The Civil Rights Movement: The March On Washington

Many events, protests and demonstrations took place because of the formation of so many new activist groups. A popular protest event was the sit in. On February 1, 1960, the first sit in took place at Greensboro’s Five and Dime. Four students sat down at a lunch counter asking to be served. The response from the waiter was that the store didn’t serve colored. The students were unhappy for they had ordered at a different table and were served, but when they went up to a whites counter, they were denied service (Brooks 146). News about the new nonviolent sit in spread, encouraging other African Americans to start sit ins (Brooks 147). Over 70,000 African Americans were holding sit ins in almost any public place in Greensboro, Alabama by the end …show more content…
The March On Washington is one of the most well known events that has helped the movement the most (Brooks 229). CORE is responsible for heading up the March on Washington (Brooks 222). The march was to be a large nonviolent event to show that African Americans were still fighting hard to gain equal civil rights. (Brooks 221) (Brooks 2). CORE wanted to draw in even more African Americans to come to the march so they decided to expand the reasons as to why they were having the march. Instead of just wanting to get voting rights, they would be demonstrating to get congressmen to pass the Civil Rights Act (Wexler 178) (Brooks 228). President Kennedy was not a strong supporter of the March on Washington (Brooks 216). He was worried that the Congressmen would be annoyed by such a large gathering rather than being persuaded to vote in the Civil Rights Act (Brooks 225). President Kennedy knew he could not cancel the march since so many people already had plans made and in motion (Brooks …show more content…
Many groups were created such as CORE, SCLC, and COFO. These groups fought against segregation and discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and inspired many people to take action in the fight for civil rights. Sit ins were started to protest against segregation at stores and restaurants while Freedom Riders demonstrated against segregation in transportation and other public locations. CORE lead the March on Washington to try and convince congressmen to pass the Civil Rights Act. The act was soon passed in 1966 and completed the Civil Rights Movement. All of these events made it so that the 1960’s was the most productive decade for the Civil Rights Movement for African