Ghosts of Segregation

Blog overview

Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten locations of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment. ‘Ghosts of Segregation’, a project by photographer Richard Frishman explores these sites, often hidden in plain sight. It seeks to spark an honest conversation about the legacy of racial injustice in America today. One of his photos (left or see Blog tab) shows a former Tastee-Freez in Meadville, Miss., the place where in 1964, the KKK abducted two young black men. They were tortured and drowned in the Mississippi River.

Testimony of our landscape

By Richard Frishman

March 10, 2021

House and ambush site of state field secretary for the NAACP Medgar Evers (Jackson, Miss.). In 1963, he was gunned down in his driveway by a white supremacist.   All human landscapes are embedded with cultural meaning. And since we rarely consider our constructions as evidence of our priorities, beliefs and behaviors, the testimonies our …...

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The Original Sin

By Richard Frishman

March 3, 2021

A former ‘segregation wall,’  built to separate customers of color. Templin Saloon, Gonzales (TX).   Slavery is often referred to as America’s “original sin.” Its demons still haunt us in the form of segregated housing, education, health care, employment. Through these photographs, I’m trying to preserve the physical evidence of that sin — because, when …...

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“We might get lost again”

By Richard Frishman

February 24, 2021

Former colored entrance to a theater, Kilgore (TX).   The six faded letters are all that remain, and few people notice them. I would never have seen them if a friend hadn’t pointed them out to me while we walked through New Orleans’s French Quarter. I certainly wouldn’t have realized their significance. On Chartres Street, …...

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