Leonard Freed: The March on Washington

©Estate of Leonard Freed–Magnum Photos (Brigitte Freed)

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, late Magnum photographer Leonard Freed’s coverage of the event will be released in book form for the first time in This Is the Day: The March on Washington (Getty Publications, February 2013). The march featured Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and helped pave the way for the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Freed’s moving photographs of the day are accompanied in the book by a first-hand account of the event by civil rights activist and author Julian Bond. The book will have its official launch February 5 (today) at Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, West Dining Room, Sixth Floor, Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. Michael Eric Dyson and Paul Farber, who both contributed essays to the book, with join along with Freed’s widow, Brigitte Freed, for a conversation about the book and the legacy of the march.