March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The 1963 March on Washington was a watershed moment in the American civil rights movement It was attended by 250,000 people, graced by important speeches at the Lincoln Memorial and followed by the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Not only was this the largest demonstration for human rights in United States history, but it also occasioned a rare display of unity among the various civil rights organizations,
THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON
They came to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak, to hear Joan Baez and Bob Dylan sing, to support the cause of civil rights and economic opportunity for all, including African-Americans.
Most didn't realize until later they had been a part of history.
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They had come by bus, plane, train, car and hitch-hiker's thumb to demonstrate to ourselves and a watching world that there was a better, more righteous America than the Birmingham of Bull Connor who had set the dogs and fire hoses on black children. Our emotions – and amazing self-discipline – ran high. White Washington right on up to the White House was scared silly of all us black and white folks mixing together. Apocalypse was confidently predicted. The nation's capitol had "its worst case of invasion jitters since the First Battle of Bull Run", as a contemporary newspaper put it.
A Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom
Roy Wilkins: The Right to Dignity
2013 International Freedom Conductor Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
On August 28, 2013, it will have been 50 years since Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led approximately 250,000 people in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The monumental event, which was held to protest discrimination, joblessness and economic inequality faced by African Americans, featured King's iconic "I Have A Dream" speech and set the stage for both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
In 1963, marchers arrived by bus, train, car and on foot on a weekday, many dressed in their Sunday best. Although marchers were mostly black, the crowd included whites, Jews, Latinos and Native Americans.
As civil rights activists pause to consider the great strides toward equality that the 1963 March on Washington helped to spur, they also look at the current political and racial landscape, and wonder: How much of that progress is now being undone?
There are other new issues, such as demands for a federal civil rights prosecution of George Zimmerman for fatally shooting unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, and abiding ones, such as persistent unemployment among black Americans that runs at a significantly higher rate than that for whites.
The observances begin Saturday with a march from the Lincoln Memorial to the King Memorial, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and King's son, Martin Luther King III. They will be joined by the parents of Trayvon Martin, and family members of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was kidnapped, beaten and shot in the head in 1955 after he was accused of flirting with a white woman.
Sharpton has refused to call Saturday's march a commemoration or a celebration. He says it is meant to protest "the continuing issues that have stood in the way" of fulfilling King's dream. Martin's and Till's families, he said, symbolize the effects that laws such as the stop-and-frisk tactics by New York police, and Florida's Stand Your Ground statute have in black and Latino communities.
"To just celebrate Dr. King's dream would give the false implication that we believe his dream has been fully achieved and we do not believe that," Sharpton said. "We believe we've made a lot of progress toward his dream, but we do not believe we've arrived there yet."
Obama is scheduled to speak at the "Let Freedom Ring" ceremony on Wednesday, and will be joined by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Along with their speeches, there will be a nationwide bell ringing at 3 p.m. EDT to mark the exact time King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech, with which the march is most associated. The events were organized by The King Center in Atlanta and a coalition of civil rights groups.
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