Congressman Cohen Announces $100,000 Grant to The Withers Collection

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) today announced that the Memphis-based Withers Collection Museum and Gallery on Beale Street will receive a $100,000 Museum Grant for African American History and Culture from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The grant will be used to digitize and make available on a public platform approximately 4,000 of the unique images created by Dr. Ernest Withers Sr. (1922 – 2007), a native Memphian, who was an internationally acclaimed photographer recognized for his iconic photographs in Memphis and the broader south during the Civil Rights era.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

“Ernest Withers’ photographs of the major events in Civil Rights history, and his extraordinary access to the major figures of his day, often in private settings, deserve protection and improved availability to the public. This Institute of Museum and Library Services grant will accomplish both goals and will make Withers’ work more widely known.”

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