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Bayard Rustin, deputy director of the March on Washington, speaks to the crowd of marchers from the Lincoln Memorial. August 28, 1963
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Rustin is in the middle of the crowd wearing white short-sleeved shirts and white caps. He stands behind the podium with his arms raised in the air. Columns of the Lincoln Memorial are noticeable in the background.

Credit: Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann

After the end of World War II, Bayard Rustin continued to be active in the African American struggle for civil rights. In 1947, he was one of twelve activists to participate in the Journey of Reconciliation, a "freedom ride" through the South draw attention to segregation on interstate buses. A major behind-the-scenes organizer of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Rustin was also the chief organizer of the March on Washington, at which Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his timeless "I Have A Dream Speech."

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