A Debate - Larry Weisberg

In April 1967, reproductive rights activist Bill Baird deliberately violated Massachusetts' "Crimes Against Chastity" law by distributing contraceptive foam and a condom to an unmarried student at a lecture at Boston University. He was immediately arrested. His case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark 1972 decision Eisenstadt v. Baird, which established the right of unmarried people to access contraception nationwide and later helped form the legal foundation for Roe v. Wade.

This image shows an award plaque recognizing a photograph titled "A Debate," taken by Larry Weisberg, a news photographer at WNAC-TV, Boston's ABC affiliate, during the protests surrounding Baird's arrest. The plaque was awarded by the Boston Press Photographers Association Inc., the oldest press and television photographers association in the United States, for First Prize in the General News category of their 1967 Annual Photo Contest.

The mounted photograph shows well-dressed demonstrators, men in suits and women in dresses, carrying hand-written signs reading "Birth Control Reform" and "We Support Birth Control Crusader Bill Baird" through the streets of Boston. The depth of the crowd suggests a substantial public demonstration.