Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was a groundbreaking
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographerPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
,
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
ian,
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
,
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist,
journalistJournalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
,
activistActivism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
and
film directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. He is best remembered for his photo essays for
LifeLife generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine and as the director of the 1971 film
ShaftShaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. An action film with elements of film noir, Shaft tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob neighborhoods in order to find the...
.
Photography career
At the age of 25, Parks was struck by photographs of migrant workers in a magazine and bought his first camera, a
VoigtländerVoigtländer is an optical company founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna in 1756 and is thus the oldest name in cameras. It produced the Petzval photographic lens in 1840, and the world's first all-metal daguerrotype camera in 1841, also bringing out plate cameras shortly afterwards...
Brilliant, for $12.50 at a pawnshop. The photo clerks who developed Parks' first roll of film, applauded his work and prompted him to get a fashion assignment at Frank Murphy's women's clothing store in St. Paul. Parks double exposed every frame except one, but that shot caught the eye of Marva Louis, heavyweight boxing champion
Joe LouisJoseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
' elegant wife. She encouraged Parks to move to Chicago, where he began a portrait business for society women.
Over the next few years, Parks moved from job to job, developing a freelance portrait and fashion photographer sideline. He began to chronicle the city's South Side black ghetto and in 1941 an exhibition of those photographs won Parks a photography fellowship with the
Farm Security AdministrationInitially created as the Resettlement Administration in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty...
. Working as a trainee under
Roy StrykerRoy Emerson Stryker was an American economist, government official, and photographer. He is most famous for heading the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression and launching the documentary photography movement of the FSA.After serving in the infantry...
, Parks created one of his best known photographs,
American Gothic, Washington, D.C. (named after the
Grant WoodGrant DeVolson Wood was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.- Life and career :His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his...
painting
American GothicAmerican Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood's inspiration came from a cottage designed in the Gothic Revival style with a distinctive upper window and a decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that...
). The photo shows a black woman, Ella Watson, who worked on the cleaning crew for the FSA building, standing stiffly in front of an American flag, a broom in one hand and a mop in the background. Parks had been inspired to create the picture after encountering repeated
racismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in restaurants and shops, following his arrival in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Upon viewing it, Stryker said that it was an indictment of America, and could get all of his photographers fired; he urged Parks to keep working with Watson, however, leading to a series of photos of her daily life. Parks, himself, said later that the first image was unsubtle and overdone; nonetheless, other commentators have argued that it drew strength from its polemical nature and its duality of victim and survivor, and so has affected far more people than his subsequent pictures of Watson.
After the FSA disbanded, Parks remained in Washington as a correspondent with the Office of War Information, but became disgusted with the prejudice he encountered and resigned in 1944. Moving to
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, Parks became a freelance fashion photographer for
VogueVogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
. He later followed Stryker to the
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
(New Jersey) Photography Project, which assigned photographers to take pictures of small towns and industrial centers. Parks's most striking of the period included
Dinner Time at Mr. Hercules Brown's Home, Somerville, Maine (1944);
Grease Plant Worker, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1946);
Car Loaded with Furniture on Highway (1945); and
Ferry Commuters, Staten Island, N.Y. (1946).
Parks renewed his search for photography jobs in the fashion world. Despite racist attitudes of the day, Vogue editor
Alexander LibermanAlexander Semeonovitch Liberman was a Russian-American magazine editor, publisher, painter, photographer, and sculptor. He held senior artistic positions during his 32 years at Condé Nast Publications.-Biography:When his father took a post advising the Soviet government, the family moved to Moscow...
hired him to shoot a collection of evening gowns. Parks photographed fashion for Vogue for the next few years. During this time, he published his first two books,
Flash Photography (1947) and
Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture (1948).
A 1948 photo essay on a young Harlem gang leader won Parks a staff job as a photographer and writer with
Life magazine. For 20 years, Parks produced photos on subjects including fashion, sports,
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, poverty, racial segregation, and portraits of
Malcolm XMalcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
,
Stokely CarmichaelKwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
,
Muhammad AliMuhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, and
Barbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
. His 1961 photo essay on a poor Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva, who was dying from bronchial pneumonia and malnutrition, brought donations that saved the boy's life and paid for a new home for his family.
Film career
In the 1950s, Parks worked as a consultant on various Hollywood productions and later directed a series of documentaries commissioned by
National Educational TelevisionNational Educational Television was an American non-commercial educational public television network in the United States from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970...
on black ghetto life.
Beginning in the 1960s, Parks branched out into literature, writing
The Learning TreeThe Learning Tree is a 1969 drama film which tells the story of a young African American growing up in rural Kansas during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when racial discrimination was a social norm, legally sanctioned in parts of the United States. Written and directed by Gordon Parks, the film...
(1963), several books of poetry illustrated with his own photographs, and three volumes of memoirs.
In 1969, Parks became Hollywood's first major black director with his film adaptation of his autobiographical novel,
The Learning Tree. Parks also composed the film's musical score and wrote the screenplay.
ShaftShaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. An action film with elements of film noir, Shaft tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob neighborhoods in order to find the...
, Parks' 1971 detective film starring
Richard RoundtreeRichard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...
, became a major hit that spawned a series of
blaxploitationBlaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
films. Parks' feel for settings was confirmed by
Shaft, with its portrayal of the super-cool leather-clad black private detective hired to find the kidnapped daughter of a Harlem racketeer.
Parks also directed the 1972 sequel,
Shaft's Big ScoreShaft's Big Score, released in 1972, is the second film in the trilogy in which actor Richard Roundtree starred as the private-eye, John Shaft. Gordon Parks again directed, and Ernest Tidyman once more supplied the screenplay. Isaac Hayes was unavailable, so Parks, the director, did the score himself...
in which the protagonist finds himself caught in the middle of rival gangs of racketeers. Parks's other directorial credits included
The Super CopsThe Super Cops is a 1974 film starring Ron Leibman and David Selby, directed by Gordon Parks. The film is based on the book The Super Cops: The True Story Of The Cops Called Batman and Robin by L.H. Whittemore...
(1974), and
LeadbellyLeadbelly is a 1976 film chronicling the life of folk singer Huddie William Ledbetter . The film was directed by Gordon Parks, and starred Roger E. Mosley in the title role...
(1976), a biopic of the blues musician Huddie Ledbetter.
In the 1980s, he made several films for television and composed the music and libretto for
Martin, a ballet tribute to
Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, which premiered in Washington, D.C. in 1989 and was screened on national television on King's birthday in 1990.
Writing and music
In 1981, Parks turned to fiction with
Shannon, a novel about Irish immigrants fighting their way up the social ladder in turbulent early 20th-century New York. Parks' writing accomplishments include novels, poetry, autobiography, and non-fiction including photographic instructional manuals and filmmaking books. Parks also wrote a poem called "The Funeral". A self-taught pianist, Parks composed
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1953) and
Tree Symphony (1967). In 1989, he composed and choreographed
Martin, a
balletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
dedicated to civil rights leader
Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
Parks also performed as a
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist.
Parks was also a campaigner for
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
; subject of film and print profiles, notably
Half Past Autumn in 2000; and had a gallery exhibit of his photo-related, abstract oil paintings in 1981.
Personal life
Parks was born in
Fort Scott, KansasFort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, United States, south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,087. It is the home of the Fort Scott National Historic Site and the Fort Scott National...
, the son of Sarah (
néeNEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Ross) and Jackson Parks. Parks was married and divorced three times. Parks married Sally Alvis in Washington, D.C., 1933 (divorced, 1961); married Elizabeth Campbell, 1962 (divorced, 1973); married Genevieve Young (an editor), 1973 (divorced, 1979). For many years, Parks was romantically involved with the railroad heiress and designer
Gloria VanderbiltGloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
.
Parks had four children: David, Leslie, and Toni Parks Parsons. His oldest son, Gordon Jr., was killed in a plane crash in 1979. Parks had five grandchildren: Alain, Gordon III, Sarah, Campbell, and Satchel, and was honored to be named the godfather of
Malcolm X'sMalcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
daughter,
Qubilah ShabazzQubilah Shabazz is the second daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. In 1995, she was arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kill Louis Farrakhan, who she believed was responsible for the assassination of her father. Shabazz maintained her innocence...
.
He died of cancer at the age of 93.
Legacy
Parks is remembered for his activism, filmmaking, photography, and writings. He was the first African American to work at
Life magazine, and the first to write, direct, and score a Hollywood film. He was profiled in the 1967 documentary
"Weapons of Gordon Parks" by American filmmaker
Warren FormaWarren Forma is an American filmmaker and author, best known for his "Artists at Work" documentary film series and book on European and American painters and sculptors in the 1960s and 1970s, his 1973 novel The Falling Man, which contrasts the violence of 1920's Ireland and 1940's Harlem, New...
.
Parks was a co-founder of
EssenceEssence is a monthly magazine for African-American women between the ages of 18 and 49. The magazine covers fashion, lifestyle and beauty with an intimate girlfriend-to-girlfriend tone.-History:...
magazine and one of the early contributors to the
blaxploitationBlaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
genre.
Parks himself said that freedom was the theme of all of his work,
Not allowing anyone to set boundaries, cutting loose the imagination and then making the new horizons.
Parks' son,
Gordon Parks, Jr.Gordon Roger Parks, Jr. was an American film director best known for the film Super Fly.Parks was the son of Sally Alvis and late photographer and director Gordon Parks...
(1934–1979), directed blaxploitation films, including
Super Fly.
Awards
- In 1972, the NAACP awarded Parks the Spingarn Medal
The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for outstanding achievement by an African American....
.
- In 1984, Parks received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Thiel College
Thiel College is a private, liberal arts, sciences and professional studies college related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Thiel provides affordable high-quality college experience with dedicated faculty, numerous leadership opportunities and a wide variety of student activities and...
, a private, liberal arts college in Greenville, PennsylvaniaGreenville is a borough in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Located along the Shenango River, Greenville is roughly 80 miles from both Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Greenville is part of the Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is home to 570,000 people...
.
- In 1989, the United States Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
deemed The Learning Tree "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" due to its being the first major studio feature film directed by an African-American. Thus, the film was preserved in the United States National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
- In 2000, the Library of Congress deemed Shaft to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", selecting it for NFR preservation as well.
- In 1995, Parks announced that he will donate his papers and entire artistic collection to the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. One year later, "The Gordon Parks Collection" was currated.
- In 1997, the Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
in Washington, D.C. mounted a career retrospective on Parks, Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks.
- In 1999, Gordon Parks Elementary School, a non-profit, K-5 public charter school in Kansas City, Missouri, was established to educate the urban-core.
- In 2004, The Art Institute of Boston
The Art Institute of Boston is a private, not-for-profit art school in Boston, Massachusetts, and a part of Lesley University. Undergraduate degree programs include animation, design, fine arts, illustration, and photography. Graduate degree programs focus on fine arts and photography, with an art...
conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane LettersThe degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science, government, literature or religion, which are awarded degrees of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Letters, or Doctor of...
upon Parks.
- In 2008, an alternative learning center in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
renamed their school "Gordon Parks High SchoolGordon Parks High School is a public alternative learning center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The school, founded in 1991, was originally called the Saint Paul Area Learning Center. The school was named Unidale Alternative Learning Center for several years, after the local strip mall it operated in;...
" after receiving a new building.
Books
- Flash Photography (1947) (technical)
- Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture (1948) (documentary)
- The Learning Tree (1964) (semi-autobiographical)
- A Choice of Weapons (1967) (autobiographical)
- Born Black (1970) (compilation of essays and photographs)
- To Smile in Autumn (1979) (autobiographical)
- Voices in the Mirror (1990) (autobiographical)
- The Sun Stalker (2003) (biography on J.M.W. Turner)
- A Hungry Heart (Nov. 1, 2005) (autobiographical)
Compilations of poetry and photography
- Gordan Parks: Elementary school
- Gordon Parks: A Poet and His Camera
- Gordon Parks: Whispers of Intimate Things
- Gordon Parks: In Love
- Gordon Parks: Moments Without Proper Names (1975)
- Arias of Silence
- Glimpses Toward Infinity
- A Star for Noon - An Homage to Women in Images Poetry and Music (2000)
- Eyes With Winged Thoughts (released Nov. 1, 2005)
Films
- Flavio (1964)
- Diary of a Harlem Family (1968)
- The World of Piri Thomas (1968)
- The Learning Tree
The Learning Tree is a 1969 drama film which tells the story of a young African American growing up in rural Kansas during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when racial discrimination was a social norm, legally sanctioned in parts of the United States. Written and directed by Gordon Parks, the film...
(1969)
- Shaft
Shaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. An action film with elements of film noir, Shaft tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob neighborhoods in order to find the...
(1971)
- Shaft's Big Score
Shaft's Big Score, released in 1972, is the second film in the trilogy in which actor Richard Roundtree starred as the private-eye, John Shaft. Gordon Parks again directed, and Ernest Tidyman once more supplied the screenplay. Isaac Hayes was unavailable, so Parks, the director, did the score himself...
(1972), director and composer
- The Super Cops
The Super Cops is a 1974 film starring Ron Leibman and David Selby, directed by Gordon Parks. The film is based on the book The Super Cops: The True Story Of The Cops Called Batman and Robin by L.H. Whittemore...
(1974)
- Leadbelly
Leadbelly is a 1976 film chronicling the life of folk singer Huddie William Ledbetter . The film was directed by Gordon Parks, and starred Roger E. Mosley in the title role...
(1976)
- Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984)
- Martin (1989), PBS presentation of the stage performance of the ballet written on Martin Luther King, Jr.
Music
- Moments Without Proper Names (1987)
- Martin (1989) (ballet about Martin Luther King)
- Shaft's Big Score (1972)
Documentaries on Parks
- Soul in Cinema: Filming Shaft on Location (1971)
- Passion and Memory (1986)
- Malcolm X: Make it Plain (1994)
- All Power to the People (1996)
- Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks (2000)
- Baadasssss Cinema (2002)
- Soul Man: Isaac Hayes (2003)
Books about Parks
- Berry, S.L. Gordon Parks. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1991. ISBN 1555466044
- Bush, Martin H. The Photographs of Gordon Parks. Wichita, Kansas: Wichita State University, 1983.
- Donloe, Darlene. Gordon Parks: Photographer, Writer, Composer, Film Maker [Melrose Square Black American series]. Los Angeles: Melrose Square Publishing Company, 1993. ISBN 0870675958
- Harnan, Terry, and Russell Hoover. Gordon Parks: Black Photographer and Film Maker [Americans All series]. Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1972. ISBN 081164572X
- Parr, Ann, and Gordon Parks. Gordon Parks: No Excuses. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, 2006. ISBN 1589804112
- Stange, Maren. Bare Witness: photographs by Gordon Parks. Milan: Skira, 2006. ISBN 8876248021
- Turk, Midge, and Herbert Danska. Gordon Parks. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1971. ISBN 0690337930
External links
- The Gordon Parks Foundation
- Gordon Parks FSA OWI Photos--Library Congress
- Library of Congress Collection, Gordon Parks
- Gordon Parks Collection Photograph and poetry exhibit in Gordon Parks' hometown
- Some of his photography
- A photography prize has been awarded in his name for the last 16 years
- Luminous-Lint page
- Ordway Theater presents Gordon Parks in the VocalEssence Witness series
- PBS Newshour, Jan 6, 1998
- Further biographical information can be found at the Thomson/Gale
- Gordon Parks Center
- Photo District News, Legends Online site for Gordon Parks
- Gordon Parks' oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Gordon Parks Elementary School, a K-5 public charter school in Kansas City, MO, founded in his honor
- Gordon Parks Gallery at Metropolitan State University, Saint Paul, MN Gallery devoted to preserving the legacy of Gordon Parks
- Alternative School in Saint Paul, MN named for Gordon Parks
- Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
- Gordon A. Parks, Sr. at findagrave.com