Though singer Josephine Baker spoke briefly before the official program began, women did not speak at the Lincoln Memorial podium. The 2020 Virtual March on Washington will take place on August 28, 2020, on the 57th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. From left: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Charlton Heston.Martin Luther King Jr. (second from left in front row) leads the March On Washington. But King almost didn’t even say those words that day. King, originally slated to speak for 4 minutes, went on to speak for 16 minutes, giving It didn’t take long for King’s dream to come to fruition — the legislative aspect of the dream, that is.After a decade of continued lobbying of Congress and the President led by the NAACP, plus other peaceful protests for civil rights, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.One year later, he signed the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.Together, these laws outlawed discrimination against blacks and women, effectively ending segregation, and sought to end disenfranchisement by making discriminatory voting practices illegal.Ten years after King joined the civil rights fight, the campaign to secure the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act had achieved its goal – to ensure that black citizens would have the power to represent themselves in government.Chadwick Boseman Wins @NAACP Image Award for Performance In ' Black Panther' at the 50th @naacpimageawards For showing us how to conquer adversity with grace...TUNE IN NOW: @RevDrBarber delivers the keynote address at the 2020 Virtual March on WashingtonHAPPENING NOW: @burnaboy performs on the 2020 Virtual March on Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the exalted “I Have a Dream” speech.Originally conceived by renowned labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, the March on Washington evolved into a collaborative effort amongst major civil rights groups and icons of the day.Stemming from a rapidly growing tide of grassroots support and outrage over the nation’s racial inequities, the rally drew over 260,000 people from across the nation.In 1941, A. Phillip Randolph first conceptualized a “march for jobs” in protest of the racial discrimination against African Americans from jobs created by WWII and the New Deal programs created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.The march was stalled, however, after negotiations between Roosevelt and Randolph prompted the establishment of the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) and an executive order banning discrimination in defense industries.The FEPC dissolved just five years later, causing Randolph to revive his plans.He looked to the charismatic Dr. King to breathe new life into the march.By the late 1950s, Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were also planning to march on Washington, this time to march for freedom.As the years passed on, the Civil Rights Act was still stalled in Congress, and equality for Americans of color still seemed like a far-fetched dream.Randolph, his chief aide, Bayard Rustin, and Dr. King all decided it would be best to combine the two causes into one mega-march, the March for Jobs and Freedom.NAACP, headed by Roy Wilkins, was called upon to be one of the leaders of the march.As one of the largest and most influential civil rights groups at the time, NAACP harnessed the collective power of its members, organizing a march that was focused on the advancement of civil rights and the actualization of Dr. King’s dream.A quarter-million people strong, the march drew activists from far and wide.Leaders of the six prominent civil rights groups at the time joined forces in organizing the march.The group included Randolph, leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP; Dr. King, Chairman of the SCLC; James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); John Lewis, President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and Whitney Young, Executive Director of the National Urban League.Dr. Iconic writer James Baldwin came out, along with singer Sammy Davis Jr. and folk legend Bob Dylan, who performed a song with Joan Baez.The march’s official leadership consisted of the most powerful and influential men in the civil rights movement: Jim Farmer, co-founder of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE); Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Council; current member of the House of Representatives John Lewis, who at the time of the march was chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at only 23 years old; Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League, which sought to end employment discrimination; and A. Phillip Randolph, who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the Negro American Labor Council.
In fact, there’s much more to the story of this crucial civil rights moment than you learned in school.
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Organizers didn’t even invite Dorothy Height, leader of the National Council of Negro Women, to make a speech. Responses to the March In the months after the March on Washington, ongoing demonstrations and violence continued to pressure political leaders to act. 1963 was noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested and jailed during these protests, writing his famous \"Letter From Birmingham City Jail,\" which advocates civil disobedience against unjust laws. The exclusion continued even after the event, when male leaders went to visit JFK and left critical female activists including Rosa Parks behind.Many women who had campaigned tirelessly for their cause recognized the slight all too well. John F. Kennedy (eighth from left) meets with some of the march’s organizers including Martin Luther King Jr. (third from left), John Lewis (fourth from left), Whitney Young (second from right), and A. Philip Randolph (seventh from left).The crowd gathered beneath the Washington Monument. “We grinned; some of us,” While popularly remembered as a critical success in the civil rights story, the march hardly confined itself to the question of civil rights alone. That truth can be found in the event’s very name, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The idea for the March on Washington came from A. Phillip Randolph, a prominent civil rights leader at the time.