calsfoundation@cals.org
August 24, 1931
Will Counts was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to a family who sharecropped near Rose Bud in White County. Counts is best known in Arkansas for taking the photograph of Elizabeth Eckford being harassed by white students during the desegregation of Central High School. Early in his career, he worked at both the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat. Counts won distinction and honors for his photography and authored several books on photo journalism. He earned a PhD in education at Indiana University in 1967 and served on the faculty there. He helped develop the best-regarded photojournalism department in the country and was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1996.