"The March" on Wahington

Birmingham, Alabama is known as being the most segregated city in the United States. In 1963, police chief Eugene "Bull" Connor had a great impact on enforcing segregation. When protests were held, he lead others in using water hoses to aggravate the protesters but they were trained for 3 months on how to resist violence. A. Philip Randolph spoke to President Roosevelt about what to about the inequality and organized 2 marches. He later came up with the idea of organizing a march on Washington that was inclusive to everyone across the United States. He had the goal of getting national attention. When Kennedy became president, he was not doing much to promote civil rights. During this time, Governor Wallace would not allow blacks to attend the University of Alabama. Some states would enforce their own segregation rules that were unconstitutional which led African Americans to want a bill to be passed about civil rights. Kennedy had finally agreed to present the bill to congress but still held some doubt on the reaction he would receive. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. toured across the country and organized peaceful protests. One of his memorable lines were: "we are determined to be free in 63". Before the march on Washington, President Kennedy found out that there were 2 communist activists that were involved in the march and wanted MLK to get rid of them. There were many people involved in the organization of the march which made it very successful. Norman Hill traveled to organize local coalitions in order to raise funds to help people that could not afford transportation to the march on Washington. Harry Belfonte was a celebrity that had an influence on whites to support civil rights which allowed the march to become more diverse. When the day of the march came, Kennedy was frightened about what may occur. There were about 250,000 people that assembled to peacefully protest and the numbers continuously increased. Many singers such as Joan Baez and the Freedom Singers sang hymns which emotionally impacted the crowd. There were also memorable speeches by John Lewis and MLK's famous "I have a dream" speech. After the march, the leaders went to the White House and later the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bill was passed.