Last spring as students registered for their upcoming courses, they read an unfamiliar title being offered by the art history department. It was simply called 'Gordon Parks.' Who was Gordon Parks? And why was an entire course devoted to learning about a man most had never heard of before? The objective was to dig beneath the surface and to understand Gordon Parks the artist and his place in twentieth century photography, film-making and writing. But it was also a course that would take a journey through Parks' personal story of a poor black man living in a white world - a world filled with bigotry and hatred, but a world in which Parks would ultimately rise to the top by allowing his creativity and imagination to overcome adversity.
