On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 people, both white and black, gathered from across the nation to march on Washington, DC, in an effort to increase public awareness of racial inequality in the United States and pressure Congress to pass civil rights legislation. In the months leading up to the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," demonstrations and racial conflicts had increased dramatically, both violent and non-violent. Amid fears that the march on Washington would turn violent, even those sympathetic to the civil rights movement questioned whether such a display would help African Americans or turn public opinion, and congressional votes, against them. Responding to these concerns, the march leaders altered their original plans to demonstrate at the Capitol Building, and instead congregated at the Lincoln Memorial.

March leaders joined hands and sang the theme song of this march and of the movement, "We Shall Overcome," as they approached the memorial. The organizer and chief speaker of the march was Asa Philip Randolph, founder and president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and vice-president of the AFL-CIO. Yet the person most often associated with the march is Martin Luther King, Jr., then president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who delivered the now famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

The National Urban League produced the collection of graphic collages pictured below and distributed them as a momento for march participants. A copy of the front graphic, which proclaims, "We Shall Overcome," hung from the main podium on the day of the march. By 1963, this song's title had become a sort of shorthand for the movement itself.