Multitalented movie director, photographer, and writer Gordon Alexander Parks (1912–2006) was born on this day in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of 15 children.

His childhood was marked by poverty and the sting of segregation. After the death of his mother in 1928, he left home as a teenager and began shaping his own path. “Everyone is worth something,” he believed, dedicating his life to challenging stereotypes and widening what was possible.

In 1948, Parks became the first Black staff photographer for Life magazine. For more than 20 years, his unique photo essays explored politics, poverty, and the struggle for civil rights in America, bringing the lives of people on the margins into the nation’s view.

Reflecting on his crusade against social injustice, he said: “I suffered first as a child from discrimination, poverty… So I think it was a natural follow from that that I should use my camera to speak for people who are unable to speak for themselves.”

In 1969, as Hollywood’s first black director of a major studio feature, he adapted his autobiographical novel The Learning Tree. The title echoed his mother’s metaphor about life: we learn from people who bear both good and bitter fruit.

He followed with the 1971 film Shaft, shaping the “ultimate in cool” Harlem detective into a heroic role model for other African Americans and opening new space for Black stories in Hollywood.

“I had a great sense of curiosity and a great sense of wanting to achieve,” Parks said. He searched his soul through poetry and memoirs, helped establish Essence magazine, played the piano with passion, and composed orchestral scores. His life stands as a testament to reaching, risking, and creating.

In a 2000 interview, he reflected, “I think most people can do a whole lot more if they just try.”