Birmingham proved to black people all around the country what protesting could do. From North Carolina to Tennessee to Oklahoma, black Americans marched and held sit-ins. They held protests in front of government buildings. Gradually, thousands of lunch counters, hotels, schools, and parks became integrated.
Then, on June 11, 1963, President Kennedy asked Congress to pass a Civil Rights Bill. Kennedy said, “I am . . . asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants and theaters, retail stores and similar establishments. This seems to me to be an elementary right.”
On August 28, 1963, Martin and other black leaders led a march to Washington, D.C. They wanted to show Congress how many people supported the Civil Rights Bill. More than two hundred and fifty thousand Americans came from all over the United States. Many rode in cars and buses. Others flew in airplanes. Some walked. Some roller-skated.
Most of the marchers were black. But there were also thousands of white people. They, too, felt that the laws of segregation were unjust. The people marched toward the Lincoln Memorial, singing along the way.
Many leaders spoke that day, but Martin was unforgettable. Martin had written a speech. But he did not read it. Once he faced the crowd, he remembered a speech he’d given a few months before.
In that speech, he had used the phrase “I have a dream” over and over to express his hopes for the future. Martin wanted to use those same words again. So he put down his script and spoke. His dream was “that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . .” He had a dream that one day people would judge his four young children for who they were and not by the color of their skin.
Martin’s speech ended on a powerful note of hope. He believed that, when that day came, everyone could join hands and sing the words to an old slave song: “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
The march and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech were carried on television stations. It was the first time millions of Americans heard Martin speak. His words inspired the crowd. His words inspired the nation. His words inspired the entire world. Because of this speech, Martin Luther King, Jr., became the voice of the civil rights movement.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
ALMOST EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S SPEECH TO CONGRESS ABOUT THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL, PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN DELIVERED THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. IT, TOO, WAS ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS. IT IS STILL ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SPEECHES In AMERICAN HISTORY.
On NOVEMBER 19, 1863, PRESIDENT LInCOLn SPOKE ABOUT FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY. IT WAS DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND HE GAVE THE SPEECH In GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, WHERE A GREAT BATTLE HAD BEEN WON BY THE NORTH. HE SAID THAT “FOURSCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO,” OR EIGHTY-SEVEN YEARS EARLIER, THE NATION WAS FORMED WITH THE IDEA THAT “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.” HE WANTED A “GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE.”
YET, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, LINCOLN’S DREAMS OF EQUALITY WERE STILL NOT FULLY REALIZED.
But just two weeks later, on September 15, 1963, disaster struck. A blast rocked the early morning silence in Birmingham, Alabama. A bomb went off in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Four black girls lay dead. They were Denise McNair, age eleven; Carole Robertson, age fourteen; Cynthia Wesley, age fourteen; and Addie Mae Collins, age fourteen.
People all around the country were shocked. Martin was filled with grief and bitterness. He contacted President Kennedy to say that he was going to Birmingham to make sure that there was no violent reaction by blacks to the bombing. President Kennedy sent twenty-five FBI agents and bomb experts to investigate. Then, on November 22, 1963, disaster struck again. President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas. He was the fourth U.S. president to be killed while in office.
The vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, became president. Five days after President Kennedy’s death, President Johnson spoke to Congress. He asked them to pass the Civil Rights Bill that Kennedy had wanted. This was the best way to honor President Kennedy’s memory.
Congress agreed. On July 2, 1964—almost one hundred years after the country saw the end of slavery—President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. And standing next to President Johnson when he signed the bill was Martin Luther King, Jr.
MAJOR FEATURES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
• ANYONE COULD REGISTER TO VOTE. LITERACY TESTS (TO SEE IF VOTERS, BOTH BLACK AND WHITE, COULD READ AND WRITE) COULD STILL BE GIVEN.
• DISCRIMINATION In HOTELS, MOTELS, RESTAURANTS, AND OTHER PUBLIC PLACES WAS OUTLAWED.
• THE ATTORNEY GENERAL COULD TAKE SEGREGATED SCHOOLS TO COURT.
• MONEY WOULD BE TAKEN AWAY FROM ANY STATE PROGRAMS THAT PRACTICED DISCRIMINATION.
• COMPANIES WITH MORE THAN FIFTEEN EMPLOYEES COULD NOT DISCRIMINATE AMONG THE WORKERS. |