Harry Benson is one of those rare photographers whose archive leaves you speechless. His camera has captured some of the 20th Century’s most historic events, from Richard Nixon resigning the Presidency, to the chaotic aftermath of Robert Kennedy’s assassination. A recent recipient of a CBE, the gregarious New York-based Scot took time out to look back on a tumultuous night spent with Dr Martin Luther King in America’s deep south.

“This was taken in 1966. It was a very nasty night in Canton, Mississippi at the height of the civil rights protests. The marchers were told that they couldn’t pitch their tents on a black school playground but they did it anyway. As they were doing so, I looked behind me and saw rows of state troopers lined up, putting their teargas masks on. Within seconds the gas began to explode all around us and the troopers came in and started banging heads. As I ran away, a trooper bashed me on the arse. I staggered away and a poor black family took me into their house. They bathed me with water, because it was hot and tear-gas is very unpleasant.

From them I heard that Martin Luther King, who I was with in the crowd, but had become separated from, was going to give a speech in a church hall, which was a couple of hundred yards up the road. When I got to the church, I had never seen people so angry. They were all singing “We Shall Overcome”. What I’ve always noticed with tear-gas is that it clears the street, but my God do people come back angry.

That night, Martin Luther King was really angry. Mississippi was so racist. He would march right into police stations, but there was no kindness from them at all. People were living in these terrible dwellings and that created this huge uprising. They wouldn’t give the marchers any water, and it was dangerous for me too – they weren’t saying, ‘three cheers for the photographer’.

This march was traumatic. You didn’t know from one day to the next what the hell would happen. You would see young kids from all over America – this was where they spent their summer holidays. There was violence on every march, but the Meredith march was the biggest. It was the one that really began to galvanise the country.

Some of the black leaders would say, ‘Don’t go to work!’, but Martin Luther King would jump up and say, ‘Go! You’ve got to live!’ He was more interested in voting. He would say, ‘You’ve got to register to vote.’ This was very difficult because they were all working for white people who were saying, ‘We’ll fire you if you vote.’ So there were tremendous pressures, and that was the main problem with getting black people to vote.

Civil rights is the one thing I’m very pleased to have covered, and I covered it deep. I was marching every day with them, you could watch the cause grow. You could feel this surge – but I was a photojournalist, looking for a story. There would be something wrong with me if I was anything other than cynical. I wasn’t there to join the cause, I was there to photograph what happened.

If Martin Luther King was alive today he would be very proud. We’ve accomplished a lot. Now America has got a black president.”

Interview © Tim Noakes

Above: Martin Luther King Jr, Canton Mississippi, 1966, after being tear-gassed. Courtesy of Harry Benson