By Lori Rader
Communications Manager

MUNCIE, Ind. -- The photojournalist who captured what the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. called "powerful days of challenge to make America what it ought to be" speaks Wednesday, Feb. 24, at Ball State University.

The Office of the Provost and the Department of Journalism host internationally renowned photojournalist Charles Moore to present "Powerful Days---The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore" in Emens Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Perhaps the best-known photographer of the civil rights movement, Moore witnessed many of the most significant events of the era including James Meredith's admission to the University of Mississippi, the protests in Birmingham and the Selma march. Much of his work was published in LIFE magazine during the 1960s.

Moore's photographs did far more than document the days of the movement. The publicity he created helped lead to national outrage, culminating in Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. said Moore's photos of police dogs attacking a protestor in Birmingham helped transform the national mood and made the passing of the Civil Rights Act not just necessary, but possible.

In 1989, one of Moore's photos was named the winner of the first annual Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism. The resulting publicity renewed interest in his work from the era.

Moore is a free-lance photographer based in Shelburne Falls, Mass. He began taking pictures at the age of fourteen and holds an honorary master's degree in professional photography from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif.

His work focusing on the human condition has included images of civil war in the Dominican Republic and political violence in Venezuela and Haiti.

Sponsored by Eastman Kodak, Moore lectures and presents his work at universities and photography workshops around the country. His work can be viewed at www.civilrightsphotos.com on a Webpage created by Ball State photojournalism instructor John Kaplan.