By February, 1962 Danny Lyon had made four trips to the deep south as a Civil Rights activist, working as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). At this time he had returned to his school, the University of Chicago, where he was considered the “campus photographer”, and participated in what is known as the first sit-in to occur in the north as part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the demonstration was staged in opposition to the university’s segregated campus housing policy. The leader of the sit-in was 20-year old...