Martin Luther King Jr. and The March on Washington to the Lincoln Memorial | BRIdge from the Past
What significance did the Lincoln Memorial have to the March on Washington? In this episode of BRIdge from the Past, Mary examines images of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The massive march of over 250,000 people culminated at the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. How did King use American Founding documents to highlight the meaning of equality in his speech? How was this event similar and different to others that have taken place at the Lincoln Memorial over American history?
0:00 Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Bridge from the Past art Across US history. I’m your host Mary, and this series is for students like you to get ahead in your history class by using images as a starting point to think about important topics in American history. Throughout the summer, we’ve been looking at images connected to the Lincoln Memorial and how or if
0:21 the meaning of the memorial has changed over time. Today we’re going to look at the final chapter, the 1963 March on Washington. How does this alter or did it alter the meaning of a memorial? Let’s jump in and see. Here is our starting image. Again, we’re thinking about the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial.
0:43 We’ve looked at two other episodes that occurred at the Lincoln Memorial in history to help us think about how the meaning of the monument or if the meaning of the monument has changed over time. In 1922, we learned about the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. In 1939, we explored images of a free public concert given by world famous
1:04 singer Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall because she was an African American. Now, I can see here from my source line, we are in 1963 and we have another march on Washington. So in my starting image, I can see the Washington Monument. I can see the reflecting pool.
1:26 I can see many people gathered around the reflecting pool. And I can see seats here, but I can’t see the Lincoln Memorial. But since we’ve looked at other pictures of memorial, I remember that the memorial is up front here and it faces down and looks at the Washington Monument. So about 50,000 people attended the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial.
1:52 Approximately 75,000 came to Marion Anderson’s concert in 1939. And now we’re in 1963. I’m really bad with guessing numbers, but this looks like a huge crowd to me. So that’s one question I have right off the bat is who are all these people? Why are they here? How many people are here? What’s going on?
2:12 I have one more image to wet your appetite. And this is a close up of people in the crowd. And I am sort of struck by this man here. His mouth is open. This man’s mouth is open. Maybe they’re singing or talking or yelling, but he’s holding hands with someone and can’t see the other person he’s holding hands with.
2:34 But I noticed that this is an integrated crowd. I see blacks and I see whites. And I have seen in other images from our series on the Lincoln Memorial that segregation was the norm. So that’s already something that’s sort of jumping out to me. So I have some initial questions, but as always the primary source, it’s important to think about
2:54 the historical contexts before I can go any further. So without further ado, what do we need to know about this 1963 March on Washington and the Lincoln Memorial? Well, first of all, the civil rights movement gained national prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. So if you’ve watched other episodes of Bridge From the Past,
3:15 you know that we’ve argued that the civil rights movement really doesn’t start in the 20th century, but it’s really coming to the fore. And if you think about it, television and media is playing a much bigger role in the United States culturally. So more people are aware of this fight for equality and justice that’s taking place, particularly in the south.
3:36 In 1963, labor, religious groups, and civil rights groups all came together to stage a protest in Washington, DC. Fighting for civil and economic rights for African Americans. So the full title of this march is the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It’s usually referred to as the 1963 March on Washington, or the March on Washington.
3:58 It gets shortened a little bit. So that’s what we’re dealing with here. 250,000 people attended this march on August 28. It was one of the largest political rallies in US. History. And many famous people were in attendance as well. Musicians athletes celebrities
4:18 and from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where the march ended. So it ended it stopped at the Lincoln Memorial. This is where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Is going to give his famous I Have a Dream speech. So what I have over here is the program from the March on Washington that day. And you can see just from zooming
4:39 in a little bit that he was towards the bottom of the list. He wasn’t the only speaker, but he’s the speaker that we remember the most that day. Another thing worth pointing out is that it begins the program began with music, with the national anthem, and specifically Marian Anderson singing it. Unfortunately, Marian Anderson didn’t make it there in time to open the serum,
5:02 but she did sing later in the program when she was able to get herself situated. So that’s something that kind of resonates with me, because someone who’s running late often. So I’ll go back to the bottom of the program here, and you can see Martin Luther King as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC, which is another group we’ve explored
5:24 before on Bridge from the Past, is going to give his famous remarks. And at the very end of this ceremony, more music. We Shall Overcome, an incredibly powerful song associated with the civil rights movement. If you’ve never heard it, I strongly encourage you to check it out. It’s really powerful and really beautiful. So now we have a little bit more context to explore
5:47 images. So here I can clearly see, we’re at the Lincoln Memorial. Here is the large statue of Lincoln in the central hall, the focal point of the memorial. And in front of him are the organizers of this march. And I can see over here, this is Martin Luther King, Jr. And I can see right here, this is John Lewis, who was the leader
6:07 of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC which is another group that was instrumental in the civil rights movement. And we’ve talked about them before in Bridge from the Past as well. And this man right here is A Philip Randolph who actually called for a march on Washington in the 1940s during World War II.
6:27 So he was one of the main planners for this march. So you have all of the leaders seated in front of Lincoln after the ceremony. So you can see it’s sort of a gathering of civil rights groups of religious leaders, black and white. Interestingly, no women. That’s something we’ve also talked about on Bridge in the past. But you can see there’s a large group of collective effort that made this march possible.
6:49 And again, here is Martin Luther King giving his remarks, his famous speech, the I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. This speech is widely recognized as one of the finest examples of American rhetoric. And it’s so powerful and it resonates so much even today. I encourage you to read the whole thing on BRI’s website.
7:09 I’m just going to read you one small quote. And it is nothing like listening to Martin Luther King delivered himself. So bear with me. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up without the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.
7:32 So he’s invoking the Declaration of Independence, he invokes the Emancipation Proclamation, which, of course, Lincoln issues during the Civil War, and he invokes the US Constitution. So all of these things call to mind these founding principles of liberty and equality and how they should be a reality for all people. And yet they weren’t in 1963, and the work was unfinished.
7:56 So it was a real rallying call to complete that work. And you can see again the shots of the crowd. 250,000 people came to this march. It was an integrated crowd. There were more African Americans than white, but there were people of all walks of life, of all races that attended, that really wanted to hear and believe in this message.
8:19 So now I turn it back over to you. We started by asking about the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial and if it changed over time. And we looked at the memorial dedication and then two significant events that happened in the memorial in the early part of the 20th century. We learned about the ugliness of racial prejudice and segregation and how leaders
8:40 across time called for change in various ways. They wanted to make sure that that founding principle of equality was real for all Americans, and not just, as Martin Luther King says, a promissory note but as always, there’s so much more to the story. I’d love to know what this memorial means to you, what questions you have, or what you’d like to hear more about.
9:03 Please be sure to leave a comment like this video and subscribe to our channel if you learned something. I’ll be back. Throughout the school years help you think about more big questions in American history just by looking at the images. Until then, everybody keep your eyes open, keep asking questions, and always look at the pictures. Take care.
