March on Washington: Organizing Manual 1
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM
August 28, 1963
Organizing Manual No. 1
This manual is designed to give you information you will need regarding the March for Jobs and Freedom, and to help you prepare for this event.
The time to organize your delegation for the March is NOW. The time is short – start as soon as you have received and read this manual.
A Second Edition of the manual will appear before August 28 and will provide final and detailed information as it becomes available.
National Office
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
170 WEST 130th STREET
NEW YORK 27, NEW YORK
FIlmore 8-1900
Cleveland Robinson
Chairman, Administrative Committee
Bayard Rustin
Deputy Director
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Who is sponsoring the March to Washington for Jobs and Freedom?
The official call for the March was issued on July 12 by the following national leaders:
James Farmer, National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality
Rev. Martin Luther King, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
John Lewis, Chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
A. Philip Randolph, President of the Negro American Labor Council
Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Whitney Young, Executive Director of the Urban League
Labor and religious organizations are being asked to join with the above in sponsoring the March. A full list will be issued in due course.
What is the purpose of the March?
The purpose of the March is, by a massive, peaceful, and democratic demonstration in the nation's capital, to provide evidence of the need for the Federal Government to take effective and immediate action to deal with the national crisis of civil rights and jobs that all of us, Negro and white, are facing.
What are the demands of the March?
I The Civil Rights demands include:
Passage by the Congress of effective and meaningful civil rights legislation in the present session, without filibuster.
Immediate desegregation of the nation's schools.
An end to police brutality directed against citizens using their constitutional right of peaceful demonstration.
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II The Job demands include:
A massive Federal Public Works Program to provide jobs for all the unemployed, and Federal legislation to promote an expanding economy.
A Federal Fair Employment Practices Act to bar job discrimination by Federal, State, and Municipal governments, and by private employers, contractors, employment agencies and trade unions.
Broadening of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act to include the uncovered areas of employment where Negroes and other minorities work at slave wages; and the establishment of a national minimum wage of not less than $2.00 per hour.
Who is invited to participate in the March?
Politically the March is non-partisan; that is, neither funds nor organized participation will be accepted from political parties. We expressly reject the aid or participation of totalitarian or subversive groups of all persuasions. Organizational participation is invited from only the established civil rights organizations, from major religious and fraternal groups, and from labor unions. Such groups are invited to form committees, to sponsor the March, and to send delegations to Washington in their own names.
Other groups are invited to publicize the March, to raise funds for it and to send groups to Washington under the banner of the March on Washington itself. These would include, for example, student and youth organizations, settlement houses, committees and other organizations of the unemployed, professional organizations (doctors, teachers, etc.), and Greek Letter organizations.
What literature is available for publicizing the March?
The National Office of the March will provide you, free of charge, with as many copies as you need of the following:
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THE MARCH CALL
This folder, entitled "The Time is Now," gives detailed information on the aims and sponsorship of the March.
LEAFLET
One-page flyer entitled "To All Americans: Join the March for Jobs and Freedom," designed for mass distribution.
Additional copies of this organizing manual are also available. Other material will be put out by the March Office and sent to you as it appears.
What are the immediate tasks of participating organizations and groups?
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PUBLICIZE THE MARCH
Our time is short! Our first and most urgent task is to make the March known. Get to the press, to church services, to union meetings; take our literature into the streets, distribute it outside movie houses, at the ball game. Make the March known.
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ORGANIZE TRANSPORTATION
Our time is short! We have to get thousands of people to Washington on short notice. Set up your transportation committee at once and have a hardworking and reliable person head it up. Investigate carefully the possibility of bringing your group by train – it is a little more expensive, but special rates are available, and the more who come by rail, the less congestion there will be on the roads. If you come by bus make sure that you have a written contract issued in advance and that the bus company has a group insurance policy in effect that covers all members of the group.
Coordinate your activities with other groups in your area. It will, in some cases, save time if several groups can make joint transportation arrangements.
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The National Office will not make transportation arrangements for local groups. Notify the National Office by mail of the progress of your work in organizing your March groups.
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ORGANIZE THE UNEMPLOYED FOR THE MARCH
It will serve no purpose to hold a March for Jobs and Freedom if unemployed people are not able to come and add their voices and presence to the demonstration. Organizations must make it a main task to get the news of the March to the unemployed and to encourage the unemployed, where possible, to establish their own March Committees.
Organizations may further guarantee the presence in Washington of the unemployed by (a) assigning a given number of seats in buses and trains to the unemployed, and (b) raising funds to pay for these assigned seats. Make it your goal to send one unemployed person to Washington for every three who can pay their way. We hope that not a bus will go, nor train start, that does not have its quota of the unemployed.
If there are no unemployed in your area, raise funds for the transportation of unemployed persons elsewhere, and transmit the money to the National Office (see under National Office below).
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HAVE THE COMMUNITY RECOGNIZE AND SET ASIDE THE DAY
Ask the Governor of your State, and the City Fathers, to proclaim August 28 as FREEDOM DAY. Ask ministers and rabbis to offer special prayers August 24-25 for the success of the March. Approach employers with the request that they close their plants on August 28 and grant workers paid vacation on that day in honor of the Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights movement.
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How should funds be sent to the National Office of the March?
While your fundamental task is mobilizing people to Washington, bear in mind that the National Office has to meet heavy expenses in preparation for the March. Any funds that may be sent by local organizations for this purpose will be welcome. In addition you are asked to solicit, where possible, special contributions to defray the expenses of unemployed persons, which funds we will administer at our discretion in accordance with need. Make your checks payable to MARCH ON WASHINGTON.
We ask you also to sell a March Button that will help publicize the March, and to transmit the proceeds to us. The button is 2 1/2" in diameter, emblem is a black and white handclasp, and the title, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. August 28. Price of each button is 25 cents. Order from the National Office. Send checks, not cash. Shipping costs will be borne by the Office.
How will the March be organized in Washington?
All persons coming to Washington, whether by bus, train or plane, who are being sent by organizations, must be under the leadership of captains appointed locally before departure. (Private cars create confusion and traffic problems, their use is discouraged.) Captains will be responsible for the group en route and in moving around Washington. Further details on the role and function of the March leadership at this level will be forthcoming in the next manual.
The March will provide its own police to maintain order and internal security among the marchers in Washington. These marshals are specially trained and will be in constant contact with captains and marchers. The Washington police and the U.S. Government have promised full cooperation in controlling traffic, maintaining order, providing comfort and first-aid stations for the marchers.
Marchers from the 50 States and the District of Columbia will be assigned specific assembly points where they are to gather on arrival in Washington.
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Further information about these assembly points will be provided in due course. All persons are expected to report at the assembly points not later than 10:00 A.M. on August 28th.
Meetings will be held at the Assembly points – in most cases they will be churches – for two purposes:
- To meet with Congressmen and Senators, who will be invited to meet with the delegations at the Assembly points and to report their positions on pending legislation and to answer questions from their constituents.
- To select representatives who will proceed to Capitol Hill seeing those legislators who did not respond to our invitation to meet with their constituents. These representatives will be accompanied by representatives of the six civil rights organizations sponsoring the March.
A massive demonstration will be held at the White House. A statement will be issued making clear to the President, the Congress, and the Nation our view that the job problem for Negro citizens cannot be solved unless the problems of all the unemployed are tackled. The delegation will call for the immediate inauguration of a Federal Public Works Program adequate to cope with the deepening economic crisis.
Later the Marchers will assemble for a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. The parade will dramatize our demands for Jobs and Civil Rights and will commemorate Medgar Evers of the NAACP, William Moore of CORE, Herbert Lee of SNCC, and the thousands of nameless heroes of the freedom movement who have given their lives in the struggle for full equality. The procession shall sing "We Shall Overcome" to the accompaniment of bands and choirs for the entire line of march.
All placards to be used on the March will be provided by the National Office.
No other slogans will be permitted.
In the afternoon there will be a mass meeting at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and to voice our needs and demands.
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What arrangements are there for staying in Washington and for refreshments?
THIS IS A ONE-DAY DEMONSTRATION.
The size and scope of this March make it imperative that all participants come in and go out on the same day – August 28th. All organizations are urged to see to it that participants come provided with box lunches and suppers, and especially that groups furnish themselves with ample water. You are strongly advised not to bring children under 14; children over 14 should be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
In the event of a filibuster before August 28th, March machinery will be used to send daily waves of approximately 1000 people to Washington for the duration of the filibuster. If the filibuster has not begun by August 28th, March participants will be asked to return to Washington at the time of the filibuster in waves of 2000.
enclosures: 1 Call
1 Leaflet
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ORDER-BLANK
PLEASE SEND [blank line labeled No.] Calls "The Time is Now"
[blank line labeled No.] Leaflets "To all Americans...."
[blank line labeled No.] Buttons at 25 cents (CHECK FOR FULL PURCHASE PRICE MUST BE INCLUDED)
NAME [blank line]
ADDRESS [blank line]
ORGANIZATION [blank line]
TELEPHONE [blank line]
National Office
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
170 West 130th Street
New York 27, New York
FIlmore 8-1900
[Printer's union label]
70
[Handwritten in pencil along the right margin: 2010.45.2]
