On Aug. 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to hear what is now considered one of the most powerful speeches in history.
A young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the crowd that had assembled for the March on Washington, a protest rally he had helped organize.
“I have a dream,” King said, “that one day this nation will rise up [and] live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
His words were an impassioned call for racial equality for African-Americans. At the time, in parts of the country—especially in the South—blacks couldn’t eat at certain restaurants, still had to attend segregated schools (though the practice had been outlawed years earlier), and were unemployed at a rate nearly twice that of whites.
The march—a prime example of the nonviolent protest King advocated—helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The landmark legislation banned discrimination in the workplace and in all places of public accommodation, including parks, restaurants, and hotels. The act was one of many civil rights milestones in which King played a key role (see Timeline, below).
But just a few years later, as King was shifting his attention toward poverty issues and housing rights for African-Americans, his life was tragically cut short. On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 39.
Millions around the nation mourned King. “The heart of America grieves today,” said President Lyndon B. Johnson. “A leader of his people—a teacher of all people—has fallen.”