LET FREEDOM RING

Fifty years later, a stirring evocation of the 1963 March on Washington.

“We are not a pressure group; we are not an organization or a group of organizations; we are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom.” With these words, A. Philip Randolph opened the historic day of nonviolent protest that drew some 300,000 people of all races and religions to the nation’s capital for a march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. They included civil rights notables Roy Wilkins, John Lewis and Walter Reuther; celebrities from Marlon Brando to Rita Moreno and Dennis Hopper; and ordinary citizens from throughout the country. They hoped to sway Congress to pass comprehensive civil rights legislation. In this welcome celebration of an event that has passed into American memory, Kelley (Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick's Iconic Images of the Kennedys, 2012, etc.) puts words to previously unpublished images by veteran photographer Tretick to tell the story of the gathering, from the arrival of black and white marchers by the busload to the famously moving “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Readers can see the passion and pride in the faces on these pages, the joy of people cooling their feet in the Reflecting Pool, and, with a little effort, they can almost hear the cries from the crowd of “Amen, brother, Amen!” at the words of speaker after speaker. The book will be a nostalgia trip for all who lived through the period and a perfect introduction to a seminal moment for younger generations.

Fine photos, concise text, including excerpts from remarks of the day, and a solid view of the Kennedy administration dragged into the American future.