The march of 1963 on Washington



The march of 1963 on Washington D.C

Introduction

In the August 1963,more than hundred thousand protestors participated in a long walk, later came to be known as a long march, towards the capital of Washington for unemployment and for the Freedom. This long march proved to be a successful attempt for forcing the rule of Kennedy for initiating strong and viable bill of the civil rights at Congress. It was this event in which Martin Luther King delivered his famous and powerful speech. 

This long march of the 1963 to Washington consisted of several reasons. During the summers of 1941, Philip Randolph instigated a long walk on the nation's capital Washington in gaining attention to the atrocities towards the African Americans from the posts and the positions in the industries. That market proved to be closed for the African Americans, irrespective of the fact that it was expanding in supplying to the American supporters during World War II. The immense fear of these marchers in the capital of Washington forced the then President Franklin Roosevelt into issuing an executive Order mandating the establishment of the Fair Employment Practices Commission for investigating racial charges against defense companies. In response to this, the march was cancelled by Randolph, (New York Times, 1963). After the march, Martin Luther King and various leaders for the civil rights held meetings with the President Kennedy at the White House. The need for bipartisan support of the civil rights was discussed. The long March on Washington in the August of 1963 made a prominent mark on the American consciousness, (Johnson, 2012).

The very idea of 250,000 people gathering in the capital told white America that this great civil rights movement was not restricted or limited to the black protestors and was not coming to an end without achieving its goals.

In the paper we will be discussing the goals of the long march and also be focusing whether the goals were accomplished or not.

Discussion

The March was focused on the civil rights, voting rights and racial equality; however it was also regarding the need for jobs that promised a decent salary. The marchers desired that the federal minimum wage must be raised nearly to 75 percent, from $1.15 per hour to $2.00 per hour. They also wanted a huge federal program for training and placing all the unemployed workers, black or white for useful, meaningful and dignified jobs at acceptable decent wage rates.

During the sixties, the unemployment rate averaged 5.0 percent, which looked better as compared to an 8.3 percent of today; however, Martin Luther King and the others were of the opinion that full employment was the federal government's responsibility, even if that meant hiring millions of people. Every American had the right for earning a decent amount of money if he wanted to. They were of the opinion that the economy must be structured in a way that no one must be left behind.

The major civil rights demands were accepted during 1964 and 1965 when the ...