WASHINGTON -- She's been called the poster child of Civil Rights.
Edith Lee Payne was 12 years old when her mom brought her to Washington, D.C. to witness the March on Washington.
That was in 1963.
In the crowd, while holding a pennant and listening to Martin Luther King deliver his "I Have A Dream" speech, a photographer snapped her picture.
For years, Payne didn't know about the picture. Then, her cousin told her she spotted a young girl on a Black History calendar who looked a lot like her.
"I didn't believe her so I got it online. I kept looking and looking and saying 'that's not me, that cannot be me, why would I be on a calendar with these people.' I didn't know the picture had been taken until 2008," said Payne.
Sadly, her mother died years earlier, so she never knew her daughter became the face of young civil rights.
PHOTOS: A DC homecoming for the poster child of civil rights
When the National Museum of African American History and Culture started collecting items and getting ready to open, Payne knew she had something valuable to contribute.
She donated the pennant she was carrying in that picture, complete with a staple dangling from the top left corner from the book report she wrote at school about it.
For the 55th anniversary of the march, Payne came back to see the pennant displayed in the museum for the very first time.
WUSA9 was there to capture it.
Payne was taken aback when she saw it was one of the very first things you see when you walk into the Oprah Winfrey Gallery.
"It means a lot, it means more than I can even...I can't describe. I'm really overwhelmed, I'm trying not to cry. It's just special and I'm honored," said Payne.
For the next hour, people snapped pictures with Payne, anxious to get a picture with a woman who helped shape history.
The museum told WUSA9 that they show Payne's picture when talking to students, to point out Payne was the same age then that they are now, and that every person can have the ability to change the world.
