50 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people descended on our nation's capital to demonstrate for civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his powerful 'I have a dream' speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Here are ten things you might not have known about the March on Washington and King's remarks.
The roots of the march dated back more than two decades. In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, president of both the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the Negro American Labor Council, had proposed along with other black leaders staging a 100,000 person march on Washington to protest segregation in the armed forces and discrimination in defense industries. To prevent the march, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order outlawing racial discrimination in wartime industries.
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