The Texarkana Regional Arts & & Humanities Council’s 21st Yearly Regional Celebration of African American Artists concentrates on the historic photojournalism of Ernest C. Withers. Entitled Excellent Night, My Love, the exhibit goes through March 25 and features entries by local enthusiasts and a cellular phone photography competitors among high school students.Withers is best known for recording the upheaval of America’s Civil Rights movement across the South from the 1940s to 1960s. His cam recorded scenes that attest to the battles and triumphs of this transformative time in American history– from the front row of the Emmett Till trial in Sumner, Mississippi, to the very first day of classes for the Little Rock 9, to Civil Rights marches alongside James Meredith and Martin Luther King Jr. Over six years, Withers accumulated roughly 1.8 million photographs
. Some appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The TriState Protector, the Pittsburgh Courier, Jet, Ebony, Newsweek, Life, People, and Time, and have been featured in exhibitions around the globe. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, presently shows more than 30 of his images.The Regional Arts Center lies at 321 West fourth Street in Texarkana
and is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For info call(903 )792-8681 or go to www.trahc.org.