Civil Rights Movement Poor People’s Campaign National Solidarity Day Press Photographs 1968

Martin Luther King

Photograph

Unidentified photojournalist, press photographs of National Solidarity Day, June 19, 1968, documenting mass mobilization within the Civil Rights Movement following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. The photographs provide visual evidence of the Poor People's Campaign and its continued leadership under Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King, capturing a large-scale public gathering advocating for economic justice and racial equality. The material supports research into post-assassination civil rights organizing, protest culture, and the use of national space for political demonstration in the United States.

Two original press photographs depicting the National Solidarity Day gathering at the National Mall, where over 50,000 participants assembled along the Reflecting Pool. The images show dense crowds extending across the Mall, with attendees standing, sitting, and congregating in large groups, suggesting organized yet informal participation. The event included singing, prayer, and speeches commemorating the fifth anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” address delivered at the same location during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The photographs likely capture the physical scale of the demonstration as well as the atmosphere of collective mourning and continued activism tied to Resurrection City, the encampment established nearby by campaign participants. As press images, they were produced for rapid circulation in newspapers, contributing to national visual coverage of the event.

Silver gelatin prints measuring approximately 9.25 x 8 inches. National Solidarity Day formed a central moment in the Poor People’s Campaign, representing an effort to broaden civil rights activism toward economic inequality in the months following King’s death in April 1968. The gathering at the National Mall reaffirmed the site’s symbolic role in American protest history while highlighting the persistence of organized, multiracial advocacy for structural change. Minor handling wear, prints clean with strong tonal range; overall very good condition. A concise visual record of a pivotal moment in late 1960s civil rights mobilization and public demonstration.

Item #17582

Price: $450.00