March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

When

August 28th, 1963

Government involvement

Government (mainly federal but a bit state, too) felt the pressure from its citizens to change America's ways around racial equality and segregation

How it was started

In 1941 a March on Washington was planned for jobs

Who involved

"The Big Six" - John R. Lewis (Director of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Whitney Young (Executive Director, National Urban League), A. Philip Randolph (President, Negro American Labor Council), James L. Farmer, Jr. (National Director, Congress of Racial Equality), Roy Wilkins(Executive Secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and Martin Luther King Jr. (President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference), along with 200,000 protesters

Result

200,000 Americans gathered in Washington D.C., and the government and nation's reaction would spur change on local and federal levels (soon after, Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be passed, and Voting Rights Act of 1965 even later)

Why it happened

After success of other non-violent protests, civil rights leaders/activists wanted to take the level and size of protest up a notch, and wanted to show how much support there was for racial equality in the nation's capital

Mechanism of protest

Non-violent political rally, wanted protest to be on a larger scale than ever before to overwhelm the government and nation (more people, more media coverage, etc.)

Media involvement

There was a lot of media coverage due to the location, size, and power of the protest, and news of the march spread across the country