Organization Of The March example essay topic

Free by '63: The March on Washington One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 "for jobs and freedom" (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents. According to the march organizers, the march would symbolize their demands of "the passage of the Kennedy Administration Civil Rights Legislation without compromise of filibuster", integration of all public schools by the end of the year, a federal program to help the unemployed, and a Federal Fair Employment Act which would ban job discrimination ("The March on Washington" 11).

In order for the march not to appear as a war of white versus black it had to be racially integrated so it looked like justice versus injustice. Some organizers wanted to call for massive acts of disobedience across America, but when the Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P. joined the organization of the march, they insisted against it. The march was originally going to be on Capitol Hill to influence congress, but because of a 1882 law against demonstrating there, they decided to march to the Lincoln Memorial and invite congress to meet them there, knowing that they would not. When planning the march, the organizers made sure that Washington D.C. was ready for anything so that the march could go on no matter the circumstances. Marchers were advised to bring raincoats, hats, sunglasses, plenty of water, and non-perishable food. To accommodate the expected 100,000 to 200,000 people, there were 292 outdoor toilets, 21 water fountains, 22 first aid stations, 40 doctors and 80 nurses along the march ("On the March" 17).

The National Council of Churches made 80,000 boxed lunches for the marchers at 50 cents each. When the buses of people came to Washington D.C.'s outskirts, 5,600 cops and 4,000 army troops came to patrol the parade. People from around the country came by any means necessary to support the march. One man from Chicago began roller-skating to Washington D.C. 11 days before the march ("On the March" 17). One of the march organizers described it as "if they can't come any other way, they " ll look down and say, 'feet, start moving' " ("On the March" 17). Mayors nearby Washington D.C. even gave city workers the day off so they could attend.

For those too far away, there were symbolic marches on city halls across America and American Embassies around the world. James Baldwin who was in France at the time, took part in one of these. The marchers gathered at the Washington Monument before dawn as planned on August 28, 1963. At 11: 30,100,000 to 200,000 of them began marching towards the Lincoln Memorial singing "We Shall Overcome" ("The March on Washington" 12). At the memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered multiple speeches along with other African Americans about segregation and discrimination issues.

During one of his speeches, King Jr. declared that "we will not hate you, but we cannot obey your unjust laws. Do to us what you will and we will still love you... But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience, that we will win you in the process" ("Negro Protest Movement" 507). This statement by King Jr. describes his plans of further nonviolent protesting against "unjust laws" to convince others of the civil rights movement's cause. He furthers this statement and elaborates his ideas in his infamous speech, "I Have a Dream".

Despite initial skepticism by the White House, thinking that the march was capable of much more harm than good, President Kennedy believed it to be greatly successful. At the end of the march, Kennedy met with all the organizers of the march and proclaimed that "the cause of 20 million Negroes has not only been advanced by the program conducted so appropriately before the Nation's shrine to the Great Emancipator, but even more significantly is the contribution to all mankind" (Nabrit 507). Kennedy believed that the march was executed very well and contributed greatly. The president elaborates on this as he describes that "the Negroes struggle was not a struggle for the President or Congress alone, what we " re really talking about is a problem which involves 180 million people" ("On the March" 17). This shows how the march was not just viewed as trying to get legislation passed in congress, but was also seen more broadly as a struggle for civil rights altogether. The March on Washington had many effects on the nation and the world as a whole by making "it quite clear that the Negro in America could obtain first-class leadership but that his own leadership and his own sustained efforts were necessary ingredients" (Nabrit 507).

It showed that success was possible, but only through continued efforts and organization. According to James M. Nabrit, Jr., the March made the country much more aware of the demand of African Americans and the jobless conditions that most of them faced at the time. The sources consulted for the March on Washington as a whole are in an agreement. Most sources mentioned the general purpose of the march, the preparation that went in to it and circumstances surrounding the actual march.

All of the sources approximate the same amount of attendance and all describe the sequence of events being the same. At the time the event received a fair amount of media coverage, but few books were written about it. The only book found that was written close to the time of the march with relevant information about it was We Shall Overcome written by Michael Dorman in 1965. Although it contained detailed information about the march and other civil rights events in 1963, it was criticized because of its strongly opinionated nature and somewhat varying focus. The March on Washington was a key event in the fight for freedom and the biggest event in the beginning of civil rights movement. It was regarded by many reporters as largely successful.

The March on Washington had a tremendous effect on the fate of the Kennedy Administration's civil rights bill, but Kennedy was assassinated before the bill was passed. Johnson, who was Kennedy's vice president, took over and became president, and he passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The March on Washington not only helped to pass this legislation, but also made the world realize the African Americans' fight for freedom and their determination to make it happen. The information contained in this report was found in a variety of ways.

Two articles were found on the online database JSTOR by searching for "March on Washington" under African American studies, history, and political science. In addition to these articles, three were found simply by browsing through magazines written at the time of the march. Information about books written at the time was found by searching the appendices of book review indexes for topics related to the march. By looking around in the reference section for specialized encyclopedias, the African American Encyclopedia was located.

Bibliography

Book Review Digest 61 New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, (1965): 239.
Dorman, Michael. We Shall Overcome. New York: Dial Press, 1965".
On the March". Newsweek Sept. 1963: 17+.
Nabrit, James M. Jr. "The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation". Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516.
JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004 Shaskolsky, Leon.
The Negro Protest Movement- Revolt or Reform? ". Pylon 29 (1963): 156-166.
JSTOR. 11 Apr. 2004".
The March on Washington". Time Magazine 30 Aug. 1963: 11+".
What the Marchers Really Want". New York Times Magazine 25 Aug. 1963: 7.