The August 28, 1963, Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. riveted the
nation’s attention. Rather than the anticipated one-hundred-
thousand marchers, more than twice that number
appeared, astonishing even its organizers. Blacks and
whites, side by side, called on President John F. Kennedy
and the Congress to provide equal access to public facilities,
quality education, adequate employment, and decent
housing for African Americans. During the assembly at the
Lincoln Memorial, the young preacher who had led the
successful Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a stirring message
with the refrain, “I Have a Dream.”
