Exhibition Label

Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young, March Against Fear, Grenada, Mississippi

On June 7, 1966, King hurried to Memphis, Tennessee, to huddle with fellow civil rights leaders Floyd McKissick (new national director of the Congress of Racial Equality) and Stokely Carmichael (new chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) after activist James Meredith was wounded by a shotgun blast on the second day of his planned one-man march from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi. Despite increasing rivalries among their respective organizations, King, McKissick, and Carmichael vowed to carry on Meredith’s 220-mile March Against Fear under the co-sponsorship of SCLC, CORE, and SNCC. Intended to serve in part as a black voter registration drive, the march resumed and gathered strength as it moved through the countryside along Highway 51. When the marchers reached Grenada, Mississippi—described by Time magazine as "a white supremacist stronghold"—they staged an evening rally at the town’s Jefferson Davis memorial, where King and other leaders addressed the crowd.

Artist

Charmian Reading, 1930 - 2014

Sitter

Martin Luther King, Jr., 15 Jan 1929 - 4 Apr 1968

Andrew Young, born 12 Mar 1932

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Restrictions & Rights

© Family of Charmian Reading

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

1966 (printed 1986)

Object number

NPG.2004.53

Topic

Exterior

Human Figures

Human Figures\Crowd

Andrew Young: Male

Andrew Young: Religion and Spirituality\Clergy\Pastor

Andrew Young: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist

Andrew Young: Politics and Government\US Congressman\Georgia

Andrew Young: Politics and Government\Diplomat\Ambassador\United Nations

Andrew Young: Politics and Government\Public Official\Mayor\Atlanta, GA

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Male

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\Civil rights leader

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Religion and Spirituality\Clergy\Minister

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nobel Prize

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Presidential Medal of Freedom

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Congressional Gold Medal

Portrait

Place

United States\Mississippi\Grenada

Medium

Gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions

Image/Sheet: 34.3 x 25.4cm (13 1/2 x 10")

National Portrait Gallery

Type

Photograph