The August heat failed to deter demonstrators, no matter their age. ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Many women joined in the march. The only female speaker that day was jazz singer Josephine Baker, who was joined on stage by Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates. ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

On the day of the march, Martin Luther King Jr. exhorted the nation: “We have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.” ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

“I remember the march as joyful,” says D.C. Congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. “That it bloomed into the largest mass movement the country had seen came to us only when we stood in the presence of so many Americans.” ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

On the morning of the march, civil rights leaders (including Martin Luther King, foreground left, and John Lewis, foreground right) first met with members of Congress (Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, center). ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

“We had no idea there would be so many people—as far as you could see there were heads,” recalls activist Juanita Abernathy. “Which said to us in the movement: ‘Your work has not been in vain. We are with you. We are part of you.’” ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

“People just poured in from every direction,” recalls activist Barry Rosenberg. “People were greeting each other; I got chills, I got choked up. People were hugging and shaking hands and asking ‘Where are you from?’” ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

After the march, civil rights leaders met in the White House with the president and vice president. “President Kennedy stood in the doorway of the Oval Office and greeted each one of us,” recalls John Lewis. (© 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Freedom riders, who had put their lives on the line in the South, were a highly visible presence on the National Mall. (© 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

John Lewis (right, with A. Philip Randolph as they prepare to speak) exhorted the nation: "Wake up, America. Wake up! Fore we cannot stop, and we will not be patient." ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Dr. Martin Luther King with the Rev. Eugene Carson Blake. Once the march began, at least 250,000 participants materialized. ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Protesters, which included members of civil rights, labor and religious organizations, crowded onto the grass surrounding the Reflecting Pool, raising signs high into the air. ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Before the speeches began, civil rights leaders, including A. Philip Randolph (front row, center) and Martin Luther King, Jr. gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

“A group of young people from an NAACP chapter came over the horizon,” recalls SNCC activist Courtland Cox. “Once the flow started, it was just volumes of people coming.” ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

“What we did, the ten of us, was grab each other’s arms, made a line across the sea of marchers,” recalls John Lewis. “People literally pushed us, carried us all the way, until we reached the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.” ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Protesters at the march carried signs demanding equal rights and full employment. ((C) 2013 to the Estate of Stanley Tretick LLC)

Never-Before-Seen Photographs of the March on Washington

Stanley Tretick documented the March on Washington in 1963. His photos from the event are now published for the first time

smithsonianmag.com
June 12, 2013

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