In late August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Arlington, Virginia, in the days leading up to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On August 27, 1963, Dr. King and fellow civil rights leader Reverend Ralph Abernathy gathered with local clergy and community members at Lomax AME Zion Church in Arlington’s historically Black Green Valley neighborhood, where Dr. King spoke to supporters in the church’s parking lot.
The well-known photograph from that day—showing Dr. King and Abernathy with Lomax AME Zion Church members and Father Ray from Our Lady Queen of Peace—is preserved in the church’s archival collection, Record Group 328. The Lomax AME Zion Church archives were donated to the Center for Local History in 2020, ensuring this local record of Arlington’s connection to the civil rights movement remains available as a primary source.