Press Photo of MLK and Other African American Leaders at a Meeting Following the 1964 Harlem Uprising

New York City, 1964. Photograph measuring 7 ½ x 10 inches. Editorial overpainting and caption recto; stamps and newspaper clipping verso. Excellent to Near Fine.. A photograph of, left to right: March on Washington organizer Bayard Rustin; NAACP Director of Counsel Jack Greenberg; Whitney Young, Jr., of the National Urban League; James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality; Roy Wilkins of the NAACP; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chairman John Lewis; and National Negro American Labor Council chairman A. Philip Randolph. The men were meeting to discuss the upcoming presidential election—particularly the nomination of 1964 Civil Rights Act opponent Barry Goldwater—and the uprising in Harlem that had ended a few days prior, precipitated by the murder of African American teen James Powell by the NYPD.

According to the New York Times,[1] four of the leaders at this meeting (Wilkins, King, Young, and Randolph) signed a statement criticizing Goldwater and calling for a “voluntary, temporary alteration in strategy and procedure” until after the election. Five of them—all but Lewis—signed a second statement denouncing “rioting and looting” and calling on African Americans to “increase voter registration and political activity”.

[1] “Key Negro Groups Call On Members To Curb Protests”, The New York Times, July 30, 1964, 1.