March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Date

28 August 1963

Category

Social & demographic

Region

North America (United States)

Era

Contemporary

Significance

On 28 August 1963 more than a quarter of a million people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history to that point.

Organised by a coalition of civil rights, labour and religious groups, the peaceful, interracial march demanded an end to racial segregation, fair employment and the passage of meaningful civil rights legislation. It is best remembered for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The march generated decisive political momentum for civil rights reform and is credited with helping propel the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, subsequently, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a Cold War-era event, it also sharpened international scrutiny of American racial inequality at a moment when the United States presented itself as the leader of the 'free world'.

Empires active in 28 August 1963

• Soviet Union
  1922 CE – 1991 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE – 1997 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE – 1976 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE
• Solomonic dynasty
  1270 CE – 1974 CE
• Dutch Empire
  1581 CE – 1975 CE

Related social & demographic events

• FDA approves the oral contraceptive pill
  9 May 1960
• The Great Leap Forward and the Great Chinese Famine
  1958–1962
• The AIDS Epidemic Is First Identified
  1981
• The COVID-19 pandemic
  11 March 2020
• Sharpeville massacre
  21 March 1960
• Global protests of 1968 and France's May Revolt
  May 1968 (global protests of 1968)

Further reading

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

The wider story

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

Global best-seller on how our species, its populations and societies remade the world.

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