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The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the March on Washington, or The Great March on Washington as styled in a sound recording released after the event, was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C..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. The march was organized by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations,〔 under the theme "jobs, and freedom".〔 Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 to 300,000;〔 it is widely accepted that approximately 250,000 people participated in the march.〔Hansen, D, D. (2003). ''The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation''. New York, NY: Harper Collins. p. 177.〕 Observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black. The march is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act (1964)〔(NewsHour Extra: The March on Washington and Its Impact - Lesson Plan )〕〔(An important goal of the 1963 March on Washington remains unfulfilled - The Hill's Congress Blog )〕 and preceded the Selma Voting Rights Movement which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act (1965). ==Background == Although African Americans had been legally freed from slavery, elevated to the status of citizens and the men given full voting rights at the end of the American Civil War, many continued to face economic and political repression. A system of legal discrimination, known as Jim Crow laws, were pervasive in the American South, ensuring that Black Americans remained second-class citizens. They experienced discrimination from businesses and governments, and in some places were prevented from voting through intimidation and violence.〔Bass, ''Like a Mighty Stream'' (2002), pp. 31, 34–36.〕 Twenty-one states prohibited interracial marriage.〔Euchner, ''Nobody Turn Me Around'' (2010), p. 128.〕 The impetus for a march on Washington developed over a long period of time, and earlier efforts to organize such a demonstration included the March on Washington Movement of the 1940s. A. Philip Randolph—the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2738/ )〕 and vice president of the AFL-CIO—was a key instigator in 1941. With Bayard Rustin, Randolph called for 10,000 black workers to march on Washington, in protest of discriminatory hiring by U.S. military contractors and demanding an Executive Order.〔Bass, ''Like a Mighty Stream'' (2002), pp. 44–46.〕 Faced with a mass march scheduled for July 1, 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25.〔Bass, ''Like a Mighty Stream'' (2002), pp. 49–51.〕 The order established the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and banning discriminatory hiring in the defense industry.〔Neil A. Wynn, "(The Impact of the Second World War on the American Negro )"; ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 6(2), 1971; p. 46.〕 Randolph called off the March.〔Bass, ''Like a Mighty Stream'' (2002), pp. 51–52.〕 Randolph and Rustin continued to organize around the idea of a mass march on Washington. They envisioned several large marches during the 1940s, but all were called off (despite criticism from Rustin).〔Euchner, ''Nobody Turn Me Around'' (2010), pp. 16–17.〕 Their Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, held at the Lincoln Memorial on May 17, 1957, featured key leaders including Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Roy Wilkins. Mahalia Jackson performed.〔Bass, ''Like a Mighty Stream'' (2002), p. 75.〕 The 1963 march was an important part of the rapidly expanding Civil Rights Movement, which involved demonstrations and nonviolent direct action across the United States.〔Barber, ''Marching on Washington'' (2002), p. 142. "In 1963, however, the March on Washington was but one aspect of a national explosion of actions against racial discrimination that many criticized as being outside traditional politics. () In the South after 1960, the widespread adoption of direct action—purposeful defiance of segregation laws and injunctions against demonstrations—inspired activists and attracted new attention from the media, the federal government, and white segregationists."〕 1963 also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. Members of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference put aside their differences and came together for the march. Many whites and blacks also came together in the urgency for change in the nation. Violent confrontations broke out in the South: in Cambridge, Maryland; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Goldsboro, North Carolina; Somerville, Tennessee; Saint Augustine, Florida; and across Mississippi. Most of these incidents involved white people retaliating against nonviolent demonstrators.〔Euchner, ''Nobody Turn Me Around'' (2010), p. xvi. "Violence swept the South all year. Vigilantes in Clarksdale firebombed the home of Aaron Henry, the head of Mississippi's NAACP. After a gas bomb went off in a church in Itta Bena, Mississippi, mobs threw bottles and rocks at activists spilling onto the streets. Vigilantes shot into the home of college professors helping the movement in Jackson. A civil rights worker traveling from Itta Bena to Jackson was shot in the neck and shoulder. A bomb destroyed a two-family home in Jackson. Whites in the North Carolina town of Goldsboro ran down demonstrators in a car and threw bottles and rocks. Whites in Pine Bluff, in Arkansas, attacked civil rights workers with ammonia and bottles. Someone shot into the home of an NAACP board member in Saint Augustine. When nine activists prayed in a country courthouse in Somerville, Tennessee, police allowed hoodlums into the building to beat them up."〕 Many people wanted to march on Washington, but disagreed over how the march should be conducted. Some called for a complete shutdown of the city through civil disobedience. Others argued that the movement should remain nationwide in scope, rather than focus its energies on the capitol.〔Euchner, ''Nobody Turn Me Around'' (2010), p. 2.〕 There was widespread perception that the Kennedy administration had not lived up to its promises in the 1960 election; King described Kennedy's race policy as "tokenism".〔 The public failure of the Baldwin–Kennedy meeting on May 24, 1963, underscored the divide between the needs of Black America and the understanding of Washington politicians. But it also provoked the Kennedys to action on the civil rights issue.〔Euchner, ''Nobody Turn Me Around'' (2010), pp. 120–121. "In the TV interview, Baldwin was ashen, disoriented. He had had no idea, before now, just how aloof the Kennedys were. He thought the administration's caution came from ruthless political calculation. But now it seemed that the pampered sons of old Joe Kennedy just had no idea—''no understanding at all''—about race in America. The secret meeting was immediately leaked to the press. Within weeks, the velocity of the civil rights movement would lead President John F. Kennedy to give the most aggressive presidential address in history on race, which was quickly followed with the most comprehensive legislation in modern history.〕 On June 11, President John F. Kennedy gave his famous civil rights address on national television and radio, announcing that he would begin to push for civil rights legislation—the law which eventually became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That night, Mississippi activist Medgar Evers was murdered in his own driveway, further escalating national tension around the issue of racial equality.〔Bass, ''Like a Mighty Stream'' (2002), pp. 67–69.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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