Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers

by Preston Lauterbach

The little-known story of an iconic photographer, whose work captured—and influenced—a critical moment in American history.

Ernest Withers took some of the most legendary images of the 1950s and ’60 Martin Luther King, Jr., riding a newly integrated bus in Montgomery, Alabama; Emmett Till’s uncle pointing an accusatory finger across the courtroom at his nephew’s killer; scores of African-American protestors carrying a forest of signs reading “i am a man.” But at the same time, Withers was working as an FBI informant. In this gripping narrative history, Preston Lauterbach examines the complicated political and economic forces that informed Withers’s seeming betrayal of the people he photographed, and “does a masterful job of telling the story of civil rights in Memphis in the 1960s” (Ed Ward, Financial Times), including the events surrounding Dr. King’s tumultuous final march in Memphis.

Genres: Nonfiction, Photography, Biography, American History, History, Art, Historical

347 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2019

About the author

Preston Lauterbach is author of The Chitlin' Circuit (2011), Beale Street Dynasty (2015), and Bluff City (2019) and is co-author of Brother Robert (2020) and Timekeeper (2021).

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This review is my own opinion.

Based on title alone, I was excited to read this book. I was looking for something with depth and feeling. Withers, a grand photographer and iconic part of American history, shot many of the famous images associated with the civil rights movement. He was there to bear witness. The author does an excellent job of describing the events and the mood of the atmosphere in which Withers lived. I was looking for a bit more about Withers. The author does touch, very simply, on a few personal details about Withers but I wanted to read about his secret life and what drove him to the decisions that he made, especially those involving his role as informant. It's obvious in the writing that the author admires Withers but I think it would have been possible to dig a bit deeper into some of the personal history and still show respect. People make poor choices, it's life, and we all do it and for that reason it isn't necessary to clean up someone's poor choices so they look better on paper. There is no doubt that Withers was an extraordinary photographer and it clearly is supported in this writing. I wanted to learn more about the man. The book is very good reading for the content it contains on Withers. It's a beautiful testament to his life. It does not, however, reveal a secret life. It doesn't reveal anything that we don't already know.

[Cary Draper · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history behind this is worth all the stars in the world but the storytelling is BAD. It should be renamed “A rambling disjointed retelling of Memphis in the 60s with a little bit of Elvis.” This had very little to do with Ernest Withers, and a lot of the author’s opinion about the events that Withers documented. If anyone has a good book documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis please send it my way.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bluff City The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers good book about a talented African American photographer from Memphis Tennessee. mr. Withers covered many famous people and events with is camera. Over the decades he has taken pictures of Martin Luther King jr. Elvis Pressley, Rosa Parks. He was everywhere when his camera and captured so many events. He had a lot of obstacles to deal with as well but still was successful as a photographer.

[wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a biography of the photographer Ernest Withers and also his city Memphis during the 1950's and 1960's. He is important for two reasons - he is a great photographer and he was a secret source for the FBI to monitor the Civil Rights movement in Memphis. He was well known and accepted in the Black community and therefore gets an inside look at events as they unfold. The book culminates with the shooting of Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Hotel. A really interesting book about a complex man and time.

[Bob Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

African-American photojournalist Ernest Withers was a brilliant, complicated man. You may not know his name, but if you are over 40, read history or both you’ve seen his iconic images.
But he was complicated - hard to pigeonhole. And Americans, especially now, want very simplistic answers for complex problems. You know, “ A good, B bad” simplicity.
Withers was hard to simplify. He was black and proud of his race. But he was also a patriot - a WWII veteran, son of a WWI vet, grandson a former slave who fought for the Union in the Civil War. That made him a proud American, proud black man, proud father all at the same time - not stereotypic for his time or now.
So, finding that his work hangs in some of America’s most important museums, that he photographed the most critical members and most historic moments of the Civil Rights movement AND he worked at the same time as an FBI informant is a bit hard to square.
This well-written and researched book offers explanations, and shines light on the man and his time. Being a “snitch” is damning in the black community by I didn’t have to walk in his shoes. His photography caught history of the times and cannot be impugned. This is a good read.

[Mary Erickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject, Ernest Withers, a black photographer during the height of the Civil Rights uprisings--who was also working as an informant for the FBI. But perhaps the author had little primary source material to stay focused on Withers, so the book is filled with ancillary characters and reads rather disjointedly. Really, how much background do I want to read on Frank Holloman and his relationship to J. Edgar Hoover? Not that much. The book jacket calls it a "gripping narrative history," but I found it rather less than gripping, and not so very narrative. More like an expanded masters' thesis.

[Ash Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't often want a book to be longer. But this one could have been. Wish the author had done more to really dig into both the why of Withers informing and the effects. The book just lines up facts and gives the reader the work of figuring out why and what it means. Still, it is an astounding list of facts about Withers and his informing for the FBI. Already looking forward to the next book about Withers, and maybe more perspective on him once there has been more time been the FBI info release and present day.

[Nick Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor writing to me, but interesting story. I like when niche characters/moments have a major impact and this book covers that. However, the writer had some weird personal anecdotes. Instead of encouraging the reader to be objective, his personal touches came across as biases. Weak 3 star to me.

[Karess Winston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a history nerd!! I like the off the beaten path type of history. I appreciate all the well-known, heavy hitters, but I really enjoy learning about the not so well-known people and events as well!
This read was wonderfully written.

[Caroline Carrico · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Ernest Withers’s career as a FBI informant, paralleled by his career as a photojournalist

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary read in an extraordinary figure. A must read.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I appreciated an in-depth look at events during the civil rights movement in Memphis, I was expecting to read more about Ernest Withers. That was not so much the case. Rather disappointing.

[Crystal Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m from Memphis and loved this poetic, true, biography!

[Katelyn]

I won this book in a goodreads Kindle giveaway.

As a description of several key historical events of the civil rights movement, this book succeeds. But, the story would have benefitted from a deeper feeling of Withers himself. We rocketed through the 1950s and 1960s, weaving in people and events, without getting a real feel for Withers. He was busted twice for corruption, incidents that the author mentions casually out of the blue; he fathered a child with a sex worker, commented on and sanitized by the author in one sentence; and informed to the FBI on key leaders and organizers of the civil rights movement- presumably for the money but also maybe because he came from the reform school of 'change has to be gradual'. Withers purposely avoided discovering important information, the reason for which the reader is meant to assume was altruistic? But we have no other context for assuming this motive other than the author's clear admiration and affection for Withers. I can't help but wonder if a white man, though a talented storyteller, was the right choice to develop this work. I came away from Bluff City having enjoyed what I read but having no further insight into Withers.

[Frank Murtaugh]

Terrific, detailed account of a complicated life. (This word isn't often used in reflections on the American civil rights movement of the 1960s but it was, in fact, complicated.) The book provides the most vivid description I've read of the march/riot (in late March 1968) in Memphis that led to Martin Luther King's fateful return trip a week later.

Lauterbach's brief time with his subject makes the tale especially personal. In light of Withers's ties to the FBI, that personal touch is welcome. Was this acclaimed photographer a "good guy" or "bad guy"? Silly question. Much too complicated. Read the book.