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It’s not a name that gets talked about much, but it’s a name that’s responsible for capturing a lot of history as it happened.

Marion Butts, a prominent photographer in Dallas, covered anything and everything between the 1940s and 1990s, but he’s most well known for capturing the civil rights movement.

“The Marion Butts collection is just so rich, in documenting just everyday life in the black community,” said Brian Collins, Manager. of Dallas History & Archives for the Dallas Public Library.

“He really documented it all.”

Through his lens, Marion Butts touched many lives, leading him to meet prominent figures like Muhammad Ali and Thurgood Marshall.

Marion butts passed away in 2002 but his work will live on forever thanks to the Dallas Public Library, which got his collection of photos in 2005.

It was incredibly important when the library received these photos,” Collins said. “We realized what a treasure it really is just by briefly looking through it.”

“You can see the tremendous value and the historical value and research value these photos have of documenting the African-American community in Dallas,” he said. “A lot of these photos are one of a kind, there are not a lot of these photos of the black community,”

You can check out Marion Butts’ photos for yourself. His collection is now on display at the Dallas Public Library.