NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — 60 years ago today more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington D.C. for the first ever March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The movement itself was one to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans and was organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. Both of which were pioneers of a number of civil rights, labor and religious organizations.
According to the National Archives, when first proposed in 1962, Randolph received "little response from other civil rights leaders"
"He knew that cooperation would be difficult because each had his own agenda for the civil rights movement, and the leaders competed for funding and press coverage," the National Archives details.
Civil Rights organizers had taken action to organize earlier demonstrations, most notably in the early 1940s. In 1941, Rustin and Randolph called for 100,000 Black workers to march in protest of discriminatory hring during World War II.
However that protest was called off after then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order establishing the Committee on Fair Employment Practice. This banned discriminatory hiring in the defense industry.
A number of marches were planned throughout the next decade, but many were called off. In 1957, about 25,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to take part in the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom which was organized by Randolph, Rustin and Ella Baker and featured Martin Luther King Jr., Mordecai Wyatt Johnson and Roy Wilkins.
This demonstration also featured King's "Give Us The Ballot" speech.
The success of the 1963 march would be dependent on the "Big Six" and the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership which included leaders of several major civil rights organizations:
- Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Whitney Young, Jr., of the National Urban League
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- James Farmer of the Conference of Racial Equality
- John Lewis and James Formen of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg of The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) which split from the NAACP in 1957
- Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women
About two months prior to the march, the coalition was broadened, bringing on board four white men who supported the movement:
- Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers
- Eugene Carson Blake, former president of the National Council of Churches
- Mathew Ahmann, executive director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice
- Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress.
In June 1963, Young, Wilkins, King, Randolph, Farmer and Stephen Currier met with President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to discuss the march. It was agreed upon that the main focus of the march would be support for new legislation.
Initially President Kennedy expressed fears of violence taking place believing it was "ill-timed", being quoted as saying,
“We want success in the Congress, not just a big show at the Capitol. Some of these people are looking for an excuse to be against us, and I don’t want to give any of them a chance to say, ‘Yes I’m for the bill but I am damned if I will vote for it a the point of a gun.’"
Dr. King was quoted as telling President Kennedy "Frankly, I have never engaged in any direct-action movement which did not seem ill-timed."
Ultimately, the March on Washington moved forward and civil rights leaders decided to end the march at the Lincoln Memorial instead of the Capitol.
Two months later, a quarter of a million people descended upon the Lincoln Memorial, a number that exceeded the initial estimates and became one of the largest civil rights gatherings ever staged with an estimate of around 70 to 80 percent Black marchers.
There were 10 speakers, beginning with Randolph and culminating with Dr. King's 'I Have a Dream' speech. His speech was originally scheduled to be around 4 minutes long but he ended up speaking for 16 minutes.
That speech would become one of the most famous moments of the civil rights movement and arguably one of the most iconic in American History.
Below is an excerpt from that speech.
In the months and years to follow, demonstrations would continue to increase and political leaders would be pressured to act. Following President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson would push forward the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
These two bills would become turning points in the civil rights movement, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin and prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.
