The photograph shows a man wearing sunglasses and a white shirt holding a portable transistor radio close to his ear, listening intently. In the background, a large crowd can be seen resting beneath trees, positioned within the assembly grounds around the National Mall. The portable radio was a widespread means in 1963 for following speeches and reports in real time when one’s position in the crowd did not allow direct view of the podium. The scene illustrates how hundreds of thousands of participants experienced the course of the rally—including Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech—even from locations away from the immediate sightline of the Lincoln Memorial. It thus represents the sheer scale of the March on Washington and the variety of ways in which the demands for civil rights and jobs were witnessed on that day.