Skip to main content
Label Text

This image was taken by a photojournalist working under the employ of the Associated Press, a US news agency founded in 1846 and still in operation today. These photographers endeavored to take in-focus, direct, and straightforward illustrations that would clearly communicate important events with the American public. Documentary photography of social protest movements (and particularly police violence) played a major role in shaping public opinion in these years. 

 


Published ReferencesAssociated Press ID # 680420047
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 x 7 in. (21.6 x 17.8 cm)
Accession Number 2025.253
Classificationsphotograph
ProvenanceJeff Perry; Des Moines Art Center [gift from the previous, 2025]
Leads Poor Campaign: Civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy wipes his face during his appearance before a Senate Labor and Public Welfare subcommittee in Washington, April 20, 1968. Abernathy is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and successor to the assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Washington D.C., April 30, 1968
Image Not Available for Leads Poor Campaign: Civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy wipes his face during his appearance before a Senate Labor and Public Welfare subcommittee in Washington, April 20, 1968. Abernathy is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and successor to the assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Washington D.C., April 30, 1968
Image Not Available for Bishop Smallwood B. Williams (center), Washington representative of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, leads prayer for hundreds of Negro demonstrators who assembled across from the White House After the prayer meeting, the group marched to the Justice Department to protest racial discrimination in Washington, June 14, 1963
Bishop Smallwood B. Williams (center), Washington representative of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, leads prayer for hundreds of Negro demonstrators who assembled across from the White House After the prayer meeting, the group marched to the Justice Department to protest racial discrimination in Washington, June 14, 1963
Unknown
1963
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Tours "Battle Front": General Ralph E. Haines Jr. the Army's Vice chief of staff and commander of troops in Washington, views military installations yesterday from a bus tour with the capital city's Mayor Walter Washington to quell violence following the death of Dr. Martin Luthe rKing Jr. Troops are still in the city although there hasn't been serious trouble since Saturday night, April 12, 1968
Unknown Associated Press photographer
1968
Image Not Available for Conference In Wake of Assassination: President Johnson today met in the White House Cabinet Room with civil rights leaders and government officials. The conference was called in wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. At left is Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Washington DC, April 5, 1968
Conference In Wake of Assassination: President Johnson today met in the White House Cabinet Room with civil rights leaders and government officials. The conference was called in wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. At left is Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Washington DC, April 5, 1968
Unknown Associated Press photographer
1968
Image Not Available for Thurgood Marshall, the first Negro nominated to the Supreme Court, faces Senate Judiciary Committee examination today on his attitudes toward the court's increasingly liberal rulings on criminal justice and civil rights. Marshall is shown here with his wife as he waits to take the witness stand, Washington DC, July 13, 1967
Thurgood Marshall, the first Negro nominated to the Supreme Court, faces Senate Judiciary Committee examination today on his attitudes toward the court's increasingly liberal rulings on criminal justice and civil rights. Marshall is shown here with his wife as he waits to take the witness stand, Washington DC, July 13, 1967
Unknown
1967
Image Not Available for Dr. Martin Luther King (right) of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference July 28th condemned Negro riots as a "self-defeating passion, "while castigating Congress for "loving rats more than Negroes," At the same time Roy Wilkins (left), executive Secretary of the NAACP said the traffic gluts in Los Angeles, scene of a racial uprising in 1965, show the city "cares more about care than people." Both appeared on a panel oh race riots at the concluding sessions of the International Platform Association, July 28, 1967
Dr. Martin Luther King (right) of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference July 28th condemned Negro riots as a "self-defeating passion, "while castigating Congress for "loving rats more than Negroes," At the same time Roy Wilkins (left), executive Secretary of the NAACP said the traffic gluts in Los Angeles, scene of a racial uprising in 1965, show the city "cares more about care than people." Both appeared on a panel oh race riots at the concluding sessions of the International Platform Association, July 28, 1967
Unknown
1967
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The President, speaking at the White House, pledged the "nation can and shall and will overcome." He also ordered the American Flag to be flown at half staff in tribute to Dr. King, Washington D.C., April 5, 1968
Unknown Associated Press photographer
1968
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Sack Time: Some of the thousands of soldiers ordered into Washington to put down looting and arson catch some rest in an automatic laundry shop on H Street in the northeast section of the city today, April 6, 1968
Unknown Associated Press photographer
1968
Image Not Available for Forcibly Evicted: Police lift one of the residents of Resurrection City to carry her from the area which was cleared after expiration of the permit to occupy the land in Washington, June 24, 1968. Police Chief John Layton said about 80 arrests, including the leaders of the Poor People's Campaign, were made during the clearing operation, Washington DC, June 25, 1968
Forcibly Evicted: Police lift one of the residents of Resurrection City to carry her from the area which was cleared after expiration of the permit to occupy the land in Washington, June 24, 1968. Police Chief John Layton said about 80 arrests, including the leaders of the Poor People's Campaign, were made during the clearing operation, Washington DC, June 25, 1968
Unknown Associated Press photographer
1968
Image Not Available for Walking With The Wounded: There is no quarter given on either side at the Vietnam outpost of Khe Sanh. The wounded, moved by litter from their defensive positions to the hospital bunker or into evacuating helicopters, are the targets for North Vietnamese gunners, making any open exposure a time of danger. Here, a downed soldier, with shell fragments in his back and legs, is carried by his comrades, one wounded about the head, across an open area during a lull in the fighting, March 8, 1968
Walking With The Wounded: There is no quarter given on either side at the Vietnam outpost of Khe Sanh. The wounded, moved by litter from their defensive positions to the hospital bunker or into evacuating helicopters, are the targets for North Vietnamese gunners, making any open exposure a time of danger. Here, a downed soldier, with shell fragments in his back and legs, is carried by his comrades, one wounded about the head, across an open area during a lull in the fighting, March 8, 1968
1968
Image Not Available for Mrs. Coretta Scott King narrates Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" during a Memorial Day concert, by the Washington National Symphony, dedicated to her late husband, Martin Luther King Jr. on May 31. The concert was originally scheduled to be held at the Lincoln Memorial May 30, where the Poor People's Campaign is encamped. Seated at left is Howard Mitchell, music director, Washington DC, June 1, 1968
Mrs. Coretta Scott King narrates Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" during a Memorial Day concert, by the Washington National Symphony, dedicated to her late husband, Martin Luther King Jr. on May 31. The concert was originally scheduled to be held at the Lincoln Memorial May 30, where the Poor People's Campaign is encamped. Seated at left is Howard Mitchell, music director, Washington DC, June 1, 1968
Unknown
1968
Image Not Available for Flames in Resurrection City: One of the plywood and plastic shacks in Resurrection City goes up in flames today while the encampment of the Poor People's Campaign was being evacuated. Two of the huts were destroyed by fires of unknown origin. Washington, DC, June 24, 1968
Flames in Resurrection City: One of the plywood and plastic shacks in Resurrection City goes up in flames today while the encampment of the Poor People's Campaign was being evacuated. Two of the huts were destroyed by fires of unknown origin. Washington, DC, June 24, 1968
Unknown Associated Press photographer
1968
Image Not Available for Washington Demonstrators Arrested: police made their first arrests of participants in the Poor People's Campaign today for demonstrating outside the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Fifteen of approximately 200 marchers were charged with refusing to heed police orders to stop singing and praying outside the building. Here, police frisk several of the marchers before putting them in the paddy wagon. Those arrested were charged with the use of "loud, threatening or abusive language on capitol grounds.", May 23, 1968
Washington Demonstrators Arrested: police made their first arrests of participants in the Poor People's Campaign today for demonstrating outside the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Fifteen of approximately 200 marchers were charged with refusing to heed police orders to stop singing and praying outside the building. Here, police frisk several of the marchers before putting them in the paddy wagon. Those arrested were charged with the use of "loud, threatening or abusive language on capitol grounds.", May 23, 1968
Unknown
1968