August 28, 1963

1. August 28, 1963

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”