Document Based Question (DBQ)
The March on Washington:
Whose Dream Was It?
Documents:
Document A: Martin Luther King, Jr., Excerpt from “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”
Document B: Official Program for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 1963
Document C: Excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Document D: Photograph from the March on Washington, August 1963
Write the names
names of your group members here:
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The Hook
Below is a chronology of the Civil Rights movement for African American rights.
1. 1619: A year before the Mayflower, the first 20 African slaves are sold to settlers
in Virginia as "indentured servants."
2. 1789:
Constitution adopted; slaves counted as three-fifths of a person for means of
representation.
3. 1857:
In the Dred Scott decision, Scott, a slave who had lived in a free territory,
sues for his freedom on the grounds his residence on free soil liberates him. The
Supreme Court declares that slaves were not citizens and had no rights to sue, and
that slave owners could take their slaves anywhere on the territory and retain title
to them.
4. 1863: January 1, Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in
states in rebellion against the union.
5. 1865: Lincoln assassinated.
Freedman's Bureau, to help former slaves, established.
Ku Klux Klan organized in Pulaski, Tenn.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified stating that "neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude....shall exist" in the United States.
6. 1870: The Fifteenth Amendment guarantees the right to vote will not be denied or
abridged on account of race.
The first "Jim Crow" or segregation law is passed.
7. 1875: Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans
equal rights in transportation, restaurant/inns, theaters and on juries.
8. 1896: The Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, establishes the "separate but equal"
doctrine that justifies legal segregation in the South.
9. 1910: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is
founded by W.E.B Du Bois, Jane Addams, John Dewey and others.
10.
1954: In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules deliberate public
school segregation illegal, effectively overturning "separate but equal" doctrine
of Plessy v. Ferguson.
11.
1955:
In Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to up her bus seat to a white man,
precipitating the Montgomery bus boycott.
12.
1956:
Autherine Lucy is first African American admitted to the University of
Alabama.
13.
1957: Efforts to integrate Little Rock, Ark., Central High School meet with legal
resistance and violence;
14.
1960: February 1, Lunch counter sit-in by four college students in Greensboro,
N.C. begins and spreads through the South.
15.
1962: James Meredith becomes first African American student admitted to the
University of Mississippi.
16.
1963: June 20, President John F. Kennedy meets with civil rights leaders at the
White House in an attempt to call off the March on Washington scheduled for August.
Circle the years that you feel were the most important in the struggle for equal rights. Why did you circle
these?
Count the number of times the term “slave” is used. (# ___)
Count the number of times Congress or the US government is referred to. (#____)
What do the statistics above tell you?
Background Essay “March on Washington: Whose Dream Was It?”
1963 was noted for racial unrest and civil
rights demonstrations. Martin Luther King Jr. was
arrested and jailed during these protests, writing his
famous “Letter From Birmingham City Jail”, which
advocates civil disobedience against unjust laws.
Dozens of additional demonstrations took place across
the country, from California to New York, culminating
in the March on Washington. President Kennedy
backed a Civil Rights Act, which was stalled in
Congress by the summer.
The march was initiated by A. Philip
Randolph, the president of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
and other labor organizations. The
1963 march was an important part of
the rapidly expanding Civil Rights
Movement. It also marked the 100th
anniversary of the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation by
Abraham Lincoln.
The march was not universally
supported about African Americans.
Some civil rights activists were
convinced that it might turn violent,
which could undermine pending
legislation and damage the
international image of the movement. March
organizers themselves disagreed over the purpose of
the march. Some organizations saw it as a gesture of
support for a civil rights bill that had been introduced
by the Kennedy administration; others as a way of
raising both civil rights and economic issues to
national attention beyond the Kennedy bill; and a few
even as a way of challenging and condemning the
Kennedy administration’s inaction and lack of support
for civil rights for African Americans.
Nobody was sure how many people would
turn up for the demonstration in Washington D.C.
Some travelling from the South were harassed and
threatened. But on August 28, 1963, an estimated
250,000 people – about a quarter of whom were white
– marched from the Washington Monument to the
Lincoln Memorial, in what turned out to be both a
protest and a communal celebration. The heavy police
presence turned out to be unnecessary, as the march
was noted for its civility and peacefulness.
More than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10
chartered airliners, and uncounted cars converged on
Washington. All regularly scheduled planes, trains,
and buses were also filled to capacity. 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 publicworks program to provide jobs; the passage of a law
prohibiting racial discrimination in
public and private hiring; a $2 an
hour minimum wage; and selfgovernment for the District of
Columbia, which had a black
majority.
President Kennedy
originally discouraged the march;
for fear that it might make the
legislature vote against civil rights
in reaction to a perceived threat.
Once it became clear that the
march would go on, however, he
supported it. The march began at
the Washington Monument and
ended at the Lincoln Memorial with a program of
music and speakers. The march failed to start on time
because its leaders were meeting with members of
Congress. To the leaders’ surprise, the assembled
group began to march from the Washington
Monument to the Lincoln Memorial without them
The most noteworthy speech came from
Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s speech remains one of
the most famous speeches in American history. He
departed from his prepared remarks shifting into the
“I have a dream” theme he had used on prior
occasions, drawing on both “the American dream”
and religious themes, speaking of an America where
his children “will not be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character.” He
followed this with an exhortation to “let freedom ring”
across the nation, and concluded with “free at last, free
at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
Background Essay Questions
Vocabulary:
advocate
Civil Rights Act
Emancipation Proclamation
segregation
perceived
noteworthy
Whose idea was the march in the first place?
Who was involved in the organization of the event?
What were the main reasons that people wanted to participate in such an event?
What were some of the problems on the day of the march?
Jot down some of the highlights of the class conversation here:
Document A
Martin Luther King Jr., Excerpt from “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”
“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. Something
within [the American Negro]has reminded him of his birthright
of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can
be gained… the United States Negro is moving with a sense of
great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. … So
let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city
hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why
he must do so.”
Note: On April 3, 1963, Birmingham Alabama Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against "parading,
demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing". Ignoring the warning and continuing to protest, Dr. King was
arrested with several colleagues and jailed in Birmingham City Jail. Not permitted to have any reading material,
newspapers were smuggled in and Dr. King composed his letter in the margins, after which it was published in segments
beginning in May 1963.
What is the reason behind King’s writing of the letter?
What is he asking people to understand?
What is he suggesting that African Americans do?
Document B
Official Program from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. August 28, 1963.
Note: The marchers began at the
Capitol building and walked to
the Lincoln Memorial where
there was a series of speakers
planned.
**
**
** Marian Anderson was invited
by the segregationist group, the
Daughters of the American
Revolution, to sing on the steps
of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939
and the first African American to
sing at Carnegie Hall in 1955
** In the early morning of June
12, 1963, just hours after
President John F. Kennedy's
speech on national television in
support of civil rights, Medgar
Evers, a WWII veteran and civil
rights activist, pulled into his
driveway where he was shot and
killed.
How long a period was allocated for the program at the Lincoln Memorial?
What does the level of leadership involved in the program tell you about it?
Why were Marian Anderson and Mrs. Medgar Evers included in the program?
Document C
Excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1964.
Not long ago, the black man in America was fed a dose
of another form of the weakening, lulling and deluding
effects of so-called "integration." It was that "Farce in
Washington," I call it…..For twenty or more years the March
on Washington idea had floated around among Negroes. And,
spontaneously, suddenly now, that idea caught on….The
marchers had been instructed to bring no signs--signs were
provided. They had been told to sing one song: "We Shall
Overcome." They had been told how to arrive, when, where to
arrive, where to assemble, when to start marching, the route
to march….Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all
harmonizing "We Shall Overcome" while tripping and swaying
along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to
be angrily revolting against?
Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was a Muslim minister and a human rights activist. To his admirers he
was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms
for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. In
February 1965, shortly after repudiating the Nation of Islam, he was assassinated by three of its
members. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, was published shortly after his death
What is the tone of Malcolm X’s words?
How does this differ from Dr. King’s words and tone?
Do you think Malcolm X would have attended the March? What indicates yes or no?
Document D
Photograph from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.
Thousands of Americans headed to Washington on Tuesday August 27, 1963. On Wednesday, August 28,
1963. Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream"
speech in which he called for an end to racism. Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 to
300,000. Observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black.
What is the racial makeup of the crowd in the photograph?
What are some of the ideas and concerns of the marchers?
How does photography contribute to your understanding of the event?