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Background of march: A. Philip Randolph organized the March on Washington. He had planned a march similar in the summer of 1941 to protest the exclusion of African Americans on national defense positions. This threat of having 100,000 marchers pushed President Franklin D. Roosevelt to make the Executive Order 8802, which had the Fair Employment Practices Commision investigate the racial discrimination coming from defense firms. Randolph canceled the march in response. Again in May 1957 civil rights leaders came to Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Brown v. Board of education. They were protesting the lack of progress since that ruling. Planning of March: In March 1963, Randolph wrote King telling him the NALC had started to plan for …show more content…
a June march for job rights. In May several leaders including King, Randolph, James Farmer, and Charles McDew started planning the march. After talking with President Kennedy the leaders set the march date for the 28 of August. Purpose of march: This march was meant to help spread national awareness about civil and economic issues. During this march, Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders spoke out against the racism in America. In hopes that one day everyone would be given equal rights and fair wages. Organizers of March: A.
Philip Randolph. And Bayard Rustin both lead the March on Washington. They started by building relationships with civil rights activities, labor, and religious organizations. Due to this, they had a lot of speakers and a massive crowd. This made the march one of the biggest political rallies for human rights in United States history. Importance of this march: The 1963 march is important to the Civil Rights Movement because of it being a non-violent demonstration that had an estimated 200,000 people come and march for equality. It included black, whites, latinos it didn’t matter what you looked like everyone came together in support of equal …show more content…
rights. Big Six: Six important leaders that helped organized the march were Randolph who was the head of the march, James Farmer, John Lewis the president of the Congress of Racial Equality, Martin Luther King Jr.
chairman of SNCC, Wilkins president of SCLC, and Rustin another leader of the march. Objections to march: Bayard Rustin was concerned that the march would turn violent and ruin the goals of the leaders. Malcolm X also criticized the march however, it was for being non-violent. To mock the march he called it the“farce on Washington.” The march was also not supported by organizers who didn’t understand what the purpose of the march was. Some like NAACP and Urban League thought it was to show support for the civil rights bill that the Kennedy Administration introduced. Others like Randolph, Rustin, and King saw it as a way to raise both civil and economic issues to national attention. Ten Demands, despite the groups disagreements they did come together to set ten goals which are: creating meaningful civil rights legislation, Immediate desegregation of schools, A program to help the unemployed, A federal law stopping discrimination in the workforce, better minimum wage nationwide (2 dollars an hour), not giving funds to programs that tolerate discrimination, enforcement of the 14th amendment, a better Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Attorney General to have Authority over institute injunctive suits when civil rights are
violated. Planning march issues: activists would get bomb threats at their homes or offices. The Los Angeles Times received a bomb threat unless they printed a message calling the president an “N Lover”. August 28 five airplanes were stalled because of bomb threats. People who came: Rustin though 100,000 people would show up. When people started to arrive it was clear he underestimated. In the end, there was an estimate of 250,000 people. 190,000 were black and 60,000 were white. Speakers: First person to speak was A. Philip Randolph. He promised the people that they will return again to Washington until they are given freedom. Walter Reuther, aka the white Martin Luther King, then went up and told the people to put pressure on their politicians to act on racial injustices. King then went up and made his I had a Dream speech that has now become famous. Lastly, Rustin came up and read the list of demands. The closing statements were made by Randolph and Rustin who were both urging attendees to take action and to support the struggle. After the march: The speakers traveled to the White House to discuss a brief proposal of civil rights legislation with President Kennedy. Kennedy felt the march was a victory not only for the speakers but for him as well. He hoped it would help people support his civil rights bill. Even Though the media and Kennedy himself saw the march as a success the organizers weren’t sure it would make a difference. Both Randolph and Rustin gave up hope that the march on Washington was effective. King, however, maintained faith that the march worked, he did think that more action would be needed in the future. Even though nothing happened the year the march took place, a year later the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed due to the march.
“The idea of a march on Washington seized the imagination of A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.” (Takaki,
Many black leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lewis, fought for Blacks’ rights by leading demonstrations and marches. Lewis wrote a graphic and biographical novel that presents his significant participations in the civil rights movement. He is one of the most effective leaders in the Blacks’ history.
On the home front, A. Philip Randolph’s threat to force a march on Washington to advocate for civil rights in wartime employment represented this new stance. When government defense contracting first started in the early 1940s, the US government acquiesced to the demands of many corporations that solely stipulated white hiring. For instance, of 100,000 aircraft workers in 1940, only 240 of the...
the civil rights movement dramatically changed the face of the nation and gave a sense of dignity and power to black Americans. Most of all, the millions of Americans who participated in the movement brought about changes that reinforced our nation’s basic constitutional rights for all Americans- black and white, men and women, young and old.
African Americans had been struggling to obtain equal rights for scores of decades. During the 1960’s, the civil rights movement intensified and the civil rights leaders entreated President Kennedy to intervene. They knew it would take extreme legislature to get results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the civil rights battle, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches and sit-ins and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama to try and force a crisis that the President would have to acknowledge. Eventually things became heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, which included many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the horror of the world. Finally this forced the President into action and he proposed a bill outlawing segregation in public facilities. The bill became bogged down in Congress but civil righ...
The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most important events of the history of the United States. Although many people contributed to this movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely regarded as the leader of the movement for racial equality. Growing up in the Deep South, King saw the injustices of segregation first hand. King’s studies of Mahatma Ghandi teachings influenced his views on effective ways of protesting and achieving equality. Martin Luther King’s view on nonviolence and equality and his enormous effect on the citizens of America makes him the most influential person of the twentieth century.
Over 200,000 demonstrators participated in the March on Washington in the nation’s capital on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to gain civil rights for African Americans. There was a wide diversity in those who participated, with a quarter of all the demonstrators being white (Ross). Even southern people came to contribute, which caused them to be harassed and threatened for coming to the march. The March on Washington became a very successful event for the rights of African Americans, and amended several peoples’ view-points towards the topic, even President John Kennedy’s.
...cation in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of equality between races and made the civil rights movement into a innovation. In 1954, a ton of the United States had separated schools by races which was made legal by the Plessy V Ferguson case.
The civil rights movement showed the world what it was and how bad it was compared to today 50 years later where we all get along. And the Freedom rides, Children’s March, and Orangeburg massacre were just three examples of the many in the movement. The civil rights movement turned the United States from the land of the free and the home of the segregated into the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Success was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. Starting with the year 1954, there were some major victories in favor of African Americans. In 1954, the landmark trial Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruled that segregation in public education was unfair. This unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned the prior Plessy vs. Ferguson case during which the “separate but equal” doctrine was created and abused. One year later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. launched a bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama after Ms. Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored section”. This boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the desegregation of buses in 1956. Group efforts greatly contributed to the success of the movement. This is not only shown by the successful nature of the bus boycott, but it is shown through the success of Martin Luther King’s SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was notable for peacefully protesting, nonviolence, and civil disobedience. Thanks to the SCLC, sit-ins and boycotts became popular during this time, adding to the movement’s accomplishments. The effective nature of the sit-in was shown during 1960 when a group of four black college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in hopes of being served. While they were not served the first time they commenced their sit-in, they were not forced to leave the establishment; their lack of response to the heckling...
One very important figure at this time was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had a dream and his dream still lives on now even decades later. Dr. King was a non violent Civil Rights leader. King wanted everyone to be treated equal all over the United States. He lead marches and gave many speeches. True freedom and equal rights was all black people wanted. Being equal meant having the choice to go where ever they wanted and do what ever they wanted no matter what color of skin they had, so this is a little of what the Civil Rights Movement was all about.
Kennedy received praise for these strong and moving words yet was criticized for his weak legislative proposals to remedy the situation. By May of 1963, his proposal would change greatly however, after two men, from opposite positions set the civil rights movement into intense motion. Martin Luther King despite advice to do otherwise began massive protests in the street of Birmingham. To combat these protests, Police Commissioner “Bull” Conner used any means, including dogs, fire hoses, and electric cattle prods on protestors. Making newspapers and televi...
According to the march organizers, the march would symbolize their demands of “the passage of the Kennedy Administration Civil Rights Legislation without compromise of filibuster,” integration of all public schools by the end of the year, a federal program to help the unemployed, and a Federal Fair Employment Act which would ban job discrimination (“The March on Washington” 11). In order for the march not to appear as a war of white versus black it had to be racially integrated so it looked like justice versus injustice. Some organizers wanted to call for massive acts of disobedience across America, but when the Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P. joined the organization of the march, they insisted against it. The march was originally going to be on Capitol Hill to influence congress, but because of a 1882 law against demonstrating there, they decided to march to the Lincoln Memorial and invite congress to meet them there, knowing that they would not.
King’s historical speech in 1963 has held great symbolic value not only for the African Americans, but also for all of the equal rights supporters of every age and race. He was the first one who really fought for the same rights of African Americans and therefore inspired other people to live his dream and to continue his work for racial equality.
The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama, he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.” In order to gain an understanding of King’s purpose for the letter, it is important to begin by explaining “A Call of Unity”, a letter written by a group of white clergymen urging the end to the demonstrations. The letter was published in the Birmingham Post Herald with a copy given to King. The letter made many claims including that the demonstrations were led by outsiders, they were unwise and untimely, and urged the black community to withdraw their support (Carpenter, Durick, Grafman, Hardin, Murray, Ramage, Stallings, & Harmon, 1963)....