A photo in the exhibit Danny Lyon: Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement at Hofstra Museum perfectly captures the best element of that cause.

Taken in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, the image features a black woman holding an American stick flag. Her face evokes anger tempered by grief while she stands with fellow members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at a funeral. Four teenage girls were killed by a Ku Klux Klan-planted bomb at a Baptist church. The woman holds the stick upright with both hands as if trying to hold tight to the flag’s symbolism and her fragile belief that the nation may one day uphold consistently the true meaning of its creed. READ MORE