Civil rights leaders had no intention of letting President Kennedy’s bill die in Congress.
To show how much the public wanted this law, they decided to have a demonstration in Washington, called the March on Washington.
The goals of the march would be to demand passage of the Civil Rights Act, force integration of public schools by the end of the year, lobby for the enactment of a bill prohibiting job discrimination, and demand job training and placement for African Americans.
Martin Luther King Jr., the most important civil rights leader of the 1960s, embraces his wife, Coretta Scott King. After King was assassinated in 1968, his wife continued in the fight for civil rights and the crusade for peace.
