March on Washington
- 2. Massive march on Washington, DC planned as early as 1941 by A. Philip Randolph “Birmingham Campaign”=April 3, 1963-May 10, 1963 JFK, in televised speech, called civil rights question “a moral issue” on June 11, 1963
- 3. A. Philip Randolph appointed Bayard Rustin as organizer of the event Involved in CORE Original founder of SCLC Planning started in December of 1962
- 5. Cooperation from the “Big Six” A. Philip Randolph—labor leader James Farmer—CORE John Lewis—SNCC MLK, Jr.—SCLC Roy Wilkins—NAACP Whitney Young—National Urban League “Big Six” met w/ President Kennedy on June 22, 1963 JFK feared the march would lead to violence The activists insisted on holding the march
- 6. Condemned the march Called it the “farce on Washington”
- 7. Passage of civil rights legislation Civil Rights Act of 1964 Immediate elimination of school segregation Federal legislation prohibiting discrimination in hiring $2 minimum wage nationwide Withholding federal money from programs that tolerate discrimination
- 9. Chicago, NYC, & some other cities designated the day as “Freedom Day” & gave workers the day off March was organized & promoted from a Harlem office Distributed buttons & other paraphernalia Hoped for a crowd of 100k People came from all over the country Train, rail, road Six buses of African Americans from Birmingham 450 buses from Harlem
- 10. 250k arrived Roughly 60k were white More media members present than JFK’s inauguration Nationally televised 19k federal troops were readied No alcohol was sold in Washington that day March went from Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial
- 12. Mahalia Jackson, “How I Got Over” Marian Anderson, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” Joan Baez, “We Shall Overcome” & “Oh Freedom” Bob Dylan, “When the Ship Comes In” & “Only a Pawn in Their Game” Peter, Paul, & Mary, “If I Had a Hammer”
- 15. The Day’s Events
- 21. Met at 5:00 PM in White House Discussed legislation JFK had watched MLK’s speech on TV JFK considered the day a success
- 22. Criticized by radicals, esp. Malcolm X Solidified MLK as pre-eminent civil rights leader Federal legislation: Civil Rights Act of 1964 Voting Rights Act of 1965 Democratic Party started to lose support from the “Solid South”