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The Soiling of Old Glory
1976 Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph
The Soiling of Old Glory
The Soiling of Old Glory is a Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph taken by Stanley Forman during the Boston desegregation busing crisis in 1976. It depicts a white teenager, Joseph Rakes, assaulting a black man—lawyer and civil rights activist Ted Landsmark—with a flagpole bearing the American flag (also known as Old Glory) near Boston City Hall. The image was taken for the Boston Herald American in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 5, 1976, during one in a series of protests against court-ordered desegregation busing. It ran on the front page of the Herald American the next day, and also appeared in several newspapers across the country. It won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography. Landsmark had recently been an activist for more minority contractors in the construction industry, but was not involved with the busing protests. According to Landsmark, "I had difficulty finding a parking space in downtown Boston, and I was running a few minutes late for the meeting in city hall. So I...
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