The great divide: Powerful photographs lay bare the crippling poverty and segregation of the south
• The images were taken by photographer and film-maker Gordon Parks in California, Alabama and Harlem
• Parks, who was born in Kansas in 1912, was an author, poet and composer who worked for Life and Vogue
• These images have been released alongside new book titled I Am You which celebrates his pioneering work
• An exhibition titled Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott is on show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• I Am You is published by The Gordon Parks Foundation, c/o Berlin and Steidl
Gordon Parks was the first African-American to produce and direct films, many of which related the experience of slaves and struggling black Americans
Poverty: Some of Parks' work focussed on one family in Harlem. This photo is titled The Fontenelles at the Poverty Board and was take in Harlem, New York in 1967
Struggle: This untitled photo, taken in Harlem, New York in 1948, shows a young African-American man cycling through a street where poor children wash with a hose
Contrast: Not all of Parks's work focussed on black poverty. This untitled photo of three women playing chess was taken in New York in 1958
Natural: This photo called Boy with June Bug was taken in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1963. The boy lies peacefully in the grass with a beetle on his head
Having a blast: This untitled photo, taken in Alabama in 1956 shows two black boys playing with a white boy outside a house
Riches: This photo called Jeweled Cap was taken in Malibu, California in 1958. It shows a woman in A bathing suit with a ruby in her hat
Family: This photo is called Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton and was taken at their home in Mobile, Alabama in 1956
Pioneer: Photojournalist Parks, born in Kansas in 1912, was an author, poet and composer who worked for Life and Vogue. Pictured: An untitled photo of a family believed to have been taken in Harlem in the 1940s
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