Civil Rights March on Washington Aug 28,1963

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963

 Attended by some 250,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage

1963 was noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs and fire hoses were turned against protestors

The March on Washington represented a coalition of several civil rights organizations, all of which generally had different approaches and different agendas. The "Big Six" organizers were -

• James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equlity
• Martin Luther King Jr of he Southern Christian Leadership Conference John Lewis, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
• A Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and
• Whitney Young, Jr., of the National Urban League

The stated demands of the march were -

• the passage of meaningful civil rights legislation
• the elimination of racial segregation in public schools
• protection for demonstrators against police brutality a major public-works program to provide jobs
• the passage of a law prohibiting racial discrimination in public and private hiring
• a $2 an hour minimum wage and self-government for the District of Columbia which had a black majority.