Celebrants observing the 50thanniversary of the March on Washington should not miss special displays of artifacts, treasures and a talk by Congressman John Lewis on Wednesday, Aug. 28, all at the Library of Congress and all free and open to the public.
Opening that day is the Library’s photo exhibition, “A Day Like No Other, Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington” featuring photos of the 1963 march by photographers including Leonard Freed, ‘Flip’ Schulke, Danny Lyon and Roosevelt Carter. That exhibition will be open from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. in the Graphic Arts Galleries on the ground floor of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., directly east of the U.S. Capitol building. Curators will be on hand to enhance the viewing experience, and Brigitte Freed, the widow of featured photographer Leonard Freed, will also be on hand for this exhibition opening.
Also on Wednesday, Aug. 28, several other special activities are planned:
- A talk by Congressman Lewis at 10 a.m. in the Library’s Great Hall on the first floor of the Jefferson Building;
- A special display, from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., of unique treasures from the Library’s collections related to the March on Washington, in the foyer of the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium on the ground floor of the Jefferson Building. These will include a copy submitted for copyright registration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and manuscripts and photos related to iconic participants’ roles in the march;
- Additional photos, legal materials, audiovisual displays and music of the day in the Library’s ground-floor Whittall Pavilion, plus a guest book for visitors to sign. Those who do will receive a button that is a reproduction of a button worn by participants in the 1963 march;
- A noon panel discussion in Dining Room A on the 6th floor of the Library’s James Madison Building at 101 Independence Ave. S.E. (just south of the Jefferson Building) about March on Washington organizer Bayard Rustin. This talk is cosponsored by the Library’s Daniel A.P. Murray Association, and the Library’s chapters of Blacks in Government (BIG) and GLOBE, a staff group representing a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender membership.
The Library of Congress holds a great wealth of research material pertaining to the African-American experience. Among its holdings are the NAACP Records, which are the largest single manuscript collection at the Library, and the most-accessed; the papers of such activists as Roy Wilkins, Moorfield Storey, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Joseph Rauh, Mary Church Terrell, Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall; and the papers of James Forman, Herbert Hill and Tom Kahn.