Don Sturkey Photographic Materials, 1951-2007 (bulk 1951-1989)

Summary

Creator:
Sturkey, Don.
Abstract:

The collection of white photographer Don Sturkey of Charlotte, N.C., contains images, 1951 to 2007, chiefly made when Sturkey was a staff photographer for the Charlotte Observer between 1955 and 1989. Photographs primarily depict news and sports events, numerous North Carolina and national politicians, and musicians and other entertainers. Sturkey's images also capture the civil rights movement and racist backlash to the movement in Charlotte, N.C., including protests and picketing of segregated establishments, Ku Klux Klan rallies, and the first African American student to integrate Charlotte and Mecklenburg County school, Dorothy Counts when she walked into Harding High School in 1957 followed by a crowd of white people taunting her. Also included are photographs of several NASA launches (1968-1972) from The Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Fla. and images depicting the construction of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. in 1971.

Extent:
107,800 items (Linear Feet: About 35 linear feet; Boxes: 77 boxes)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Don Sturkey (1931-2025) retired as chief photographer of the Charlotte Observer in 1989 after 34 years. The native of Lincoln County, Ga., arrived at his profession by chance; Sturkey joined the United States Navy in 1948 and was assigned to shore duty in Washington. He repeatedly asked to be transferred, including to photography school, and in early 1950 he was granted this opportunity. Sturkey went on to be the first staff photographer at the Shelby Daily Star and worked there for one summer. He attended Gardner-Webb College in Boiling Springs, N.C., and joined the staff of the High Point Enterprise following college. Sturkey began working at the Charlotte Observer in November of 1955.

In 1961 Sturkey was named National Newspaper Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association for work he completed in 1960. He was the first southerner to win this award. Sturkey's work has appeared in periodicals including Time, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and Ebony. He served as president of the Carolinas Press Photographers Association in 1965, as chair of the National Press Photographers Ethics Committee in 1975, and as chair of the National Press Photographers Association's National Pictures of the Year competition in 1976. Sturkey is the author of A Slice of Time: A Carolina's Album 1950-90 (1990), which includes highlights of his work covering the Carolinas, and provided photographs for The Catawba River (1983) and Becoming Truly Free: 300 Years of Black History in the Carolinas (1985). In 1991, Sturkey was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.

Scope and content:

This collection is comprised of the photographic materials created by Don Sturkey from 1951-1989. The majority of the negatives were produced in his capacity as staff photographer for the Charlotte Observer (1955-1989). Primarily depicted are local news and sports events covered by Sturkey. He captured numerous images portraying the tense racial climate of the time, including Ku Klux Klan meetings and rallies; blacks and whites picketing segregated establishments; a lottery drawing for school integration in the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County public schools; and Dorothy Counts, the first black student to attend Harding High School in Charlotte in 1957. Also photographed were Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin Chavis, and Rosa Parks. Politicians photographed, largely while campaigning for office, include Senator Eugene McCarthy, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, President Richard Nixon, President John F. Kennedy, President Jimmy Carter, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Vice President Al Gore, Senator Bob Dole and Elizabeth Dole, Senator Strom Thurmond, Senator and Mrs. Jesse Helms, and President Ronald Reagan. Musicians photographed by Sturkey include Elvis Presley (in 1956), Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Carl Sandburg, and Johnny Cash. Sturkey also captured the launches of the Apollo 8, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions and the contruction of Walt Disney World in 1971.

Also included is the portfolio that earned him his 1960 National Newspaper Photographer of the Year award, which contains images of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy and Richard Nixon during their respective presidential campaigns.

Images in this collection depict members, slogans, and paraphernalia associated with the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist and domestic terrorist organization.

Acquisition information:

Don Sturkey donated the collection in 2005 and 2012.

Processing information:

Processed by: Patrick Cullom with assistance from Dorothy Irwin, October 2009; Patrick Cullom, January 2012 and May 2019.

Encoded by: Patrick Cullom, February 2010

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2020; Anne Wells, September 2021

In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
African Americans--Civil rights--North Carolina--Photographs.
African Americans--Civil rights--North Carolina--Charlotte--Photographs.
Apollo 8 flight--Photographs.
Apollo 15 flight--Photographs.
Apollo 16 flight--Photographs.
Apollo 17 flight--Photographs.
Busing for school integration--North Carolina--Photographs.
Busing for school integration--North Carolina--Charlotte--Photographs.
Discrimination in education--North Carolina--Photographs.
Discrimination in education--North Carolina--Charlotte--Photographs.
School integration--North Carolina--Photographs.
School integration--North Carolina--Charlotte--Photographs.
Stock car racing--North Carolina--Photographs
Photographers--North Carolina.
Photojournalism.
Photojournalists--North Carolina.
Names:
Beach Boys--Photographs.
Biltmore Estate (Asheville, N.C.)--Photographs.
Charlotte Checkers (Hockey team)--Photographs.
Charlotte Motor Speedway (Concord, N.C.)--Photographs.
General Tire & Rubber Co.--Photographs
Kingston Trio--Photographs.
Ku Klux Klan (1915- )--North Carolina--Photographs.
Monkees (Musical group)--Photographs.
National Press Photographers Association (U.S.)--Photographs.
Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows--Photographs.
Sacred Heart College (Belmont, N.C.)--Photographs.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration--Photographs.
Charlotte observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Agnew, Spiro T., 1918-1996
Anka, Paul.
Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971.
Baez, Joan.
Brown, James, 1933-2006.
Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
Case, Everett N. (Everett Norris), 1900-1966.
Cash, Johnny.
Cash, June Carter, 1929-2003.
Charles, Ray, 1930-2004.
Coolidge, Rita.
Connally, John Bowden, 1917-1993.
Diamond, Neil.
Dole, Elizabeth Hanford.
Dole, Robert J., 1923-
Downs, Hugh.
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-
Ervin, Sam J. (Sam James), 1896-1985.
Faircloth, Lauch, 1928-
Feller, Bob, 1918-2010.
Fonda, Jane, 1937-
Fontaine, Joan, 1917-
Ford, Gerald R., 1913-2006.
Friday, William C. (William Clyde)
Garland, Judy.
Gore, Albert, 1948-
Graham, Billy, 1918-
Graham, Frank Porter, 1886-1972.
Harris, Emmylou.
Helms, Dorothy Coble.
Helms, Jesse.
Hillary, Edmund, 1919-2008.
Hodges, Luther Hartwell, 1898-1974.
Hollings, Ernest F., 1922-
Holshouser, James E.
Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978.
Hunt, James B., 1937-
Jackson, Jesse, 1941-
Jackson, Mahalia, 1911-1972.
John Paul II, Pope, 1920-2005.
Johnson, Lady Bird, 1912-2007.
Jordan, Michael, 1963-
Justice, Charlie, 1924-2003.
Kaye, Danny.
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.
Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968.
Lyon, Sue, 1946-
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.
Kristofferson, Kris.
McCarthy, Eugene J., 1916-2005.
Mansfield, Jayne, 1933-1967.
Maris, Roger, 1934-1985.
Minnelli, Liza.
Minnie Pearl.
Moore, Daniel Killian, 1906-1986.
Morton, Hugh M.
Munsel, Patrice, 1925-
Murrow, Edward R.
Nicklaus, Jack.
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994.
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 1929-1994.
Paige, Satchel, 1906-1982.
Palmer, Arnold, 1929-
Parks, Larry, 1914-1975.
Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005.
Player, Gary.
Presley, Elvis, 1935-1977.
Rayburn, Sam, 1882-1961.
Reagan, Ronald.
Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979.
Romney, George W., 1907-1995.
Sanford, Terry, 1917-1998.
Scoggins, Dorothy Counts.
Scott, Randolph, 1898-1987.
Sothern, Ann, 1909-2001.
Spillane, Mickey, 1918-2006
Thurmond, Strom, 1902-2003.
Tiny Tim, 1932-1996.
Von Braun, Wernher, 1912-1977.
Wallace, George C. (George Corley), 1919-1998.
Waters, Ethel, 1896-1977.
Wyman, Jane, 1917-2007
Sturkey, Don.
Places:
Ashland (Ohio)--Photographs.
Atlanta (Ga.)--Photographs.
Augusta (Ga.)--Photographs.
Belmont (Gaston County, N.C.)--Photographs.
Bermuda Island (Bermuda Islands)--Photographs.
Blowing Rock (N.C.)--Photographs.
Boiling Springs (Cleveland County, N.C.)--Photographs.
Boone (N.C.)--Photographs.
Cabarrus County (N.C.)--Photographs.
Cape Canaveral (Fla.)--Photographs.
Charlotte (N.C.)--Photographs.
Concord (N.C.)--Photographs.
Fairmont (N.C.)--Photographs.
Gastonia (N.C.)--Photographs.
Grandfather Mountain (N.C.)--Photographs.
High Point (N.C.)--Photographs.
Jacksonville (Fla.)--Photographs.
Kannapolis (N.C.)--Photographs.
Kill Devil Hills (N.C.)--Photographs.
Lexington (N.C.)--Photographs.
Linville Caverns (N.C.)--Photographs.
Long Island City (New York, N.Y.)--Photographs.
Mecklenburg County (N.C.)--Photographs.
Myrtle Beach (S.C.)--Photographs.
Nashvile (Tenn.)--Photographs.
New London (Conn.)--Photographs.
New York (N.Y.)--Photographs.
Normandy (France)--Photographs.
Ocean Isle Beach (N.C.)--Photographs.
Orlando (Fla.)--Photographs.
Pisgah National Forest (N.C.)--Photographs.
Plains (Ga.)--Photographs.
Raleigh (N.C.)--Photographs.
Richmond (Va.)--Photographs.
Rocky Mount (N.C.)--Photographs.
Shelby (N.C.)--Photographs.
Savannah (Ga.)--Photographs.
Stone Mountain State Park (N.C.)--Photographs.
Wallace (N.C.)--Photographs.
Walt Disney World (Fla.)--History--Photographs.
Washington (D.C.)--Photographs.
Charlotte (N.C.)--Race relations.
Charlotte (N.C.)--Social conditions.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions to access.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item], in the Don Sturkey Photographic Materials #P0070, North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu