Organizing Manual No. 2, the House Copy
[Hand-drawn ovals on this copy are noted in square brackets. Printed text matches the Smithsonian copy of the same manual.]
ORGANIZING MANUAL NO. 2
Final Plans for the
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM
AUGUST 28, 1963
This is the SECOND and LAST Organizing Manual of the MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM
READ IT CAREFULLY. There have been changes in arrangements since the publication of Organizing Manual No. 1.
- There will be NO separate state locations. All buses will proceed directly to the Washington Monument.
- The NEW routes of March are Independence and Constitution Avenues. (Read further for full details)
Distribute this manual today. Time is short. If you need additional copies, let us know TODAY!
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM
170 West 130th Street • New York, N.Y. 10027 • FI 8-1900
[circled:] Cleveland Robinson
Chairman, Administrative Committee
[circled:] Bayard Rustin
[circled:] Deputy Director
WHO IS SPONSORING THE MARCH?
The Ten Chairmen of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom are:
[circled:] Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice
[circled:] Reverend Eugene Carson Blake, Vice-Chairman of the Commission on Race Relations of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America
[circled:] James Farmer, National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality
[circled:] Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
[circled:] John Lewis, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
[circled:] Rabbi Joachim Prinz, Chairman of the American Jewish Congress
[circled:] A. Philip Randolph, President of the Negro American Labor Council
[circled:] Walter Reuther, President of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL-CIO, and Chairman, Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO
[circled:] Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
[circled:] Whitney Young, Executive Director of the National Urban League
In addition, the March has been endorsed by major religious, fraternal, labor and civil rights organizations. A full list, too long to include here, will be published.
WHY WE MARCH
We march to redress old grievances and to help resolve an American crisis.
That crisis is born of the twin evils of racism and economic deprivation. They rob all people, Negro and white, of dignity, self-respect, and freedom. They impose a special burden on the Negro, who is denied the right to vote, economically exploited, refused access to public accommodations, subjected to inferior education, and relegated to substandard ghetto housing.
Discrimination in education and apprenticeship training renders Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and other minorities helpless in our mechanized, industrial society. Lacking specialized training, they are the first victims of automation. Thus the rate of Negro unemployment is nearly three times that of whites.
Their livelihoods destroyed, the Negro unemployed are thrown into the streets, driven to despair, to hatred, to crime, to violence. All America is robbed of their potential contribution.
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Despite this crisis, reactionary Republicans and Southern Democrats in Congress are still working to defeat effective civil rights legislation. They fight against the rights of all workers and minorty groups. They are sworn enemies of freedom and justice. They proclaim states rights in order to destroy human rights.
The Southern Democrats came to power by disfranchising the Negro. They know that as long as black workers are voteless, exploited, and underpaid, the fight of the white workers for decent wages and working conditions will fail. They know that semi-slavery for one means semi-slavery for all.
We march to demonstrate, massively and dramatically, our unalterable opposition to these forces—and to their century-long robbery of the American people. Our bodies, numbering over 100,000, will bear witness—will serve historic notice—that Jobs and Freedom are needed NOW.
WHAT WE DEMAND*
- Comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present Congress—without compromise or filibuster—to guarantee all Americans
- access to all public accommodations
- decent housing
- adequate and integrated education
- the right to vote
- Withholding of Federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.
- Desegregation of all school districts in 1963.
- Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment—reducing Congressional representation of states where citizens are disfranchised.
- A new Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds.
- Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when any constiutional right is violated.
- A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers—Negro and white—on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.
- A national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living. (Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 an hour fails to do this.)
- A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to include all areas of employment which are presently excluded.
- A federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination by federal, state, and municipal governments, and by employers, contractors, employment agencies, and trade unions.
*Support of the March does not necessarily indicate endorsement of every demand listed. Some organizations have not had an opportunity to take an official position on all of the demands advocated here.
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