• boaratio@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    Pictures of the civil rights movement are in black and white even though color photography existed for decades. They’re only in black and white to make kids think it was longer ago than it was.

    • village604@adultswim.fan
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      1 month ago

      Color photos were a thing, but they were significantly more expensive than black and white until around the 1970s. They were mostly saved for special occasions.

      Plus, news papers didn’t really do much full color until the 80s. Before the mid 50s it was basically just the comic pages that had color. It was the launch of USA Today in 82 that popularized the way newspapers use color today.

      Photographers capturing events shoot a lot of film, and there was no compelling reason to shoot in color at the time.

      It’s almost certainly isn’t a conspiracy to make students think it happened a long time ago.