".^[29]

Gordon launched a writing career during this period, beginning with his 1962 autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree. He would publish a number of books throughout his lifetime, including a memoir, several works of fiction, and volumes on photographic technique.^[30] Also in 1962, Gordon married his second wife, Liz Campbell.^[31] Together they had one daughter, Leslie. That same year, Gordon met Genevieve Young, who would eventually become his third wife.^[32]

In the 1950s Gordon worked as a consultant in various Hollywood productions. With his film adaptation of "The Learning Tree" in 1969, Gordon became Hollywood's first black director. He later went on to produce the detective film, Shaft.^[33] "Shaft" became a major hit that spawned a new genre of film referred to as blaxploitation. Gordon continued making movies with a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score", followed by "Super Cops". His ballet, Martin, based on Martin Luther King, Jr., premiered in 1969 and was screened on national television in 1970.^[34]

Gordon and Liz divorced in 1973. Shortly after, he married Genevieve Young.^[35] Gordon and Genevieve divorced in 1979. For many years, Gordon was linked romantically to Gloria Vanderbilt, the railroad heiress and designer. Their relationship evolved into a deep friendship that would endure throughout his life. ^[36]

During the 1980s, Gordon made several films for television.^[37] In 1985, he was named the Native Sons and Daughters' Kansan of the Year.^[38]

Gordon died at age 93 of complications from high blood pressure and prostate cancer.^[39] He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Scott, Kansas.^[40]

In 2011, Gordon was selected as one of the top 25 Notable Kansans by the Kansas Historical Society.^[41]

Quotes

“People in millenniums ahead will know what we were like in the 1930's and the thing that, the important major things that shaped our history at that time. This is as important for historic reasons as any other.”

“There's another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on, you know.”

“I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand.”^[42]

"I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs."^[43]

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks
2. ↑ "Minnesota, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLFS-JCG6 : 3 March 2020), Gordon Alexander Parks, 1940.
3. ↑ https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/gordon-parks/12164
4. ↑ http://time.com/3664001/gordon-parks-fort-scott/
5. ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Parks-Gordon.html
6. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
7. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
8. ↑ http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1702001
9. ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Parks-Gordon.html
10. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
11. ↑ http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1702001
12. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
13. ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Parks-Gordon.html
14. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
15. ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Parks-Gordon.html
16. ↑ https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
17. ↑ https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
18. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
19. ↑ https://www.geni.com/people/Gordon-Parks/6000000018664084131
20. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
21. ↑ https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
22. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
23. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
24. ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Parks-Gordon.html
25. ↑ https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
26. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
27. ↑ https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/gordon-parks/12164
28. ↑ http://time.com/3664001/gordon-parks-fort-scott/
29. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
30. ↑ https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
31. ↑ "New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967"
    New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA; New York State Marriage Index Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61632 #3942311 Gordon A Parks marriage to Elizab A Campbell on 15 Dec 1962 in White Plains, New York, USA.
32. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
33. ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Parks-Gordon.html
34. ↑ https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/gordon-parks/12164
35. ↑ "New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018" New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan
    Ancestry Record 61406 #4022897
    Gordon Parks marriage to Genevieve Young in 1973.
36. ↑ https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000716mag-relations-vanderbilt.html
37. ↑ http://www.cursumperficio.net/FicheAParks.html
38. ↑ https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/gordon-parks/12164
39. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5J6-DMC : 11 January 2021), Gordon Parks, 07 Mar 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
40. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVD-9SRH : 9 June 2021), Gordon A. Parks, ; Burial, Fort Scott, Bourbon, Kansas, United States of America, Evergreen Cemetery; citing record ID 13558429, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
41. ↑ https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/gordon-parks/12164
42. ↑ https://www.biography.com/people/gordon-parks-37379
43. ↑ http://time.com/3664001/gordon-parks-fort-scott/

• "Kansas State Census, 1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGKD-NTLM : 12 October 2019), Gordon Parks in household of Anna Parks, Fort Scott, Bourbon, Kansas, United States; citing Fort Scott, Bourbon, Kansas, United States, , 9, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka.
• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFDR-99C : 1 February 2021), Gordon Parks in entry for Jackson Parks, 1920.

• "Brasil, Cartões de Imigração, 1900-1965," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27FQ-BP9 : 4 March 2021), Gordon Parks, Immigration; citing 1961, Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro (National Archives, Rio de Janeiro).