Schulke, Flip, 1930-2008

Flip Schulke (b. Graeme Phelps Schulke, June 24, 1930, Cornish, N.H.-d. May 15, 2008, West Palm Beach, Fla.), was one of America’s premier photojournalists for more than 40 years. A native of New Ulm, Minnesota and a graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Schulke moved to Miami in the 1950s, where he developed specialties in underwater photography, auto racing, the space program and the history of the Berlin Wall. Through his close friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Schulke became best known as one of the leading chroniclers of the Southern civil rights movement. He covered nearly every major civil rights story in the South from the 1950s until Dr. King’s assassination in 1968. Schulke won dozens of national photojournalism awards, including first prize honors for Picture of the Year and other categories from the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1956, 1959, 1963, 1965 and 1968. In 1986, he was presented with the first New York State Martin Luther King Jr. Medal by Gov. Mario Cuomo. In 1995, he received the Crystal Eagle Award from the National Press Photographers Association for his lifelong documentation of the civil rights movement. In addition to his work as a photographer, Mr. Schulke also invented several cameras and lenses that contributed to the improvement of underwater photography. Flip Schulke died in May of 2008.

From the guide to the Schulke, Flip, Photographic Archive 99-205; 2000-173; 2000-174; 2000-280; 2001-142; 2001-163; 2002-236; 2003-042; 2003-182; 2008-018; 2008-274; 2009-344; 2010-067; 2010-182; 2011-012; 2011-021; 2011-327; 2011-268., ca. 1950 - 1990, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)

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