The meaning, meaning, and definition of race have been debated for centuries. Historical concepts of race have varied across time and cultures, creating scientific, social, and political controversies. Of course, today's definition varies from the scientific racism of the 18th and 19th centuries that justified slavery and, later, Jim Crow laws in the early 20th. It is also different from the genetic inferiority argument that was present at the beginning of the civil rights movement. However, despite the constantly changing concepts, there appears to be one constant that has provided a basis for ideas about race: Race is a matter of visually observable attributes such as skin color, facial features, and other obvious visual cues.Maurice Berger argues that “much of what defines race in society is inherently visual” (6). If a person's definition of race often comes from visual cues, isn't it true that attitudes about race can be manipulated with direct and strategic use of visual images? Civil rights activists often found themselves asking this question, which served to lay the foundations of a visual culture destined to change the mentality of a nation. The activist believed that prevailing attitudes toward race during the civil rights movement could be changed with a strong and strategic visual culture. Visual images not only documented the movement, but also actively shaped the civil rights struggle through modes of manipulation and persuasion. Photographers had begun to document and publicize issues related to race and the fight for equal rights in the United States in the early 1900s. The first photographs documented protests against lynching, Jim Crow laws and captured the protest ... middle of paper ... explaining to them that they were, in fact, human beings who didn't deserve to be treated like shit. .Write about African American pictorial magazines and positive images. Gordon Park's portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton Sr. (pictured above) is different from most images associated with the civil rights movement. While the topic is neither newsworthy nor historical, it served an important purpose in the movement. The portrait was one of twenty images composed of “The Restraints: Open and Hidden,” a photo essay documenting the daily life of an extended black family, which appeared in the September 1956 issue of Life magazine. However plain or simple the image seemed, Parks, a civil rights photographer, understood the inherent importance of such portraits as a powerful "weapon of choice"(). Write about the intended purpose of empathy.