It was 2023 and my friend Alan (an artist, architect, and designer) was visiting me in Oakland, California when he found several old black-and-white prints in my closet.
“What are these?” he asked.
I explained that they were images I had shot during my stint at a summer camp, back in 1971. Alan was so impressed with these photos, he arranged to have them framed and exhibited locally.
As I think back, I see that a tremendous opportunity had presented itself for me during a time I was doing photography but also burning out from working odd jobs in New York City to support myself: that summer, I was invited to teach children photography at Camp Blue Star, in Hendersonville, North Carolina, an Jewishowned overnight camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As a one-week experiment, they had invited a group of inner-city children of all races to join in with the more privileged kids for the first time. I would become the camp photography teacher, free to shoot, develop, and print as I wanted.
That year, Black children from Atlanta, Georgia and other cities would enjoy the outdoors – go swimming in a pristine lake and make friends with a new peer group –a mix of kids from across.
At the time, I didn’t fully grasp the historical significance of what the camp was improvising, as the Deep South had been transitioning from the “Jim Crow” era to adapting to the new reality of living under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed public segregation.
Inspired by this new idea, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, came to the camp with her four children. Of all the kids I photographed, this family remained especially memorable to me.
The camp's energy and leaders left a lasting imprint: the experience “came into my life” and influenced later choices.
Years later I married, fathered a biological daughter, and, with an ex-wife, adopted three mixed-race children and one Korean boy — circling back to the influence of Camp Blue Star’s interracial environment on my life.
I have never forgotten that time. A time of hope and joy. A time of grace and sharing.
Beautiful Faces, 1971
CAMP BLUE STAR: HENDERSONVILLE, NC
Beautiful Faces 1971 is a photographic journey back in time to the first interracial summer overnight camp in the South. Remember of course, in those days most children played, communicated, acted silly, and had sleep-overs only within their racial divide of either black or white.
So, this first overnight summer camp was special and unfamiliar, particularly for those southern communities that sponsored children to attend for a week.
The specialness of this event attracted Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, who attended with her children to participate in the camp itself.
This monumental first camp took place at Camp Blue Star in Hendersonville, NC, nestled away on 500 acres with a small lakeside village of children's cabins spread around with trails and roads heading up towards the many fields and camp outbuildings up the mountainside. Idyllic for urban children to escape to and create a temporary new order of all children playing and enjoying each other, no matter what they looked like.
This unique series of photographs is a slice of history never before seen. It was for some a "Summer of Love" ... an awakening ... Hope!