The photograph shows the face of a young Black man in close-up, captured in profile. His gaze appears concentrated or introspective; the foreground and background are out of focus, so that other persons are only vaguely discernible. The photograph was taken in connection with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which hundreds of thousands of people participated. It conveys the personal dimension of the protest beyond mass and overview shots. The march was directed against racial segregation and discrimination and demanded equal civil rights and economic equality for Black Americans.