August 28 …

The March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom — or the Great March On Washington — was held on August 28, 1963 to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans.

In April, police in Birmingham, AL, turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators seeking to desegregate lunch counters. Similar marches in June and July in Cambridge, MD, turned so violent that the governor called in the National Guard. On June 11, NAACP leader Medgar Evers was gunned down in Jackson, MS.

A civil rights bill was before Congress, but powerful opponents threatened its passage.

Civil Rights March On Washington, D.C. Leaders of the March (from left to right): Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; seated with glasses is Cleveland Robinson, Chairman of the Demonstration Committee; standing behind the two chairs is Rabbi Joachim Prinz, President of the American Jewish Congress; beside Robinson is A. Philip Randolph, organizer of the demonstration, veteran labor leader who helped to found the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), American Federation of Labor (AFL), and a former vice president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); wearing a bow tie and standing beside Prinz is Joseph L. Rauh Jr., a Washington, DC attorney and civil rights, peace, and union activist; John Lewis, Chairman, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and Floyd McKissick, National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality.

Frustrated, A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and activist Bayard Rustin called for a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C. Blacks and whites from every state responded. Carrying placards, they marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. There they prayed, sang, and listened to speeches by celebrities, politicians, and civil rights leaders, the last of whom was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The television networks carried King’s address live, allowing his eloquent call for racial harmony to be heard nationwide.

For millions of citizens the March On Washington was, as a white lobbyist for racial justice observed, ‘a beautiful expression of all that’s best in America.’

This program listed the events scheduled at the Lincoln Memorial during the August 28, 1963 March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Leaders of the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963.

Footnote:

• Editors of Time-Life Books, Events that Shaped the Century, “1955 The Montgomery Bus Boycott,” p. 132.