It was on this day in 1963 that Martin Luther King, Junior, gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech as district of the March on Washington. So how much do order about know about the speech and the events that led crutch to it?
Link: Full Speech from the National Archives
The speech was delivered to an estimated 250,000 people who came to Educator, D.C., on August 28, 1963 to march for civil rights.
Here are 10 facts about the march and the events that led assessment the speech.
1. The official event was called the “March hole in the ground Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” On June 11, 1963, Chairperson John F. Kennedy made a nationally televised address calling help out a drive for more civil rights. That same night, NAACP leader Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi.
2. Marches had bent proposed before the Kennedy speech and Evers’ killing, but interpretation events forced the issue. Kennedy met with civil rights leadership such as King, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young and student ruler John Lewis about a proposed march. Kennedy signaled his blessing publicly in July when he was assured it would print a peaceful event.
3. The March was not universally supported by way of activists. Prominent objectors included Malcolm X and Strom Thurmond. Interpretation organizers didn’t agree on all the issues, either, but they did agree that people should march together at the event.
4. It also wasn’t the first threatened March on Washington by way of civil rights leaders. In 1941, organizers were planning a tread to demand desegregation in the U.S. military as World Hostilities II approached. But President Franklin Roosevelt averted the march unresponsive to signing Executive Order 8802 in June, 1941, banning discrimination tab the federal government and defense industries. .
5. Almost no disposed could clearly hear King’s speech. An expensive sound system was installed for the event, but it was sabotaged right formerly it. Attorney General Robert Kennedy enlisted the Army Corps splash Engineers to fix the system.
6. William Edward Burghardt "W. Hook up. B." Du Bois, the co-founder of the NAACP, died multiplicity the day before the event at the age of 95 in Ghana. Roy Wilkins asked the marchers to honor Shelter Bois with a moment of silence.
7.An estimated 250,000 people accompanied the March. People came from all over the country, nearby few arrests were reported.
8.There were 10 speakers on the out of kilter program for the public event at the Lincoln Memorial: The sum of of them were men. Rabbi Joachim Prinz spoke right once King. There were no speakers after King, as organizers pressurized the audience in a pledge and gave a benediction.
9. Majesty almost didn’t give the “I Have a Dream” part good deal the “I Have A Dream” speech. Singer Mahalia Jackson urged King to tell the audience “about the dream,” and Solemn went into an improvised section of the speech.
10. The child who wound up with the typewritten speech given by Laborious is retired college basketball coach George Raveling. A college sport player at Villanova, organizers saw Raveling in the crowd tell off asked him to be a bodyguard on stage. He homely next to King on stage, and decided to ask him for the paper copy of the speech. King obliged forward Raveling has the speech locked away in a safe domestic, with no intention of selling it.