After the "Big Six" looked past their differences, the group eventually turned into the "Top Ten." The new group added important white religious and labor leaders to the cause. These members were: Mathew Ahmann—executive director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; Dr. Eugene Carson Blake—vice chairman of the Commission on Race Relations of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America; Rabbi Joachim Prinz—president of the American Jewish Congress; and Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers (Lloyd et. al).

President John F. Kennedy at first opposed the march. He even tried to dissuade Civil Rights leaders from joining. On June 22, 1963, he met with major civil rights and labor leaders. Kennedy wanted them to cancel the march, because he thought it might lead to violence and rioting which would jeopardize his civil rights legislation from gaining votes in Congress. However, Randolph insisted that the march would go on and King stated, “[A] peaceful march would draw attention to the civil rights issue in a positive way” (Lloyd et al). After this meeting, Kennedy realized that the leaders were not going to back down, so he threw his support behind them and tried to ensure them that the march would be peaceful.

Planning of the March

A. Philip Randolph appointed Bayard Rustin to plan the details and organization of the march. He was a veteran activist with an expansive background in putting together mass marches (Lloyd et. al). Rustin only had two months to plan the march. He established his headquarters in Harlem, New York with a small office in Washington D.C. He quickly gathered 200 volunteers to put together the largest peaceful demonstration in U.S. history (Lloyd et al.). Bayard Rustin developed his agenda by stating, "We should emphasize the theme that the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 has failed to bring freedom for the Negro, no worker in America is genuinely free" (Carbado & Weise 1174). Rustin gathered a list of marchers’ demands including "meaningful civil rights, full and fair employment, decent housing the fight to vote, and adequate and integrated education" (Lloyd et. al).

Part of the planning included getting the word out about the March. The Big Six spread the word through press conferences and speeches. Rustin and his volunteers passed out Organization Manual No. One to movement leaders at centers throughout the nation (“March on Washington—We Stood").  The manual emphasized, "the peaceful nature of the March and focused on the unifying goals of the Civil Rights Movement" (Lloyd et. al). Rustin also concentrated on the marchers’ basic needs as well. He planned on portable toilets, drinking fountains, food stands, and first-aid stations all along the route of the Mall. Every detail was carefully considered, because the planners believed that, “anything other than a peaceful, well-organized demonstration would damage the cause for which they would march” (“March”).  

Safety was one of the main concerns of the March.  Rustin planned for his own security force to keep control.  There were 2,000 volunteer marshals who worked with Washington D.C. police to keep the peace.  In addition, Kennedy put 4,000 military troops on alert and were ready to call on 15,000 paratroopers if they were needed.  The city hospitals were on alert and city judges were ready for mass arrests.  Liquor stores even banned alcohol sales for the day (Lloyd et. al). 

Day of the March

August 28, 1963 quickly approached A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and the rest of the “Top Ten.” The morning of the march New York’s Penn Station reported the largest early morning crowd since the end of World War II (“March on Washington—We Stood”). By sunrise, hundreds of participants had already arrived at the Washington Monument, where a morning rally was to take place with several entertainers, such as Joan Baez, Odetta, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul, and Mary (Lloyd et. al). As more and more participants started showing up, the crowd started to get anxious. A few participants got eager and started the march earlier. The Civil Rights leaders rushed from the Capital to meet up with the parade just in time to march onto the Lincoln Memorial.  As they walked, they sang "We Shall Overcome" (Lloyd et. al).

The demonstration lasted about three hours and was broadcast throughout the world. It is estimated that about 200,000 to 250,000 people attended. Some surveys indicate that about fifteen percent of the people that attended were students, about 25 percent were white, and a majority of the black attendants were middle class, northern, and urban (“March on Washington—We Stood”).

"I Have a Dream" Speech  

(Click on this link for a text version of the speech)

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. was real busy in Alabama with the Birmingham protests. So, he was not able to devote a lot of time in developing a speech for this demonstration. Even with his busy schedule, King knew that his speech had to “sort of a Gettysburg Address.” It was in the early morning of August 28, 1963 that the final revisions were done (Garrow 30). Actually, it was rare for King to even have a typed version of his speech. Drew Hansen explains in his book: The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech the Inspired a Nation, “King did not so much write most of his speeches as assemble them, by rearranging and adapting material he had used many times before” (Garrow 31). 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. started out reading his typed speech word for word. He made reference to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and to the promises of Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, promises that were yet to be fulfilled for black Americans.

 

 

Taking a look at this most quoted speech, it is easy to map out the goals of the entire Civil Rights Movement.

• Segregation was still destroying black Americans: King encourages marchers and viewers of the March, "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice."
• Blacks were still being denied rights guaranteed to everyone in the Declaration of Independence: King tells them again, "This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (King). 

King uses metaphors as well as quotations from the Bible to emphasize these goals.

King uses a metaphor of a bad check to enforce the denied rights.

•  He states, "In a sense, we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check…But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice." 

King references the Old Testament to push the Civil Rights agenda.

• He declares, "We will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." The end part is taken from the book of Amos, chapter 5, verse 24 (King).
• After he starts his "I Have a Dream" part of the speech, he says, "I have a dream…the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together" (King). This is taken from the book of Isaiah, chapter 40, verses four and five.

These references he uses speak directly to the injustice the blacks were facing which made the Civil Rights leaders join together on this day to demonstrate for equality and the Civil Rights Act that President Kennedy had presented to the United States a couple of months earlier.

 

 

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Works Cited

 

 

"Biographical Outline of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."  The King Center.  2004.  26 Nov 2007  <http://www.thekingcenter.com>.

 

Carbado, Devon W., and Donald Weise.  "The Civil Rights Identity of Bayard Rustin."  Texas Law Review.  82 (2004): 1135-1195.  Academic

      Search Elite.  OSU-Tulsa Lib., Tulsa, OK. 26 Nov 2007 <http://www.ebscohost.com>.

 

Garrow, David.  "King: the March, the Man, the Dream."  American History.  38 (2003): 26-35.  Middle Search Plus.  OSU-Tulsa Lib., Tulsa, OK.  25

       Nov 2007 <http://www.epnet.com>.

 

King, Martin Luther Jr.  "I Have a Dream."  2007.  American Rhetoric  24 Nov 2007 

       <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm>.

 

 

Lloyd, Natalie, Wynell Schamel, and LeeAnn Potter.  "The 1963 March on Washington."  Social Education.  65 (2001): 18.  Expanded Academic        ASAP.  OSU-Tulsa Lib., Tulsa, OK. 25 Nov 2007 <http://find.galegroup.com>.

 

 "The March on Washington: We Stood on a Height."  AfricanAmericans.com.  2007.  25 Nov 2007 

       <http://www.africanamericans.com/newleaders.com>.