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August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators marched on Washington to advocate for the civil rights of Black Americans. The peaceful protest was a landmark moment in the civil rights movement and a turning point in American history. When Martin Luther King Jr. spoke the words “I have a dream” from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he was surrounded by civil rights leaders and joined by intellectuals, performers, and musicians.

Afterward, Kennedy met with march organizers. Kennedy said, “One cannot help but be impressed with the deep fervor and quiet dignity” of the marchers who came “to demonstrate their faith and confidence in our democratic form of government.”

Writer James Baldwin was the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement. TIME magazine said no one else “expresses with such poignancy and abrasiveness the dark realities of the racial ferment in North and South.”

In May of 1963, Baldwin publicly criticized President Kennedy’s response to racial violence in Alabama. Later that month, Attorney General Robert Kennedy invited Baldwin to convene a meeting of Black leaders to discuss civil rights issues. The meeting was contentious but it set the stage for President Kennedy’s most important speech on civil rights and his introduction of civil rights legislation just days later.

Harry Belafonte was already a major actor and recording star when he met with Senator Kennedy during the 1960 Democratic primary campaign. Belafonte was also a close confidant of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and had advanced King’s cause since the 1950s. Struck by how little Kennedy knew about the lives and struggles of Black Americans, Belafonte encouraged him to speak to King directly, and the two met for the first time in June of 1960.

As Belafonte became a trusted voice on these matters, Kennedy appointed him Cultural Advisor to the Peace Corps. Belafonte also organized the actors, musicians, and entertainers who came to the March on Washington.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union both sent dance troupes on international tours to promote their cultures and influence the hearts and minds of audiences abroad. The United States realized that the best way to promote American culture was not to compete with the classical ballet the Soviets were known for, but to send dancers with distinctly American backgrounds and styles.

Kennedy’s State Department showcased American innovation, sending dancers to Europe, Australia, India, Africa, and the Soviet Union. George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet performed ballets that were minimalist and abstract. Alvin Ailey’s company performed a ballet that drew on the Black folk tradition and Ailey’s memories of his Texas childhood.

In 1956, trumpeter and band leader Dizzy Gillespie was the first jazz musician to go on a US State Department-sponsored tour. For the government it was simple—jazz was an American-born art form, and the freedom of jazz improvisation was a metaphor for American political freedom.

For Black performers, representing America abroad was complicated by their personal experiences of racism at home. But the tours also provided an international platform to advocate for civil rights, the one issue, Duke Ellington reported, that he was most often asked about other than jazz.