March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

The March on Washington for work and freedom ( shorter: March on Washington, American term March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom ) was a political demonstration on August 28, 1963 It is with the Civil Rights Act and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martin. Luther King, who followed in 1964, seen as one of the highlights of the civil rights movement in the United States. It gathered more than 200,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and demanded an end to racial discrimination in the United States. Martin Luther King at the event held his famous speech " I have a dream ".

History and organization

In 1941 had a march on Washington planned to draw attention to the poor economic situation of black workers in the United States, Asa Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Abraham J. Muste. The then President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to meet the concerns with the Fair Employment Act and the march did not take place.

In 1962, Randolph his earlier plan to again. At Roy Wilkins ( NAACP ) and Whitney Young ( National Urban League ), he initially found as little agreement as Martin Luther King. King, however, had in 1957 helped a Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom to Washington to organize, whose 25,000 participants committed the three year anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education became known court decision in favor of colored students. King wanted to connect to the then successful and supported in the following Randolph's idea. Roy Wilkins also was persuaded not to isolate the NAACP from the other civil rights organizations.

In June 1963, the date was set, which fell on a Wednesday, so that Jews and Christian pastors participation was made possible, without violating their religious obligations. Randolph was appointed director of the preparatory group, Bayard Rustin and his deputy.

Supporters of the march were the African-American civil rights groups:

Other organizations, including the National Council of Churches, the American Jewish Congress, and the United Auto Workers wore the march on Washington.

The American President John F. Kennedy was initially concerned about public safety in the face of a mass rally, however, the project encouraged by its own policy, followed the event on television and received the speaker after the event.

The organization of such a mass meeting required substantial planning in terms of arrival, security, medical and sanitation, public relations and finance. To avoid an overly visible presence of police officers with white skin, folders from the ranks of the African American participants were trained.

Event and objectives

One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery in the American South, marched over 200,000 people, both white, and black skin, to Washington for a peaceful protest. On the eve of the participants had arrived by special train and buses from around the country. Around noon, it was up to 250,000, estimated twenty percent of them white.

The road to Washington led opposition to the original plan of a train to the Capitol at the request of the authorities from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. The prevention of abuse of the event for self-expression of individual groups was achieved by unified slogans and banners.

In the choice of the title of the event, the effort was to integrate both of receivables concrete economic and political nature in an official catalog of targets ten demands were made that supported John F. Kennedy in his civil rights policies and the ten speakers in each five minutes should be presented.

Some important civil rights were not present on that day: The speech of James Farmer was a result of his imprisonment from; His message was read by Floyd McKissick. WEB Du Bois was previously passed a day in Ghana. The of the recently murdered Medgar Evers widow highlighted the achievements of civil rights activists such as Daisy Bates, Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, and others. The speech by Martin Luther King was provided by Randolph at the end of the program to allow an extension of speaking time for King, whom he described as "the moral leader of the nation ". Under the title I Have a Dream she reached worldwide fame.

In addition to the speakers were also various musicians, including Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Odetta Holmes, Mahalia Jackson, the Eva Jessye Choir and Peter, Paul and Mary. Harry Belafonte and other celebrities also took part in the march on Washington. The Orthodox Rabbi Uri Miller said a prayer and the Baptist Pastor Benjamin Mays closed the rally with a blessing.

Effects

The march on Washington was transmitted via the new satellite Telstar worldwide on television. American television networks were broadcasting live from Washington. He did not yield any immediate policy changes, however, had great symbolic importance, and solved in the U.S. and Europe, large media coverage from. In a broader sense it also led to the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and 1965 by Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.

The March on Washington was the model for the million -man march of 1995. In 2003, forty years after the March on Washington, a commemorative event was held at the same place under other thematic requirements and with other political demands, instead, on the more thousands of demonstrators, among them attended Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of Martin Luther King and Kings widow, Coretta Scott King.

Barack Obama 2010 Oval Office decorated with a bust of Martin Luther King and a framed program of the march on Washington.

Criticism

The cooperation of government and agencies and the high integration and compromise solved in addition to the criticism of white Segregationisten of criticism from within the ranks. Martin Luther King had presented no concrete way to turn his "dream" into reality and the economic demands of the demonstration were pushed into the background. More radical African Americans were able to Kings vision of a society in which blacks and whites merge into a community without regard to skin color, do not share. The civil rights activist Malcolm X, then still a member of the " Nation of Islam", went into his speech Message to the Grass Roots in November of the same year also on the march and criticized the participation of whites, Jewish and Christian clergy and the loss of black militancy. The march was to be a " circus ", a " picnic " has become and to compare with a strong, black coffee, the milk is diluted with white and had been weakened. In allusion to King's speech, he expressed that he saw a " American nightmare ".

John Lewis (U.S. politician) Sidney Poitier Charlton Heston United States Capitol Daisy Bates (Australia) Voting Rights Act of 1965 Million Man March
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