The photograph was taken from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument and shows the Reflecting Pool, whose banks are lined on both sides by a dense crowd. The National Mall is covered along its entire visible length by demonstrators; individual pathways are barely discernible. In the background, the Washington Monument rises up, beyond which stretches the skyline of Washington. The image documents the scale of the rally on August 28, 1963, at which, according to contemporary reports, hundreds of thousands of people participated. It is a central visual document of the peaceful mass protest of the civil rights movement, which on this day demanded above all civil rights legislation and economic equality.