In 1967 Robert “Bobby” A. Sengstacke became a founding member of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), which conceived the Wall of Respect, an outdoor mural located at 43rd Street and South Langley Avenue. Completed in 1967 and destroyed in 1971, the mural featured Black heroes and heroines grouped into seven sections: Jazz, Literature, Religion, Rhythm and Blues, Sports, Statesmen, and Theater. This image, taken shortly after the Wall of Respect was completed, depicts a young couple who lived on the second floor of a building directly opposite the mural. In exchange for taking their portrait, the couple allowed Sengstacke to make photographs of the Wall from their apartment window. The resulting images were the most widely circulated images of the mural in its original form.
