OVERVIEW Background and Context The historical context of racial segregation and discrimination set the stage for the March on Washington. African Americans in the United States were subjected to systemic discrimination and racial segregation, particularly in the Southern states. Jim Crow laws imposed racial segregation in public places, including schools and public transit, which fueled inequality and constrained African Americans’ possibilities. The rampant racism and brutality against Black people spurred the civil rights movement’s zeal to confront these injustices. An important influence on the March on Washington came from past civil rights demonstrations and activities. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom

The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and the following years to protest the failure of upholding the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960). Both decisions ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Boynton, a graduate of Howard University School of Law in Washington, prohibited racial segregation in restaurants and waiting rooms at terminals serving interstate buses. Five years before the Boynton decision, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) released a decision in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company (1955) that

A Texas representative,  Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) became a public defender of the United States Constitution and a dominant figure in Democratic Party politics for two decades. She moved to the national stage from Houston’s African American Fifth Ward. She was the first Black woman elected to the Texas state senate and was later elected to Congress. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, she delivered the pivotal opening address in Richard Nixon’s impeachment proceedings in 1974. After three terms in Congress, she left to become a professor and policy activist. Barbara Jordan’s Family, Childhood and Education In her parents’

Alex Haley, born on August 11, 1921, in Ithaca, New York, was an American writer and journalist known for his influential works focusing on African American history and culture. He is best known for his novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” which brought attention to the African American experience and sparked a widespread interest in genealogy and African American history. Haley’s early life was marked by his father’s influence, who instilled a passion for storytelling. He enlisted in the Coast Guard during World War II and served as a journalist. After his military service, he pursued a career

Angela Yvonne Davis, also known as Angela Davis (born in 1944) is a Black activist, philosopher, scholar, and author from the United States who was a member of the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party. She works as a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has written over ten books about class, feminism, racism and the US judicial system. In the early 1970s, she became well-known for her participation in a politically sensitive murder trial. She entered the Black Panthers and an all-Black organization of the Communist Regime as a young lady, inspired by her exposure

After slavery was abolished during the Civil War, Black Codes were enacted to limit African Americans’ freedom and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force. Even though the Union victory liberated approximately 4 million enslaved people, the issue of freed Blacks’ postwar status in the South remained unresolved. Many states required Black people to sign yearly labor contracts under Black Codes; if they were denied, they risked being prosecuted, charged and forced into unpaid labor. Outrage over Black Codes harmed President Andrew Johnson’s and the Republican Party’s popularity. Background and Context In the years following the American Civil War