DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963:
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Description of Pictures: Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963
December 14, 2012 - September 15, 2013
The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History commemorate two events that changed the course of the nation: The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1963 March on Washington. These events were the culmination of decades of struggles by individuals—both famous and unknown—who believed in the American promise that this nation was dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.” Such objects as the inkstand used by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 to draft the document that would become the Emancipation Proclamation and the pen President Lyndon Johnson used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 reveal how these two events—separated by 100 years—are linked together in a larger story of freedom and the American experience. Other highlights include:
the top hat Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford's Theater the night he was assassinated on April 14, 1865
shards of stained glass from the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where four young black girls were killed in an explosion on September 15, 1963
Harriet Tubman’s shawl
a marshal's armband from the March on Washington and the guitar played by singer Joan Baez
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SIAHC1_121215_016.JPG: "Our union friends say... we are fighting for the union... very well let the white fight for what the[y] want and we negroes fight for what we want... Liberty must take the day and nothing Shorter."
-- A "colored man," New Orleans, 1863
In 1860:
* United States Population: 31,443,321
* African American Population: 4,441,830
* Enslaved Population: 3,953,760
* All states restricted the rights of African Americans and slavery was legal in 15 states
SIAHC1_121215_019.JPG: "Freedom is never given; it is won."
-- A. Philip Randolph, October 15, 1937
< 150 Years Ago
50 Years Ago >
There are moments in our nation's history when individuals unite and take courageous steps to fulfill the promise of democracy. One hundred years separate the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington. Yet, these two events are profoundly linked together in a larger story of liberty and the American experience. Both were the result of people demanding justice. Both grew out of decades of bold actions, resistance, organization, and vision. In both, we take inspiration from those who marched towards freedom.
SIAHC1_121215_028.JPG: The Emancipation Proclamation:
America's promise of freedom is filled with contradiction. Perhaps no people understood this more than the roughly four million enslaved African Americans living in the United States before 1863. Through their actions, large and small, enslaved people worked towards the moment of freedom for more than 200 years. On January 1, 1863, the United States government responded. Invoking presidential wartime powers, Abraham Lincoln decreed that all persons held in bondage within the Confederacy were free. The Emancipation Proclamation cracked open the institution of slavery, changing the course of the Civil War and the nation.
SIAHC1_121215_034.JPG: "In a thousand years that action of yours will make the Angels sing I know it."
- Hannah Johnson, mother of a black soldier, to President Lincoln, July 13, 1863
SIAHC1_121215_042.JPG: Shackles used to chain children
SIAHC1_121215_046.JPG: Slave Buttons:
Slave trade Thomas Porter used these buttons to identify enslaved people on his property.
SIAHC1_121215_054.JPG: Slavery in America:
Slavery was deeply woven into the fabric of the United States and challenged the meaning of democracy. Enslaved people's work formed an economic engine producing half of all U.S. exports and providing much of the financial capital and raw materials to spark industrialization. Bought and sold as property, enslaved people were valued at an estimated $2.7 billion in 1860.
Despite daily denials of their humanity, enslaved African Americans sustained a vision of freedom. They seasoned life with small pleasures and found ways to make food, family, dance, prayer, dress, and even work their own. These everyday acts helped build identity and a foundation for freedom.
SIAHC1_121215_058.JPG: Let Your Motto be Resistance:
Emancipation was not the product of one act, but many Americans, enslaved and free, chipped away at slavery through daily acts of resistance, organized rebellions, and political pressure. Some were small steps, others were organized actions taking advantage of national debates to fracture and destroy the peculiar institution.
SIAHC1_121215_075.JPG: Resistance: Acts of Defiance:
Enslaved black southerners fought slavery in ways large and small -- from open rebellion to subtle acts of resistance. Some ran away, poisoned food, or preached freedom at religious services held in secret. Yet for many people survival itself was a form of resistance. While their lives were curtailed by the institution of slavery, freedom was never far from their thoughts.
SIAHC1_121215_078.JPG: Resistance: Slave Rebellions:
Rebellions
Slave rebellions carried bloody consequences. Rebels were executed. Family, friends, and neighbors might be beaten and killed. In some cases, slaveholders placed the bloodied and dismembered bodies in public view to remind passersby of slavery's awful power. Nevertheless, against terrible odds, enslaved people rebelled. The largest slave rebellions included Stono (South Carolina, 1739), New York City (1741), Gabriel's Rebellion (Richmond, Virginia, 1800), St. John's Parish (Louisiana, 1811), Fort Blount (Florida, 1816), Vesey's Rebellion (Charleston, South Carolina, 1822), Nat Turner's Rebellion (Southampton County, Virginia, 1831), Amistad Mutiny (slave ship, 1839), Creole Revolt (slave ship, 1841).
SIAHC1_121215_082.JPG: Nat Turner's Rebellion:
Enslaved people rose up against slaveholders in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebels moved from plantation to plantation, murdering roughly 55 whites and rallying enslaved people to their cause. They planned to move on to Jerusalem, Virginia, seize supplies, and then make a permanent home in the Great Dismal Swamp. By August 23, the rebels had been defeated. More than 200 black men and women, both enslaved and free, were executed. Nat Turner's Rebellion alarmed Americans and inflamed the debate over the future of slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_093.JPG: Nat Turner's Bible:
It is thought that Nat Turner was holding this Bible when he was captured two months after the rebellion. Turner worked both as an enslaved field hand and as a minister. A man of remarkable intellect, he was widely respected by black and white people in Southampton County, Virginia. He used his talents as a speaker and his mobility was a preacher to organize the slave revolt. This Bible was donated to the museum by descendants of Lavinia Francis, a slaveholder who survived the rebellion.
SIAHC1_121215_097.JPG: Nat Turner's Rebellion:
Enslaved people rose up against slaveholders in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebels moved from plantation to plantation, murdering roughly 55 whites and rallying enslaved people to their cause. They planned to move on to Jerusalem, Virginia, seize supplies, and then make a permanent home in the Great Dismal Swamp. By August 23, the rebels had been defeated. More than 200 black men and women, both enslaved and free, were executed. Nat Turner's Rebellion alarmed Americans and inflamed the debate over the future of slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_108.JPG: Harriet Tubman's Lace Shawl:
Harriet Tubman's escaped the bonds of slavery as a young woman in the early 1800s. She returned to the South many times as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad to lead other African Americans to freedom. During the Civil War, Tubman served as a spy, nurse, and cook for Union forces. In 1863, she helped free more than 700 African Americans during a raid in South Carolina -- a feat that earned her the nickname "General Tubman." England's Queen Victoria gave Tubman this shawl around 1897.
SIAHC1_121215_114.JPG: John Brown Pike Head:
John Brown attempted to ignite a slave insurrection in Virginia. He and a small band of men raided the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 to seize weapons for the uprising. He brought 1,000 pikes with him to help arm the people he freed. Brown was captured and executed, but his raid stoked the fears of white southerners. With one third of the southern population held in bondage, whites lived in fear of an armed insurrection.
SIAHC1_121215_127.JPG: Frederick Douglass, about 1850:
One of the nation's most respected anti-slavery advocates, Frederick Douglass called for immediate emancipation and fought slavery with the power of the written and spoken word.
In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he used his life story as a political tool directed at the conscience of white America. Emphasizing classic American values such as individualism, freedom, and the self-made man, Douglass held a mirror to America and asked the public to speak out against slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_132.JPG: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave:
In the North, many runaways published life stories to focus national attention on the horrors of slavery. These autobiographies became known as "slave narratives." Perhaps the most well known was written by Frederick Douglass. He used his life story as a political tool directed at the conscience of white America. Emphasizing classic American values such as individualism, freedom, and the self-made man, Douglass held a mirror to America and asked the public to speak out against slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_144.JPG: Gag Rule Cane:
In 1836, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "gag rule" prohibiting any debate about slavery or the acceptance of anti-slavery petitions. Congressman John Quincy Adams opposed the rule for many years until it was rescinded in 1844. In gratitude, Julius Pratt and Company presented this ivory cane to the former president.
SIAHC1_121215_163.JPG: The Election of 1860:
Slavery and its expansion into the western territories divided the nation. Southern slaveholders thought that banning slavery in the territories was the first step to abolishing it everywhere. Many northerners believed that if slavery expanded westward it was just a matter of time before it would move back into the North. This debate fractured the political parties into regional factions.
Republican Abraham Lincoln won the election with less than 40 percent of the popular vote and without winning one southern state. News of his victory prompted a secession movement across the South.
SIAHC1_121215_168.JPG: War:
By the time Lincoln took the oath of office, seven southern states had formed the Confederate States of America. Four others soon joined. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and Lincoln responded by calling for 75,000 new volunteers for the Union army. Both North and South were confident they could easily win the struggle. Each misjudged the other's determination and tragically underestimated the horrors of the war ahead. Neither predicted that African Americans would transform this war into a battle for freedom.
SIAHC1_121215_178.JPG: Lincoln's Order:
On September 22, 1862, five days after the costly Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He presented the proclamation as a wartime necessity, under his authority as Commander-in-Chief. It ordered that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved individuals in all areas still in rebellion against the United States "henceforward shall be free," and under the protection of the military. Those willing to enlist would be received into the armed forces. The proclamation was limited in scope and revolutionary in impact. The war to preserve the Union also became a war to end slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_184.JPG: Telegraph Office Inkstand:
In the summer of 1862, while waiting for the latest news to come into the War Department telegraph office next to the White House, Lincoln began to draft the proclamation using this inkstand. The president sat at the desk of Maj. Thomas T. Eckert, and Lincoln later explained to Eckert that he had been composing a document "giving freedom to the slaves of the South."
SIAHC1_121215_195.JPG: Commemorative Print:
Publishers throughout the North responded to a demand for copies of Lincoln's proclamation and produced numerous decorative versions including this engraving by R.A. Dimmick in 1864.
SIAHC1_121215_201.JPG: Self-Emancipation:
For most white Americans, the Civil War was a war for the Union. But for black Americans, it was a battle for freedom. Determined to end slavery, tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans used the war to escape their bondage. As the Union Army drove into the Confederacy, enslaved people stole away and entered Union lines. These thousands of African Americans made their freedom a fact. Within two years, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and made ending slavery government policy.
SIAHC1_121215_206.JPG: Exodus:
One month into the Civil War, three men escaped across the mouth of the James River and entered Fort Monroe, Virginia. With this act, Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townshend declared themselves free and triggered a national debate over whether the United States had the right to emancipate the enslaved. General Benjamin Butler refused to return the men to slavery and classified the men as enemy property or in his words "the contraband of war." The nickname and the policy stuck. Despite the uncertain status of being classified as "contraband," thousands of African Americans escaped slavery, forcing the hand of the federal government.
SIAHC1_121215_217.JPG: Fort Monroe Envelope:
This Civil War envelope portrays a slave catcher stopped short by General Butler (the FFV stands for First Family of Virginia). Although he was no abolitionist, Butler refused to return people to slavery on Constitutional grounds. He argued that the Fugitive Slave Law no longer applied to southerners who left the Union. Before the War, this law permitted slaveholders the right to hunt runaways in the North and demand their return to slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_227.JPG: Sibley Tent:
As African Americans walked away from slavery and into Union lines, the U.S. Army found itself fighting a war surrounded by men, women, and children. The self-emancipated forced the army and eventually President Lincoln to resolve their status as people not property. The military provided cast-off tents, like this Sibley tent, for African Americans who reached Union lines. One tent could hold 10-20 people.
SIAHC1_121215_241.JPG: Day of Jubilee:
On New Year's Day 1863, African Americans at Beaufort, South Carolina, witnessed the moment when the Emancipation Proclamation became law. Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson went before the assembled crowd and solemnly read the president's proclamation. He remembered that "there suddenly arose…a strong but rather cracked & elderly male voice, into which two women's voices immediately blended
"My country ‘tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty"
...the quavering voices sang on, verse after verse; others around them joined;…I never saw anything so electric; it made all other words cheap…the life of the whole day was in those unknown people's song."
SIAHC1_121215_250.JPG: The Front Lines of Freedom:
Tent cities sprang up across the South as thousands of enslaved people crossed Union lines and forced the issue of freedom. The people had spoken, using one of the few political tools available to enslaved people -- the power of coming together to be heard. The sheer number of African Americans arriving in camps and cities pressured politicians, generals, and the U.S. government to act. Lincoln, personally, witnessed the growth of the tent cities as he crossed Washington, D.C., each day.
SIAHC1_121215_296.JPG: Resistance: Abolitionists Allies:
In the North, abolitionists used many strategies to attack slavery. Like William Lloyd Garrison, some advocated the gradual emancipation of enslaved people. Taking direct action, others, such as Harriet Tubman, led enslaved people to freedom. John Brown attacked slavery with guns, swords, and pikes. A fourth group tried politics, writing so many letters to Congress that work in the Capitol ground to a halt. Black or white, radical or conservative, abolitionists formed a small but potent force that shifted the political rhetoric in the United States and helped end slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_311.JPG: Lincoln and the Drafting of the Proclamation
By 1862, Abraham Lincoln realized that to restore the Union, slavery must end. Politically, Lincoln faced pressure on all sides: from African Americans fleeing slavery; from Union generals acting independently in regards to slavery; from Radical Republicans calling for immediate abolition, and from pro-slavery Unionists who opposed emancipation.
Lincoln also felt constrained by Constitutional limits on the federal government, which protected private property. Striking a balance, he believed the president only had the authority and political support to free enslaved persons residing within the eleven rebel states. In the summer of 1862, he began to draft the Emancipation Proclamation.
SIAHC1_121215_321.JPG: Lincoln's black broadcloth coat, vest, and trousers worn as his every day office suit during his presidency. The shirt and tie are reproductions.
SIAHC1_121215_331.JPG: Lincoln's Last Address:
On April 11, 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave his last public speech. He advocated extending the vote to "very intelligent" African American citizens and veterans. Before this speech, no president had ever publicly endorsed even limited suffrage for African Americans.
John Wilkes Booth was in the crowd. He turned to his coconspirator, Lewis Powell, and exclaimed, "That is the last speech he will ever make." Three days later Booth assassinated the president.
SIAHC1_121215_336.JPG: "If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is into it. "
-- Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863
"We are all liberated by this proclamation. Everybody is liberated. The white man is liberated, the black man is liberated, the brave men now fighting the battles of our country against rebels and traitors are now liberated."
-- Frederick Douglass, February 6, 1863
SIAHC1_121215_348.JPG: Armed for Glory:
Following the Emancipation Proclamation, the military formed the United States Colored Troops. By the end of the war, more than 186,000 African Americans joined the U.S. armed forces. Of these, an estimated 93,542 black soldiers were former slaves who understood firsthand the nation's fight for freedom. Even as black soldiers fought and died, their citizenship status remained uncertain. Racist policies limited opportunities for black soldiers to become line officers and paid them lower wages than whites.
SIAHC1_121215_350.JPG: Tintype of an African-American soldier
SIAHC1_121215_354.JPG: USCT commission for Richard Andrews, First Lt. A273:
As one of roughly 110 African Americans to serve in the Civil War, 1st Lt. Richard Andrews participated in the battles of Pierson Farm, Petersburg, and Chapin's Farm in Virginia. He was promoted to captain on October 21, 1864, before being severely wounded in battle
SIAHC1_121215_364.JPG: Butler Medal:
After the Battle of New Market Heights, General Benjamin F. Butler commissioned a medal of honor to be awarded to African American soldiers for bravery. Officially known as the Army of the James Medal, these are the only U.S. medals designed specifically for African American troops.
SIAHC1_121215_374.JPG: Lincoln and Slavery:
Abraham Lincoln had always opposed slavery, but never sided with abolitionists who called for its immediate end. He sought solutions that would make slavery gradually fade from white society -- limit its location, sponsor compensation programs for slave owners, and relocate freed blacks outside the country. The war made these gradual solutions woefully inadequate.
On the advice of his cabinet, Lincoln waited for a Union victory before announcing his decision. Without a victory, they feared the proclamation would appear as a meaningless act of an embattled government. On September 22, 1862, five days after Union troops defeated Robert E. Lee's advance at the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln released the proclamation.
SIAHC1_121215_383.JPG: Abe's Last Card:
Not everyone shared Lincoln's views of the proclamation. Some people considered it as a dangerous act of a desperate president willing to foment slave revolts to save his government.
This political cartoon, Abe Lincoln's Last Card of Rouge-et-Noir, by John Tenniel appeared in Punch magazine, October 18, 1862, following Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.
SIAHC1_121215_398.JPG: "The Family of Freedom":
Lincoln's views on how to integrate formerly enslaved people into society evolved throughout his presidency. After Louisiana applied for readmission to the Union, Lincoln wrote to the newly elected governor, Michael Hahn, and raised the subject of extending the vote to some African Americans, especially veterans. "They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom."
SIAHC1_121215_416.JPG: Standing Firm:
Lincoln repeatedly assured his critics that he had no intention of rescinding the proclamation. He repeated his commitment to emancipation in this note to Henry C. Wright of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In 1864, he would risk his political fortunes and his reelection by throwing his full support behind the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery.
SIAHC1_121215_448.JPG: "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."
-- Frederick Douglass, April 6, 1863
SIAHC1_121215_455.JPG: Freedom's Promise:
The Emancipation Proclamation committed the nation to ending slavery. Yet what would freedom mean? Economic independence? Freedom from fear? The right to vote? The U.S. Congress responded with a series of Constitutional amendments ending slavery, granting citizenship, and giving black men voting rights. These rights changed the political landscape. By 1872, 1,510 African Americans held office in the southern states. Eight black men served together in the U.S. Congress in 1875 -- a number that would not be matched until 1969.
SIAHC1_121215_473.JPG: The 13th Amendment:
The 13th amendment completed what tent cities and the Emancipation Proclamation set in motion. On December 6, 1865, the U.S. government abolished slavery by amending the Constitution to state, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
A limited number of signed commemorative copies of the 13th Amendment were produced. Only a handful survive. This signed copy (right) was given to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Schuyler Colfax, a lifelong abolitionist, who was instrumental in pushing the resolution through Congress.
SIAHC1_121215_476.JPG: Freedoms Denied:
However, in the years after the war, whites used terrorism and the courts to force African Americans away from voting booths and other public places. States excluded black voters by enacting literacy tests, poll taxes, elaborate registration systems, and whites-only Democratic Party primaries. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld these measures. The laws proved very effective. In Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age African Americans were registered after 1890. In Louisiana, where more than 130,000 black voters had been registered in 1896, the number had plummeted to 1,342 by 1904.
SIAHC1_121215_484.JPG: KKK:
The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 to combat Reconstruction reforms and intimidate African Americans. By 1870 similar organizations such as the Knights of the White Camellia and the White Brotherhood had sprung up across the South. Through fear, brutality, and murder, these terrorist groups helped to overthrow local governments and restore white supremacy.
SIAHC1_121215_490.JPG: "No Negro Equality!"
The fight over civil rights was never just a southern issue. This became especially evident as African Americans moved north and west after the Civil War. The ballot is from the race for governor of Ohio in 1867. Allen Granberry Thurman's campaign included the promise of barring black citizens from voting. He narrowly lost to future president Rutherford B. Hayes. Thurman was then appointed U.S. Senator for Ohio, where he worked to reverse many Reconstruction-era civil rights reforms.
SIAHC1_121215_497.JPG: Poll Tax receipt:
Poll taxes required citizens to pay a fee to register to vote. These fees kept many poor people, black and white, from voting. The poll tax receipt displayed here is from Alabama.
SIAHC1_121215_509.JPG: Expansion of Rights:
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. To protect the rights of newly freed people, Congress enacted two additional Constitutional amendments. The 14th Amendment (1868) guaranteed African Americans citizenship rights and promised that the federal government would enforce "equal protection of the laws." The 15th Amendment (1870) stated that no one could be denied the right to vote based on "race, color or previous condition of servitude." These amendments shifted responsibility for protecting rights to the federal government if states failed to do so.
SIAHC1_121215_516.JPG: Expansion of Rights:
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. To protect the rights of newly freed people, Congress enacted two additional Constitutional amendments. The 14th Amendment (1868) guaranteed African Americans citizenship rights and promised that the federal government would enforce "equal protection of the laws." The 15th Amendment (1870) stated that no one could be denied the right to vote based on "race, color or previous condition of servitude." These amendments shifted responsibility for protecting rights to the federal government if states failed to do so.
SIAHC1_121215_519.JPG: Republican Members of the South Carolina Legislature:
African American men held elective office in every southern state during Reconstruction. Those with the largest numbers of black representatives were South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas.
SIAHC1_121215_527.JPG: Grant's Pen:
Pen used by Ulysses S. Grant to sign the presidential proclamation of the ratification of the 15th Amendment.
SIAHC1_121215_531.JPG: Patience on the Monument, Harpers Weekly, October 10, 1868 (NMAAHC) In this political cartoon, Thomas Nast captured the vicious irony that the pinnacle of citizenship did not help African Americans protect themselves or their families.
SIAHC1_121215_539.JPG: Never Forget:
During the darkest days of Jim Crow segregation, black Americans continued to press for full citizenship. Each Emancipation Day, African Americans organized parades reminding the black community and the entire nation of a commitment that remained unfulfilled. These local celebrations set the stage for the national push for freedom in the 20th century. Building upon the legacy of their forebears, Americans gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to realize the promises set in motion by the Emancipation Proclamation.
SIAHC2_121215_002.JPG: In 1960:
* United States population 179,323,175
* African American population 18,871,831
* Racial segregation was legal in all states
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation... In a sense we have come back to our nation's capital to cash a check."
-- Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963
SIAHC2_121215_009.JPG: The March on Washington:
On August 28, 1963, work in the nation's capital came to a halt as thousands of demonstrators made their way to Washington to participate in the largest demonstration up to that time in the city's history. Around the world, millions watched on television as 250,000 people of different backgrounds came together to demand social justice. The events that day helped mark the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and reminded Americans that the goals of the ongoing civil rights movement were united with the nation's long pursuit to fulfill its founding principles of liberty and equality for all.
SIAHC2_121215_014.JPG: A National Stage for Civil Rights:
The Lincoln Memorial was built in 1922 to heal national divisions caused by the Civil War. Yet for many, Lincoln's promise of freedom remained incomplete. Over the next half century, the looming figure of Abraham Lincoln witnessed a number of events and demonstrations that reinforced the memorial's importance as a symbolic space for civil rights movements.
SIAHC2_121215_018.JPG: 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage:
In 1957, civil rights leaders called for a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial to coincide with the third anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education. Organizers were determined to protest the lack of progress in desegregating schools, draw attention to the deteriorating economic conditions of blacks in the South, and push for new civil rights legislation. More than 25,000 people attended the rally on May 17, making it the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation's capital. It also served as a training ground for the organizers of the 1963 march, including A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Roy Wilkins.
SIAHC2_121215_022.JPG: 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage:
In 1957, civil rights leaders called for a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial to coincide with the third anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education. Organizers were determined to protest the lack of progress in desegregating schools, draw attention to the deteriorating economic conditions of blacks in the South, and push for new civil rights legislation. More than 25,000 people attended the rally on May 17, making it the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation's capital. It also served as a training ground for the organizers of the 1963 march, including A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Roy Wilkins.
SIAHC2_121215_025.JPG: 1941 March on Washington:
As the nation prepared for World War II, A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, called for a mass protest on July 1, 1941, to end discrimination in government defense industries. Randolph worked with local organizers to mobilize African American communities and estimated that as many as 100,000 participants had committed themselves to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Lincoln Memorial.
Just six days before the demonstration, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, establishing the Fair Employment Practice Committee and prohibiting discrimination in defense industries. Randolph canceled the protest, and Roosevelt's concessions established the precedent that the federal government had a responsibility to address racial discrimination among government contractors.
SIAHC2_121215_035.JPG: 1922 Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial:
On May 30, 1922, a large crowd gathered for the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. The seating, like much of Washington, was segregated by race, yet the organizers chose Dr. Robert Russo Moton, President of Tuskegee Institute, as the keynote speaker. Addressing the mostly white crowd, Moton delivered the first of what would be many civil rights speeches at the memorial. He challenged the audience to consider Lincoln's call for a "new birth of freedom." From that day forward, the Lincoln Memorial became a national gathering place for groups demanding racial and social justice.
SIAHC2_121215_037.JPG: 1922 Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial:
On May 30, 1922, a large crowd gathered for the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. The seating, like much of Washington, was segregated by race, yet the organizers chose Dr. Robert Russo Moton, President of Tuskegee Institute, as the keynote speaker. Addressing the mostly white crowd, Moton delivered the first of what would be many civil rights speeches at the memorial. He challenged the audience to consider Lincoln's call for a "new birth of freedom." From that day forward, the Lincoln Memorial became a national gathering place for groups demanding racial and social justice.
SIAHC2_121215_040.JPG: 1939 Marian Anderson Concert:
In a direct challenge to segregation, Marian Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in 1939. The Daughters of the American Revolution had barred her from singing in Washington's Constitution Hall. In response, a broad coalition of civil rights advocates, with support from Eleanor Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, organized a concert on the steps of the memorial. More than 75,000 people attended the performance, and millions more listened to the live radio broadcast. Anderson opened by pointedly singing "My Country Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty." The concert lasted less than an hour, but it honored Anderson's talents as a black artist and forever fixed the Lincoln Memorial as a symbolic shrine to civil rights.
SIAHC2_121215_054.JPG: "Nobody expects ten thousand Negroes to get together and march anywhere for anything at any time. . . . In common parlance, they are supposed to be just scared and unorganizable. Is this true? I contend it is not."
-- A. Philip Randolph, February 6, 1941
SIAHC2_121215_057.JPG: My Dear Mr. Randolph:
Eleanor Roosevelt often served as the president's liaison with civil rights organizations. She sent this congratulatory note to Randolph following the cancellation of the march.
SIAHC2_121215_066.JPG: 1963:
An unprecedented number of demonstrations swept the country in the first half of 1963. Civil rights organizations demanded the right to vote, full access to jobs and education, and an end to segregated public accommodations. These demands met with strong resistance and violence from local governments. Justice Department records list more than 978 demonstrations in 109 cities, with over 2,000 arrests and four deaths including the murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi.
SIAHC2_121215_076.JPG: Expectations and Fears
As the day of the march approached, no one really knew what to expect. Demonstrators across the country finalized their travel plans; others were already on the road. Organizers had hoped for as many as 100,000 participants, but would they come and would their journey be blocked along the way?
The capital braced for the worst. The Washington police department canceled all leave. On military bases around the city, thousands of troops were placed on alert, and Pentagon officials reviewed their plans to send soldiers to the Mall if violence erupted.
Bill Mauldin's cartoon, published in the Chicago Sun Times, on August 24, 1963, captured the widespread apprehension about the upcoming demonstration.
SIAHC2_121215_083.JPG: Organizing the March:
The task of organizing the march was given to Bayard Rustin. He quickly established an office in Harlem and pulled together a group of the most trustworthy and dedicated staff he could find. Organizing the march involved thousands of details: arranging transportation, fundraising, contracting a sound system, printing leaflets and brochures, ordering toilets, and soothing egos.
Bayard Rustin:
Bayard Rustin, Deputy Director and Organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Within the civil rights community, Bayard Rustin was recognized as one of the most gifted and experienced organizers. A committed pacifist, he helped introduce nonviolent techniques into the movement. He participated in the first freedom rides to desegregate interstate busing in the South in 1947. He also organized several mass demonstrations in the 1940s and 1950s and served as a leading strategist of the Montgomery bus boycott. Because he was a former member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, a conscientious objector during World War II, and openly homosexual, many saw him as too controversial to play such a prominent role in the March on Washington.
SIAHC2_121215_088.JPG: "[Bayard Rustin] wanted us to live that couple of months as if every single day might be the last day of your life."
-- Norman Hill, National Program Director, Congress of Racial Equality
SIAHC2_121215_108.JPG: To Bear Witness:
By the end of the day, an estimated 250,000 people participated in the march. They carried signs, sang along with civil rights anthems, waded in the Reflecting Pool, and listened to the speeches. Mostly they came to bear witness, for themselves and their communities, that they would not stand by idly when the rights of so many Americans were being denied. Their presence on the Mall was as powerful a statement as any delivered on the podium.
"When I get to Washington, D.C., I'm going to stick out my chest and represent the Negroes in Dallas County [Alabama]."
-- Reverend L. L. Anderson
SIAHC2_121215_115.JPG: March Programs
SIAHC2_121215_117.JPG: March Map
SIAHC2_121215_121.JPG: Official March Marshal Armband
SIAHC2_121215_128.JPG: March Buttons
SIAHC2_121215_133.JPG: On the Podium:
On the steps of the memorial, A. Philip Randolph opened the program and served as the day's moderator. The program began with an invocation and included music, a tribute to the "Negro Women fighter," and speeches from six civil rights groups and four supporting organizations.
Acknowledged as the most gifted speaker within the movement, Martin Luther King Jr. had the honor of giving the concluding address. In a day of inspiring speeches, his call for justice stands out as one of the most powerful in American history. His speech echoed the words of the Bible, the Constitution, Lincoln, and the national anthem. He wove together long unfulfilled promises, the injustices of a segregated society, and a vision of a renewed nation. In repeating "I have a dream" again and again, he summed up the aspirations of the march and the demands of the Civil Rights Movement.
SIAHC2_121215_137.JPG: Celebrities
Stars played an important role in supporting the struggle for civil rights from its earliest days. Many threw their support behind the March on Washington. Ossie Davis, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, and others organized contingents from Hollywood and New York. They brought to Washington some of the leading film, televisions, and music stars of the day.
SIAHC2_121215_144.JPG: Joan Baez guitar
SIAHC2_121215_152.JPG: Hollywood Stars among the Crowds:
Author James Baldwin and movie stars Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, and Sidney Portier at the Lincoln Memorial.
SIAHC2_121215_159.JPG: The Big Six:
At the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, six national civil rights leaders announce their coalition to organize a national march for jobs and freedom.
John L. Lewis, Director, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
The youngest member of the Big Six, Lewis represented SNCC and a new generation of freedom fighters. In the early 1960s, SNCC galvanized the nation with its direct action campaign -- from sit-ins to freedom rides to voter registration drives in the deep South. By the time of the march, Lewis had been arrested 24 times for his activism during nonviolent protests. SNCC activists were at the forefront of many of the protests across the South, challenging both white segregationists and traditional black organizations.
Whitney Young, Executive Director, National Urban League (NUL)
Young represented one of the oldest and largest civil rights organizations -- the National Urban League. Founded in 1910, the NUL worked to document urban poverty and influence public policy through social surveys on housing, education, and nutrition. Young joined the league as a social scientist in 1941. He devoted his career to studying the conditions of urban life for African Americans as a dean at Atlanta University, the state president of the Massachusetts NAACP, and as the Executive Director of the NUL.
A. Philip Randolph, President, Negro American Labor Council (NALC)
The elder statesman of the civil rights movement, Randolph was the principal visionary behind the March on Washington. At age 74, he had dedicated his life to organizing workers. Randolph brought an unwavering socialist vision to the civil rights struggle. His considerable achievements included founding the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, creating the National Negro Congress in 1936, serving as vice president of the AFL-CIO in the 1950s, and organizing the Negro American Labor Council in 1959.
James L. Farmer Jr., National Director, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
James Farmer was a founding member and director of CORE, an interracial coalition created in 1941. CORE challenged the law by breaking the law, building upon Mahatma Gandhi's tactics of nonviolent protest and passive resistance. Staging direct action protests from sit-ins to Freedom Rides, CORE pioneered the tactics used in freedom struggles across the South by the 1960s. As an elder of the Civil Rights Movement, Farmer continued to lead by example as CORE shifted from a focus on desegregation to voter registration drives by March 1963.
Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Roy Wilkins represented the NAACP, one of the oldest and largest civil rights organizations in the country. Co-founded in 1909 by W.E.B. DuBois, the NAACP pursued the philosophy of "color blindness," pressing for equal access to all aspects of American life. Committed to working through the court system and the legislative process, the NAACP carefully carved out spaces for African American inclusion. By 1963, the NAACP's emphasis on working within "the system" represented a conservative alternative to the direct action of the newer organizations represented in the march's coalition. Poignantly, W.E.B. DuBois died just one day before the march, and it was left to Wilkins to announce from the podium the passing of this great leader.
Martin Luther King Jr., President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
In 1963, Martin Luther King was the most widely known civil rights leader in the country. Schoolchildren across America had heard of King's work with the Montgomery bus boycott and witnessed the shocking images of dogs and fire hoses turned on children in Birmingham, Alabama. As president of SCLC, King moved quickly to sites of civil rights struggle and brought leadership experience and media attention to local campaigns. King and other religious leaders founded SCLC in 1957 as a leadership council. SCLC helped coordinate the nonviolent protests occurring across the nation by working with existing civil rights groups.
SIAHC2_121215_167.JPG: March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom:
One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin began to plan a mass demonstration in Washington. They hoped to unite established civil rights organizations with new community and student activists in a broad coalition.
As demonstrations and violence spread across the country in the spring and summer of 1963, interest in a march grew. On July 2, 1963, leaders representing six national civil rights organizations -- the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Congress of Racial Equality, National Urban League, Negro American Labor Council, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- met at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York to announce a march demanding jobs and freedom. The group appointed Randolph the march director and Rustin his principal deputy. In just eight weeks, they proposed to hold the largest demonstration in American history.
SIAHC2_121215_172.JPG: Official March Poster, designed by Lou LoMonaco
SIAHC2_121215_175.JPG: "The march was bigger than anything that I'd ever experienced. There'd never been a demonstration like that in our lifetime. It was a feeling that we'd done something special: we were a part of something special."
-- Ed Bradley Jr., march participant and future CBS reporter
SIAHC2_121215_181.JPG: Traveling to Washington:
On buses, trains, cars, trucks, airplanes, and on foot, people traveled from every state. For many, the journey to Washington was as memorable as the day's events. The organizers had hoped for a diverse crowd and saw their hopes fulfilled. An estimated 250,000 people -- united across race, class, and ideological lines, and representing organizations, unions, churches or simply themselves -- poured into Washington and onto the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial.
SIAHC2_121215_186.JPG: Traveling to Washington:
On buses, trains, cars, trucks, airplanes, and on foot, people traveled from every state. For many, the journey to Washington was as memorable as the day's events. The organizers had hoped for a diverse crowd and saw their hopes fulfilled. An estimated 250,000 people -- united across race, class, and ideological lines, and representing organizations, unions, churches or simply themselves -- poured into Washington and onto the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial.
SIAHC2_121215_193.JPG: Bus flyer
SIAHC2_121215_205.JPG: A pocket watch from Dr. King:
Martin Luther King, Jr. gave this pocket watch to Bayard Rustin. The inscription on back reads: "From Martin to Bayard for Aug. 28, 1963."
SIAHC2_121215_215.JPG: A Day of Hope:
With the words and music still ringing in their ears, the demonstrators boarded buses and trains for their journeys home. Many would return to the same hardships, discrimination, and violence that had prompted them to join the March on Washington. But the legacy of that day endured and increased popular support for the civil rights movement. In the months and years that followed, the march helped sustain and strengthen the work of those who continued to commit themselves to the ongoing struggle for social justice.
SIAHC2_121215_218.JPG: The Whole World Was Watching:
Reporters from around the nation converged on Washington to cover the day's events. The three national television networks interrupted their daily programming to broadcast the speeches, and a Telstar satellite beamed the coverage around the world. Recording companies quickly packaged the major addresses and distributed them to an eager audience. Long after the crowds returned home, the speeches of the day were heard again and again.
SIAHC2_121215_224.JPG: The Whole World Was Watching:
Reporters from around the nation converged on Washington to cover the day's events. The three national television networks interrupted their daily programming to broadcast the speeches, and a Telstar satellite beamed the coverage around the world. Recording companies quickly packaged the major addresses and distributed them to an eager audience. Long after the crowds returned home, the speeches of the day were heard again and again.
SIAHC2_121215_234.JPG: Response to the March:
In the months and years that followed, the march helped sustain and strengthen the work of those that continued to pressure political leaders to act. Following President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson broke through the legislative stalemate in Congress.
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were turning points in the struggle for civil rights. Together the two bills outlawed segregated public facilities and prohibited discriminatory practices in employment and voting.
SIAHC2_121215_243.JPG: Murder on 16th Street:
Just two weeks after the march, on September 15, 1963, white supremacists planted a bomb under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young girls attending Sunday school. This terrorist act was a brutal reminder that the success of the march and the changes it represented would not go unchallenged. In the face of such violence, the determination to continue organizing intensified. These glass shards are from the church's stained-glass window.
SIAHC2_121215_247.JPG: Glass shards from the 16th St. Church.
SIAHC2_121215_251.JPG: Pen used by President Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964
SIAHC2_121215_256.JPG: Equality for All:
The success of the March on Washington and the achievements of the modern black freedom struggle reverberated throughout society and provided a model for social change. The power of mass nonviolent demonstrations inspired Americans fighting for equal rights and access to opportunities regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities.
SIAHC2_121215_263.JPG: Poster advertising the cross-country walk for Native American rights, February 11-July 15, 1978
SIAHC2_121215_270.JPG: Poster advertising the October 14, 1979 March on Washington for gay and lesbian rights.
SIAHC2_121215_272.JPG: Worker's banner, with "Justice" written in Chinese, from a Los Angeles, California, anti-sweatshop campaign, 1993.
SIAHC2_121215_295.JPG: A Day of Hope:
With the words and music still ringing in their ears, the demonstrators boarded buses and trains for their journeys home. Many would return to the same hardships, discrimination, and violence that had prompted them to join the March on Washington. But the legacy of that day endured and increased popular support for the civil rights movement. In the months and years that followed, the march helped sustain and strengthen the work of those who continued to commit themselves to the ongoing struggle for social justice.
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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