The March on Washington was a march for jobs and freedom. It was estimated that quarter of a million people attended the march. The march was a peaceful demonstration to promote civil rights and economic equality for African Americans. The marchers marched down Constitution and Independence Avenues. Then they gathered in front of the Lincoln monument for speeches, songs, and prayers. It was televised to millions of people. The march consisted of all different kinds of people. There were blacks and whites, rich and poor, young and old, and Hollywood stars and normal everyday people.
There were many speeches that day but there were two major ones. One was from James Farmer, imprisoned in Louisiana, speech was read by Floyd McKissick, Farmer said the fight for economic and legal equality would not stop “until the dogs stop biting us in the South and the rats stop biting us in the North.” King gave the last speech of the day and it was the famous “I Have a Dream “speech. The march ended 10 minutes before schedule. After the march leaders met with President Kennedy at the White House to discuss ideas.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially started on December 1, 1955. That was the day when the blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, instead of being relegated to the back when a white boarded. It was not, however, the day that the movement to desegregate the buses started. Perhaps the movement started on the day in 1943 when a black seamstress named Rosa Parks paid her bus fare and then watched the bus drive off as she tried to re-enter through the rear door, as the driver had told her to do. Perhaps the movement started on the day in 1949 when a black professor Jo Ann Robinson absentmindedly sat at the front of a nearly empty bus, then ran off in tears when the bus driver screamed at her for doing so. Perhaps the