Ernest Withers, a photographer who spent more than 60 years documenting history from the blues music of Beale Street to the civil rights movement, died Monday in Memphis, Tenn. He was 85.

As a freelance photographer for black newspapers, Withers traveled with Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and other figures in the civil rights movement, capturing on film the momentous events of the 1950s and 60s. His photos of the Emmett Till murder trial in 1955 ran in newspapers across the country.

Withers also photographed jazz and blues musicians who frequented Memphis’ famed Beale Street, such as Rufus Thomas, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley.

“Not only did Withers capture iconic images of the civil rights movement, but he also produced important photographs of the Negro Baseball League,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tenn.

Withers’ career began during World War II when he was asked to replace an Army photographer who was being promoted. His duties included photographing engineering projects such as bridges and airfields that black soldiers helped build. Withers then began shooting photos for his camp newspaper.

While working as a photographer, he also served in the Memphis police department from 1948 to 1951, but he was dismissed for “conduct unbecoming of an officer.”

He told his friends and family that he had “arrested the wrong bootlegger.”

His news clients would later range from the Tri-State Defender, a Memphis-area serving the black community, to Newsweek, Time, and The New York Times. “He put together a living legacy,” said Dr. Benjamin Hooks, former executive director of the NAACP and close friend of Withers. “Thank God he did it. We are blessed as a people, black and white, that he amassed such a wonderful collection of pictures.”