African American History 7

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

🗓 August 28, 1963
📍Washington, D.C., Lincoln Memorial
👥 250,000 participants — the largest human rights demonstration in U.S. history at that point.
🧠 Organized by A. Philip Randolph and coordinated by Bayard Rustin with 200 volunteers in just two months.
🎯 Goals:

• Passage of the Civil Rights Act

• School integration

• Fair employment and job training

• End to job discrimination
  🚂 “Freedom buses” and “freedom trains” brought thousands from around the country

A. Philip Randolph

📌 Founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and longtime labor leader.

Bayard Rustin

📌 Veteran civil rights strategist and deputy director of the March.
⚙ Behind-the-scenes organizer with unmatched logistics coordination.
🎯 Planned the program, buses, volunteer staff — ensured the day went smoothly.

The “Big Six” Civil Rights Leaders

• A. Philip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

• Martin Luther King Jr. – SCLC

• Roy Wilkins – NAACP

• Whitney Young Jr. – National Urban League

• James Farmer – CORE

• John Lewis – SNCC

John Lewis’ Speech (SNCC)

🗣 Spoke boldly for youth and grassroots activists.
🔥 Quote:

“We shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces, and put them back together in the image of God and democracy.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

🗓 August 28, 1963
🎤 Delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
💥 Most iconic civil rights speech in U.S. history.
🔥 Quotes:

“We are not satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed...”
🎯 Addressed police brutality, segregated public spaces, voting rights, and the “dream” of equality.

President John F. Kennedy’s Civil Rights Address

🗓 June 11, 1963
📌 In response to Birmingham and University of Alabama events.
🎤 Nationally televised speech from the White House.
🔥 Quote:

“If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant... vote... or send his children to the best school... who among us would be content to stand in his place?”
🎯 Called civil rights a moral issue, urged Congress to pass legislation.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

🗓 Signed into law July 2, 1964
📌 Pushed through Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson after JFK’s assassination.
📜 Key provisions:

• Outlawed segregation in public accommodations (restaurants, hotels, theaters, etc.)

• Banned discrimination in employment (race, color, religion, sex, national origin)

• Barred unequal voter registration practices

• Authorized Attorney General to enforce school desegregation