Voices of a People’s History of the United States

The 1963 March on Washington was a historic, transformative event of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, with the Reverend Martin Luther King giving his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. With hundreds of professional photographers in attendance, including many from the Magnum agency, it was one of the most thoroughly documented events in modern American history.

Bruce Davidson had been covering the Civil Rights Moovement since 1961, when he accompanied Freedom Riders traveling by bus from Montgomery, Alabama to Jackson Mississippi. His photograph of the Reflecting pool surrounded by many of the more than quarter-million people in attendance has been reproduced many times, including here, on the cover of this “companion” volume to historian and activist Howard Zinn’s landmark book A People’s History of the United States.

To view the complete cover spread for this book, click “Additional Views” above left.

To view the fully uncropped version of Bruce Davidson’s photo, from the Library of Congress, click here.