Daily Mail Logo Daily Mail | Slide 1 of 12: Gordon Parks, a seminal figure of twentieth century America, was a photographer, humanitarian and civil rights activist. He took pictures that gave the American public the first glimpse of the joy and despair experienced by black Americans during the early 1940s. Parks got his big break as the first black photojournalist for Life in 1956, the year that Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, where he told the story of the Thornton family, who lived in Alabama. He would then dedicate the next decade and more to documenting the Civil Rights Movement, as well as laying bare unseen moments that unfolded backstage. Click through to see some of his most striking photos that changed the world... < PREVIOUS SLIDE SLIDE 1 of 12 NEXT SLIDE >

Gordon Parks, a seminal figure of twentieth century America, was a photographer, humanitarian and civil rights activist. He took pictures that gave the American public the first glimpse of the joy and despair experienced by black Americans during the early 1940s. Parks got his big break as the first black photojournalist for Life magazine in 1956, the year that Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, where he told the story of the Thornton family, who lived in Alabama. He would then dedicate the next decade and more to documenting the Civil Rights Movement, as well as laying bare unseen moments that unfolded backstage. Click through to see some of his striking photos that changed the world...

© Gordon Parks/The Gordon Parks Foundation, Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery