The March on Washington 1963

Did you ever wonder what happened in the Civil Right era? I wrote my report on the March on Washington, and it changed everything for every African American in every corner of the world.

         The March on Washington occurred in the summer of 1963, shortly after the Birmingham Campaign, which was an effort to break segregation in the largest urban areas. Over 200,000 African Americans marched to Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963. As a result, the March on Washington is credited for creating a political platform for African Americans to finally have the Civil and Voting Rights in the mid-1960s.

          In 1963, racism was everywhere. Very few white and black got along. They even had separate washrooms, drinking fountains, schools, and stores. If you were an African American on the bus with Caucasians and you were sitting down and they weren’t, you had to give up your seat and move to the back. Blacks were beaten by White citizens and even the police, and they never got justice. Even judges were racist. Blacks couldn’t even vote, nor could they work, and they were getting fed up. In the winter of 1962, Martin Luther King Jr. asked President John F. Kennedy to release a new, fair Emancipation Proclamation, but the president disagreed and caused the March on Washington to begin.

          In the summer of 1961, a man named Philip Randolph decided to get 100,000 African Americans to circle around the Capitol, but some disagreed due to the fact that they feared what the government would do in retaliation. But, Franklin D. Roosevelt ended up signing the Executive Order 8802 which forced racist whites to open the job market to black people. Since the job market was now opened, Randolph decided the march wasn’t necessary. On August 28, 1963, 200,000+ demonstrators marched to Washington to Lincoln’s Monument for the 3^rd anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education and they had a prayer pilgrimage, and it is also the same day King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

          As a result, King met up with President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at the white house where they discussed a need for two parties to support civil rights. Even though it wasn’t passed until President Kennedy died, which was the Civil Rights of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.