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Former 10TV News Photographer’s Images Of March On Washington Included In Library of Congress

A quarter of a million people joined the March on Washington on a hot August day 50 years ago. Get the Columbus connection.

A quarter of a million people joined the March on Washington on a hot August day 50 years ago.

Busloads of people from Columbus traveled to Washington, DC to witness the watershed moment in civil rights history.

Among them, was former 10TV News photographer Roosevelt Carter.

“For the rest of his life, he always said that was one of the greatest things he did,” said his wife, Sue. “He was so glad he was there, because he felt like he was part of history.”

Although Carter went to Washington on his own time, his wife said he was excited to be part of the Columbus contingent.

Sue said she was afraid for her husband’s safety.

“We had been seeing the marches,” she said. “We had seen the dogs, we had seen the fire hoses, and a lot of times, things didn’t turn out very well.”

Carter was focused on one thing, though – capturing the images that walked in front of him on the National Mall, including some Hollywood stars.

He captured images of Charleton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Robinson, gospel giant Mahalia Jackson and famed black writer James Baldwin.

“His pictures, you could look at them, and you knew what this person was like,” Sue said.

Some of his pictures have been included in a Library of Congress exhibition, “A Day Like No Other: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. It will be on display through March 1, 2014 in the Thomas Jefferson Building, in Washington, D.C.

Carter’s wife said that her husband had a lot of ambition, and if he wanted to do something, he usually did it.

“It was as though he knew he wasn’t going to live for a longtime. He died at 55,” Sue said.

Carter died from cancer in 1981.

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