February 2002, Vol 92, No. 2 | American Journal of Public Health 195
© 2002 American Public Health Association
The March on Washington, 1963
Elizabeth Fee,
Theodore M. Brown,
Walter J. Lear,
Jan Lazarus and
Paul Theerman
Elizabeth Fee is with the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Theodore M. Brown is with the Departments of History and of Community and Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Elizabeth Fee, PhD, Building 38, Room 1E21, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894 (e-mail: elizabeth_fee{at}nlm.nih.gov).
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INTRODUCTION
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 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
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HUNDREDS OF DOCTORS, dentists, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals formed the medical contingent of the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Many were inspired by this historic civil rights experience—particularly by the now famous "I have a dream" speech by the Rev Martin Luther King, Jr—to join demonstrations and other efforts to eliminate racism in the health field, first in the US South and then throughout the nation. This photograph was taken for the American Journal of Nursing and is in the Medical Committee for Human Rights Archive of the US Health Activism History Collection of the Institute of Social Medicine and Community Health, Philadelphia, Pa.
The medical contingent of the March on Washington was organized by the newly founded Medical Committee for Civil Rights (which later evolved into the Medical Committee for Human Rights) and was sponsored by the National Medical Association, the National Dental Association, the Physicians Forum, the American Nurses Association, and the National Association of Social Workers, as well as by the 6 civil rights organizations that called the march. The chairman of the Medical Committee for Civil Rights was John (Mike) L. S. Holloman, Jr, MD, a general practitioner in Harlem and a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Medical Association; Paul B. Cornely, MD, professor of preventive medicine at Howard University Medical School, was the Washington coordinator for the medical contingent of the march. Dr Cornely was elected the first African American president of the American Public Health Association in 1968.
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Source. Medical Committee for Human Rights Archive, US Health Activism History Collection, Institute of Social Medicine and Community Health, Philadelphia, Pa.
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Footnotes
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Note. Most of the Prints and Photographs Collection of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine may be viewed through the on-line database "Images from the History of Medicine" at http:// wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov. The Web site also provides information on ordering reproductions of images. If you have a print, photograph, or other visual item that might be appropriate for this collection, please contact the History of Medicine Division.
Copyright © 2002 by the American Public Health Association
