Photo Essay - The 1963 March on Washington

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

 

Organized by such leading lights of the American civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and A. Philip Randolph, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew some quarter of a million demonstrators to the nation's capital. A landmark event among landmark events in an era of fundamental cultural and social change, the March on Washington brought the civil rights movement to a wider public consciousness and helped bring about the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Though perhaps less immediately recognizable than his more visible peers in the movement, it was Bayard Rustin (1912–1987) who was perhaps most directly responsible for organizing the massive 1963 demonstration. He's seen here in a photograph by Warren K. Leffler at a press conference concerning the March at the Statler Hotel on 27 August 1963.

Courtesy of U.S. Department of State

This image of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was captured immediately before he delivered his classic, transformative "I Have a Dream" speech in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963.

Courtesy of the National Archives

The Calypso singer, musician, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte (b. 1927) has a long history of involvement with the American civil rights movement, including helping to fund the Freedom Rides. This photograph was taken on 28 August 1963.

Courtesy of the National Archives

James Baldwin (1924–1987), author of Go Tell It on the Mountain , poses for a photograph with the movie star Marlon Brando (1924–2004). Brando financially supported the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), and Baldwin returned from his self-imposed exile in Paris to take part in the struggle for civil rights in his native country.

Courtesy of the National Archives

 

Political scientist, author, and the first African American winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1950), Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904–1971) lived a life dedicated to the principles of nonviolence and an untrammeled hope in the capacity of human beings to peacefully coexist.

Courtesy of the National Archives

 

Many notable entertainers performed for the crowd on the Washington Mall, among them the folk musicians Joan Baez (b. 1941) and Bob Dylan (b. 1941). For many young people of the 1960s Baez's and Dylan's music was the soundtrack of the movement.

Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

Among his many contributions to the American civil rights movement, A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, widely considered the first African American labor union in the United States.

Courtesy of the National Archives

 

When Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) broke Major League baseball's color line in 1947 he forever changed the landscape of American professional sports and popular culture. He appears in this image with his son.

Courtesy of the National Archives

 

The multitalented Ossie Davis (1917–2005), actor, writer, and director, struggled throughout his long and dignified career to force Hollywood to change its view of African American actors and to offer them roles outside the stereotypes that had trapped earlier performers.

Courtesy of the National Archives

A member of the so-called Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and others, Sammy Davis Jr. (1925–1990) helped to integrate once-segregated nightspots by refusing to perform in them.

Courtesy of the National Archives

Actress and singer, the great Lena Horne (b. 1917) spent much of her film career on the cutting-room floor, at least in the American South. Since southern theaters often refused to show scenes featuring African American performers, many of their scenes or numbers were simply edited out.

Courtesy of the National Archives

Gordon Parks' (1912-2006) photographs graced the covers of Life magazine for nearly two decades and included images of some of the civil rights movement's most important figures. Among the first mainstream African American motion picture directors, as well, Parks helmed such movies as The Learning Tree (1969) and Shaft (1971).

Courtesy of the National Archives

To those who are only familiar with the film actor Charlton Heston's (b. 1923) late political persona, in particular his role as president of the National Rifle Association and liberal bete noi, it may come as something of a surprise that in his younger days he was a strong advocate of gun control, an enemy of segregation, and an outspoken and passionate champion of civil rights for African Americans.

Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) came slowly to the idea of advancing civil rights through mass public demonstration, fearing the reaction of southern politicians and the effect on his own political fortunes. In this image by Cecil Stoughton, the president meets with the leaders of the 1963 March.

Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library