The High Museum of Art is focusing on the civil rights era in two new exhibits timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The exhibits that opened Saturday were built over three years and include more than 200 photographs, many that have never been publicly displayed.

“Road to Freedom” spans 12 years — from Rosa Parks’ stand in Montgomery in 1955 to King’s death in 1968 — and includes images from watershed moments such as the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Mississippi murders during Freedom Summer in 1964 and the Selma-Montgomery March of 1965. Iconic images of King, an Atlanta native, and his wife, Coretta, hang alongside the nameless men and women who fought for equal rights across the South. Read On