The still image shows several demonstrators in a dense crowd; in the foreground, a man wearing sunglasses holds a fan-shaped sign with the partially legible inscription “FREEDOM PARA[DE]”. Such signs and banners were among the visible means of expression used by participants in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The term “Freedom” was a central rallying cry of the civil rights movement and referred to demands for political, legal, and social equality for the Black population in the United States. The photograph illustrates the broad and racially mixed participation in the march, which the documentary film recorded as an essential characteristic of the event. The image is part of sequences depicting the procession before the rally at the Lincoln Memorial reached its climax.