Taken from behind a sea of anonymous heads, this photograph positions the viewer as a participant in a demonstration on East 17th Street. White photographed the march as a figure dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit passed. During White’s time there, New York was the center of the Northern civil rights movement. The artist bore witness to numerous public protests advocating for desegregation efforts and the growth of private initiatives like the Committee for the Negro in the Arts (CNA)—the Harlem-based activist committee that aimed to cultivate African American talent across all artistic mediums.