The Civil Rights Era in Pictures: 20 Images

Don Hogan Charles’ photograph of Malcolm X at the window with a rifle has a completely different temperature from many civil rights images. It is private, guarded, and tense. The curtain, the weapon, and the sideways watchfulness turn the home into a defensive space. Nothing about the photo asks to be softened. It shows a man alert to danger, framed by the window he is watching through.