ABSTRACT
The spring of 1964 held great promise for African Americans. On August 28, 1963, a crowd estimated at between 200,000 and 500,000 Americans of all races had marched on Washington, D.C., petitioning the federal government to make good on its commitment to equal and fair treatment under the law. As the largest mass demonstration at that time ever organized by African Americans, the march made it clear that Black people were not turning back. Despite the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four young girls just two weeks after the march, and the assassination of President Kennedy the following November, the tide of history was turning. The passage of momentous civil rights legislation that, for African Americans, was designed to redress the devastating effects of slavery and racial segregation was on the horizon.
