The March

The south was a very interesting place during the civil rights movement.  Martin Luther King led people to end segregation.  Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most segregated places in the country at the time.  MLK did his best to lead his people to victory in ending segregation.  African Americans would sing and march for their freedom.  Violence broke out and they were treated absolutely terribly.  During marches they would be attacked by dogs and sprayed with fire hoses.

Birmingham was not getting any better.  MLK traveled around the country giving speeches to end segregation.  He spoke to thousands at a time.  People listened to him because he was intelligent and he was very influential.  A. Phillip Randolph came into play and organized marches in Washington.  Instead of limiting the marches to just blacks, Randolph wanted to make it a national organization.

JFK was elected president in 1960.  Martin Luther King did not like what JFK was doing because he was not doing enough for racial equality.  Kennedy eventually realized he needed to take a stand.  Violence was breaking out in the streets all over the country.  Kennedy wanted to propose that race had no role in American life.

The marches got more intense and they wanted all blacks to come to Washington from the south.  Word spread about the violence happening in the south and more people went to Washington. Busses were flooding into Washington with thousands waiting to march for freedom.  Hundreds of busses came per hour from all over the country into Washington.  People performed and spoke before MLK took the stand.  John Lewis also gave a great speech before MLK.

Martin Luther King gave his most famous speech and the people were very influenced by it.  He brought al of his speeches together and spoke in front of hundreds of thousands of people.  He wanted everyone to be free.  A year later the civil rights act of 1964 began.  Martin Luther King was successful.