Solidarity Day - 26.16 K

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During the summer of 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the nation's capital became the focus for all of the individuals and groups from all over the country and all over the social spectrum-not just those characterized by Jesse Jackson as "the poor, the rejected, the despised"- who wanted to express their support for solidarity. This combination of Templeton's images captures that variety in the multiple figures gathered around the Solidarity Day placard with earnest black and white faces, the intense dignity of the seated older woman with tears glistening behind her glasses, a solid symbol of the anonymous millions deeply affected by the moment.

The third image is a generation apart from her, and far from anonymous, even as he stood in the crowds. Bill Cosby, entertainer and actor, was born in 1937 in Philadelphia, where he took a B.A. at Temple University. His M.A. and Ed.D. degrees come from the University of Massachusetts. He served in the Navy from 1956 to 1960 and became a costar of I Spy from 1965 to 1968 and the Bill Cosby Show from 1969 to 1973. He has released a number of records and has appeared in many films. He was star and producer of the stunningly popular The Cosby Show. For his professional work he has received eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, and the NAACP Image Award, and other honors continue to come to him. He has been a board member and chairman of the Sickle Cell Foundation, a committed supporter of UNCF, and an NAACP life member involved in Operation Push. His books include The Wit and Wisdom of Fat Albert; Fatherhood; published in 1986; Time Flies, 1988; and Love and Marriage, 1989. Solidarity's spirit drew many together then and it endures today.

Robert Chase from George Mason University has written an excellent essay putting Solidarity Day in a broader historical context.