“I Have a Dream” March

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 “I Have a Dream” March


The road to the infamous “I Have a Dream” March in Washington was a long time coming. Just short of one hundred years since the U.S. Fourteenth Amendment had been passed, equality was still not a reality for black citizens. In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was known as the most segregated city in America. In May of that year, more than a thousand African American students attempted to peacefully march into downtown Birmingham. These marchers were arrested by the hundreds. Film crews caught the violence on camera for all to see. Images of children being blasted by high-pressure fire hoses, clubbed by police officers, and attacked by police dogs appeared on media outlets everywhere. These images spark national as well as an international outrage.



In the wake of these violent attacks, momentum began to build for a mass protest on the nation’s capital. Many in the Civil Rights movement felt President John F. Kennedy needed to take a stand and fulfill his campaign promises for civil rights. As threats to mass march during World War II had forces, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to enact civil rights measures, Civil Rights leaders felt a national march could persuade President JFK to do the same. A Phillips Randolph, the labor unionist, wanted the march to be for jobs, yet Martin L. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference wanted the march to be for freedom. Ultimately these groups decided to combine their efforts into one mass protest, calling it the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” When March organizers met with President Kennedy, he was hesitant to endorse the march fearing it would end in violence. In the end, however, the President did endorse it.



On the day of the march, people arrived by bus, plane, automobile, and on foot. On August 28, 1963, over 250,000 people attended the march on the Washington Mall. Many celebrities such as Charleston Heston, James Gardner, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Paul Newman, to name a few, were in attendance. The march ended at the Lincoln Memorial where the program of singers and speakers commenced. The final speaker, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his celebrated “I Have a Dream,” speech calling for an end to racism.

 “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”
– I Have a Dream, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Dr. King’s ardent voice stirred the conscience of a nation and inspired people all over the world. His words resounded with his unshakeable belief in freedom, equality, and opportunity for all. “Let Freedom Ring” was Dr. King’s closing call for a better and just America.






FOR FURTHER INFORMATION;

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/full-transcript-oprah-winfreys-speech-on-50th-anniversary-of-march-on-washington/2013/08/28/3fee1ba4-101d-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/birmingham-campaign-1963

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington


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