‘Jim Crow must go’: the artists and everyday heroes who fought injustice – in pictures

Turn the Volume Up! at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University highlights the activism of everyday people who have confronted injustice. New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, quoting the Bronx rapper KRS-One’s song Turn the Volume Up during his election-day victory speech inspired the name of the exhibit. Featuring work by artists such as Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and the Guerrilla Girls, the show examines how protests and collective action can create and inspire social change. Turn the Volume Up! opens on 27 August and runs through 11 July 2027

Kara Walker, Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta from the portfolio Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005

Photograph: © Kara Walker. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion

Bruce Davidson, Time of Change, 1962

Photograph: Bruce Davidson

Ralph Gibson, American Gothic from the portfolio America: Now and Here, 2009

Photograph: Ralph Gibson

Bruce Davidson, Time of Change, 1963-1965

Photograph: Bruce Davidson

Peter Williams, Incarnation, 2019

Photograph: The Estate of Peter Williams. Photo by Brian Quinby

Kara Walker, Signal Station, Summit of Maryland Heights from the portfolio Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) , 2005

Photograph: © Kara Walker. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion

Reggie Burrows Hodges, Community Appreciation: Orchestra, 2020

Photograph: Reggie Burrows Hodges. Image courtesy of the artist and Karma, New York

Carol Summers, Kill for Peace from the portfolio Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1967

Photograph: Estate of Carol Summers. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion

Spider Martin, Dr King Speaks to the Crowd of 25,000 people at the March’s End, 1965

Photograph: Spider Martin/Briscoe Center For American History

Lyle Ashton Harris, Blow Up II (Armory), Detail from the portfolio America: Now and Here, 2005 (printed 2009)

Photograph: Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Gift of Dr and Mrs Ronald Francesco, 2013.15.1

Bruce Davidson, Time of Change, 1963

Photograph: Bruce Davidson