The March on Washington
For jobs and freedom — and both words were deliberate
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Segregation in the southern states was still in force in 1963: separate schools, separate bus seats, separate doors, and the vote out of reach. The march's full name — for jobs and freedom — is worth holding on to, because the economic half of the demands is the part that most often drops out of the telling. The organiser Bayard Rustin was kept in the background because he was openly gay and a former communist. The "I have a dream" passage was improvised; King's prepared speech was more confrontational, and he set the text aside after Mahalia Jackson called out to him to tell them about the dream.
For children
Around a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington demanding civil rights and jobs. Martin Luther King gave the speech beginning "I have a dream". The following year came the law banning segregation.
Sources
- Branch, Parting the Waters (1988)
- D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (2003)
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