Description

During 1963, African Americans demanded equality that could not be ignored. After the Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate schools in 1954, those who were oppressed sat at lunch counters for sit-in demonstrations, participated in freedom rides, and refused to give up their seats on public buses. In August 1963, approximately 200,000 people traveled to the nation’s capital to follow the call of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and demand the country to change its policy of institutional discrimination. The photographs detailed in Black America: Washington, D.C.: 1963-2006 capture this journey, from the struggles of the civil rights era to the triumphs of African Americans in the most powerful political city in the United States.