The Whole World Was Watching, a photography exhibit tracing the Civil Rights Movement, opens this Saturday at the Menil Collection and The African American Library at the Gregory School.  The collected works from Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil portray a vivid and haunting  account of what it meant to be an African American living in the turbulent South, fighting  Jim Crow segregation. Reverend William Lawson, a forerunner of Civil Rights activism in Houston, will speak on the Menil bookstore deck; other highlights include songs by Heritage of Zion Quartet, music by Tierney Malone, and exhibit tours.

What: The Whole World Was Watching: Civil Rights Era Photographs from Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil

When: Saturday, March 5 through September 25

Where: Receptions 2-4 p.m. at The African American Library at the Gregory School; 4-6 p.m. at the Menil bookstore.

Cost: Free and open to the public

Additional info: The Whole World Was Watching launches “Freedom Now Project,” Houston’s commemoration of  sit-ins, marches, and boycotts that changed the social landscape of the South and help shaped the history of  the Civil Rights across the country. WITS joins other nonprofits  to present a variety of educational programs, lectures,  activities, and events leading up to and extending beyond the May 16th  premier of the PBS documentary Freedom Riders.

For more information, visit the Freedom Now website and follow the conversation on Facebook.