>They are currently in black hands and see how that is working
>out? I think the most important thing is that images are
>accessible to everyone and that might not necessarily be in
>black hands. In fact the best scenario is that no one owns
>them and they are in the public domain and everyone has access
>to them.


Good luck with that. I'm apparently the most unrealistic person in this thread and I'm not naive enough to think that they should or will be public domain. And its clear that whoever is actually running the company is not making a decision based on protecting the legacy of the Johnson Publishing Company...they are interested in money...and unless this ends up with a Black institution (and I am assuming that a Black institution that can afford this collection and has the willingness to purchase it is equipped to handle the financial and logistical responsibility that comes with it)...we lost.