The March on Washington

On a sweltering August day in the middle of summer of 1963, 250,000 demonstrators gathered on the Washington Monument to March for "Jobs and Freedom." That day Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech heard round the world, the now infamous "I Have a Dream Speech." It is without a doubt both the most famous address of the Civil Rights Movement, if not the most iconic day in the course of that movement.

This March is atypical not for the iconic moments it created in history, but to me, its atypical because it was very carefully planned. There was a printed program for this protests, and it featured musicians, celebrities, a mile-long march, and speeches from many civil rights activists. Whenever I think of protests, I think of masses of people following one or two leaders, bullhorns, and (even when they're peaceful) police presence. I'd never heard of a playbill being printed for a demonstration before this one, no less one so crucial to the making America as we know it today.

The March on Washington was dreamed up by A. Phillip Randolph, a proponent for the economic equality of African-Americans. It was originally proposed in 1962, and wasn't realized until 1963 because of the conflicting agendas of the other civil right leaders. It wasn't until a group called the "Big Six" were in, that the march became what would be a major political demonstration.

Until now, I never understood the tireless planning and attention to fine detail that was necessary to pull a protest of this magnitude off. Of course it makes sense that some pre-planning was necessary, but I'd always just imagined it spontaneously being planned and executed, rather than a very well-oiled machine being put into action.

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=96