CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/16/2017

Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington, D.C., 1963

On August 28, 1963, after months of organizing by civil rights leaders and labor representatives, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom convened on the National Mall. It was the largest unified action for human and economic rights that had ever taken place in the United States. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, on the centennial of that president's Emancipation Proclamation, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, enjoining the nation to put an end to discrimination and intolerance. Gordon Parks was among the many Life staffers present to record the event. His photograph, "Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington, D.C., 1963," is reproduced from the essential new overview, Gordon Parks: I Am You.

Photograph by Gordon Parks, courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.