At midcentury, magazines were the main path to photographic success and recognition. In 1948, a photo-essay by Gordon Parks called “Harlem Gang Leader” gained public acclaim, prompting Life to hire him as its first Black staff photographer. For the story, Parks spent weeks gaining the trust of Leonard “Red” Jackson, head of the Midtowners gang. He then documented Jackson’s complex world, where in one moment the teenager would be doing household chores and in the next holding war councils.

Parks had no control over the editing of the final photo-essay, which dwelt on violence and crime, de-emphasizing the neighborhood’s limited financial and educational opportunities and leaving out Jackson’s role as a community mediator who liaised with police and was named “Boy Mayor of Harlem.” In contrast, the hundreds of negatives Parks created reveal Jackson’s multifaceted life as containing violence but also love.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)