March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) — Bunk History

Martin Luther King’s Dream at 60

King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the Constitution and resistance to change. In many ways, we face the same choice today.

by Eric Foner via The Nation on August 28, 2023

Demonstrators at the March on Washington in 1963.

A Dark, Untold Story About the March on Washington Has Just Been Revealed

Police from as far away as Alabama were watching.

by Joshua Clark Davis via Slate on August 28, 2023

An overhead view of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

An Oral History of the March on Washington, 60 Years After MLK’s Dream

The Post interviewed March on Washington participants and voices from younger generations to tell the story of Aug. 28, 1963 and what it means now.

by Clarence Williams via Retropolis on August 25, 2023

Daisy Bates speaking at the March on Washington.

How Might the Civil Rights Movement Looked Different With Women at the Forefront?

Why women civil rights organizers marginalized at this event, and how that affects our collective memory of the struggle.

via Here & Now on August 23, 2023

Photograph of protesters at the 1963 March on Washington. Pictured are black and white protesters holding signs with messages about racial and economic justice.

You’ve Been Lied to About the 1963 March on Washington

It’s popularly remembered as a moderate demonstration. In fact, it was the culmination of a mass, working-class movement against racial and economic injustice.

by Shawn Gude, William P. Jones via Jacobin on August 28, 2022

Fierce Urgency of Now

Exploring the origins and impacts of the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," on that event's 50th anniversary.

via BackStory on August 23, 2013

Black and white photo of two African American men standing in front of March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom sign.

The Obamas’ “Rustin”: Fun Tricks You Can Do on the Past

The project of “reclamation and celebration” proceeds from an impulse to rediscover black Greats who by force of their own will make “change.”

by Adolph Reed, Jr. via Nonsite on December 16, 2023

Bayard Rustin by a sign that reads "integration means better schools for all".

Bayard Rustin Was No Hollywood Figurehead

This new biopic about the socialist organizer Bayard Rustin stops at the March on Washington. What is it leaving out?

by Adolph Reed Jr. via The Nation on December 12, 2023

Bayard Rustin speaking at an event.

Eclipsed in His Era, Bayard Rustin Gets to Shine in Ours

The civil-rights mastermind was sidelined by his own movement. Now he’s back in the spotlight. What can we learn from his strategies of resistance?

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on November 6, 2023

MLK waving at March on Washington

"I Have A Dream": Annotated

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic speech, annotated with relevant scholarship on the literary, political, and religious roots of his words.

by Martin Luther King Jr. via JSTOR Daily on February 28, 2022

MLK at microphone

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

The King holiday is more than a time for reflection. It’s really a time for provocation.

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via The Daily Princetonian on January 17, 2022

Protest signs from the 1963 March on Washington

A Federal Job Guarantee: The Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement

The 1963 March on Washington put a government guarantee to a job at the front of the civil rights agenda. It’s long past time to complete the work.

by Ayanna Pressley, David Stein via The Nation on September 2, 2021

Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and John Morsell hold a press conference in 1963

A Vision of Racial and Economic Justice

A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin knew the fates of the civil rights and labor movements were intertwined. The same is true today.

by Norman Hill, Velma Murphy Hill via Dissent on May 19, 2021

The Essential and Enduring Strength of John Lewis

What the late civil-rights leader and congressman taught the nation.

by Jelani Cobb via The New Yorker on July 19, 2020

What Gun-Control Activists Can Learn From the Civil-Rights Movement

The success of the 1963 March on Washington hinged on a confluence of factors that aren't yet present for demonstrators today.

by Julian E. Zelizer via The Atlantic on March 23, 2018

The Long History of Black Women's Exclusion in Historic Marches in Washington

Despite their large role in civil rights activism, black women have frequently been excluded from prominent positions in protests.

by Ashley D. Farmer via Black Perspectives on October 4, 2017

The Many Lives of Pauli Murray

She was an architect of the civil-rights struggle-and the women's movement. Why haven't you heard of her?

by Kathryn Schulz via The New Yorker on April 17, 2017

Black Lives Matter and America’s Long History of Resisting Civil Rights Protesters

The civil rights movement was not nearly as admired by white Americans in its own time as we imagine it being.

by Elahe Izadi via Washington Post on April 19, 2016

The Civil War Isn’t Over

More than 150 years after Appomattox, Americans are still fighting over the great issues at the heart of the conflict.

by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on April 8, 2015

How John Lewis Put a Legacy of Heroism to Use

As the civil-rights era receded, his personal heroism loomed larger. But movement politics didn’t easily translate into party politics.

by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on October 7, 2024

We Can Breathe! Anti-Fascists United

What was the Popular Front? Where did it come from, and where did its energies go?

by Gabriel Winant via London Review of Books on August 1, 2024

A 1963 photo of Martin Luther King Jr. addressing the thousands of people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

Campus Protests Are Called Disruptive. So Was the Civil Rights Movement

Like student protesters today, Martin Luther King Jr. and other 1960s civil rights activists were criticized as disruptive and disorderly.

by Jeanne Theoharis via Made By History on May 9, 2024

Marlon Brando on the set of 'One-Eyed Jacks,' 1961.

Brando Unmatched

The legendary actor left a mark in both film history and an industry fraught with self-regard.

by Giancarlo Sopo via The Dispatch on April 27, 2024

George C. Wolfe.

George C. Wolfe Would Not Be Dismissed

A conversation with the longtime director about “Rustin,” growing up in Kentucky, and putting on a show.

by Vinson Cunningham, George C. Wolfe via The New Yorker on November 5, 2023

Still from "Rustin" film, on steps of Lincoln Memorial.

The Real History Behind Netflix's 'Rustin' Movie

A new film finally spotlights Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian on November 2, 2023

J. Edgar Hoover in front of a stained glass church window

One Bureau Under God

On the white Christian legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

by Jeanne Theoharis, Lerone A. Martin via Boston Review on October 10, 2023

Martin Luther King Jr. with other activists and children.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Perilous Power of Respectability

We revere the man and revile the strategy, but King knew what he was doing.

by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on May 8, 2023

Illustration of Abraham Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln Is a Hero of the Left

Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.

by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on February 20, 2023

National portrait of W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)

This long overdue tribute honors historian W. E. B. Du Bois, who died on August 27, 1963.

by David Levering Lewis via Perspectives on History on December 6, 2022

Black-and-white collage style poster for the Jewish Museum

Fuzz! Junk! Rumble!

A show at the Jewish Museum surveys three eventful years of art, film, and performance in New York City—and the political upheavals that defined them.

by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on October 10, 2022

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