Rufus Cornelius Hickman was an African American photographer who documented African American life in Dallas during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights Movement eras. Born in 1918 in Mineola, Texas, he attended Tillotson College, later Huston-Tillotson University, then enlisted in the Army in 1942. While stationed in Saipan, Japan, he learned photography and became an army photographer. After World War II, he studied at the Southwest School of Photography and Mortuary Science under the G.I. Bill and then began his professional career with the Dallas Star-Post. He later worked for several newspapers, including the Dallas Express and the Kansas City Call. Between 1945 and 1970, he photographed everyday African American life and major moments in the Civil Rights Movement across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including the NAACP Youth Council's 1955 protest of the Texas State Fair. After Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, the 1954 Supreme Court decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional, the NAACP enlisted him to document inequalities between white and Black schools in Texas. In 1956, he photographed the failed desegregation of the Mansfield schools and, despite attempts by white Texans to harm him, captured the mock-lynching of effigies of African American students there. His work preserved decades of African Americans' struggles, successes, and daily life, highlighting their humanity and documenting their history. His mother, Cora Hickman, also ran a popular African American social spot called Bar 20 at this site in the 20th century.