March on Washington Celebrates Sixty Years

The March on Washington emphasized the need to improve race relations, which had not occurred in the hundred years since the end of slavery. 

A crowd of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand African Americans and other concerned citizens assembled near the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, for jobs and freedom. They were uplifted by the words of Freedom Rider John Lewis, who demanded freedom at any cost; Byron Rustin, who played a significant role in organizing the event; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" Speech, which was heard around the world.

Other dignitaries shared the podium for the historic event. Civil Rights icon A. Phillip Randolph, who had hoped for such a march since the 1940s, ensured it went off without a hitch, while Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson graced the audience with her singing ability. Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and other celebrities were also present. It propelled the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement to new heights. 

 President John F. Kennedy, who was pressured to modify his stance on Civil Rights, and members of his cabinet watched from the sidelines as African Americans were filled with hope and optimism for the future.

The timing could not have been better, as the country was mired in Jim Crow in the South and deep-seated racism in the North.  A system of Sharecropping caused many blacks to live in abject poverty in the Southern States, as scores of Northern blacks were confined to public housing with few job opportunities. Schools and other facilities south of the so-called Mason-Dixon Line and the Midwest were segregated despite Supreme Court rulings. 

The March on Washington and other crucial events also accelerated the passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. People of color were no longer mandated to sit in separate seating areas in restaurants or other establishments, for instance, and could receive care at any hospital. It also improved housing for African Americans and quickened the process of school integration. Moreover, between 1964 and 1968, the number of black elected officials increased from 400 to 4,000, as Black voters turned out in large numbers. Registration offices in Americus, Georgia, and other rural communities were the ground zero of the fight for the right to vote.

Although the March on Washington was intended to achieve desperately needed change, it encountered heartbreaking setbacks. A month after the march, four little black girls lost their lives in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, caused by Southern segregationists. It brought men and women of all races to their knees. Two years later, in 1965, black protestors attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on their way to the state capitol in Montgomery to dramatize racial discrimination, were beaten mercilessly by State law enforcement in an incident that became known as Bloody Sunday.

In the decades since that historic day in Washington,  D.C., African Americans have enjoyed a standard of living their ancestors never dreamed possible in a nation smoldering with hate for its fellow man. Although there may be uncertainty about the future, many believe the best is yet to come.