On August 28, 1963, over 250,000 supporters of the civil rights movement gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to call for President Kennedy to initiate a civil rights bill to create fairer treatment and equal opportunity for African Americans. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a critical moment in civil rights history, drawing the eyes of people worldwide and over 3,000 media outlets. Most famously, the March served as the backdrop for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. And it was effective — soon after, President Kennedy announced plans for a comprehensive civil rights bill. However, despite its major accomplishments, the planning and execution of the March on Washington wasn’t characterized by equality for all.
The history of the March on Washington often recounts the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, who was the March’s chief organizer, and A. Philip Randolph, who had initially proposed the idea in the summer of 1941. The men were front and center.
However, history often forgets the unsung heroes of the movement: women. Civil rights leaders like Dorothy Height, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Myrlie Evers, Daisy Bates, Diane Nash, and Gloria Richardson contributed significantly to the planning and execution of the March — and yet their names rarely grace history textbooks in school. Their stories go untold because history has largely avoided discussing gender biases in the civil rights movement.
The story of the March on Washington began long before that important day in 1963. Activist A. Philip Randolph, the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, initially proposed the idea over 20 years earlier to advocate for defense industry jobs for African Americans during World War II. But President Roosevelt acted swiftly, issuing Executive Order 8802. The order led to the development of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, which investigated discriminatory hiring practices against African Americans. This response from Roosevelt led to Randolph canceling the March.
Between 1942 and 1958, multiple civil rights gatherings took place at the Lincoln Memorial in the fight for freedom and equality, but they all proved unsuccessful in enacting lasting change for Black people in America. By 1962, unemployment rates among African Americans were high, with few opportunities for upward mobility. Systemic disenfranchisement plagued the community, and segregation in the south remained robust. For Black women, opportunities for equal work and pay were even scarcer, but the racist and sexist attitudes of the time made it difficult for them to advocate for their needs and safety inside and outside the civil rights movement.
In the summer of that year, Randolph convened several civil rights organizations, including the Negro American Labor Council (NALC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and officially began planning the March on Washington. Ultimately, though, women were the ones who made it possible.
Throughout the planning process, women played a crucial role in organizing and mobilizing. The March aimed to establish “a comprehensive civil rights bill” to ensure desegregation of public facilities, voting rights protections for African Americans to prevent disenfranchisement, a process to seek justice in response to violations of constitutional rights, integration of public schools, and a federal ban on discrimination in employment. Clearly, the goals affected men and women equally. However, only two women held official titles on the planning committee. Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women was the only female member of the "Big Six" March organizers, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman of the National Council of Churches was the only woman on the event's administrative committee.
Dorothy Height: ‘Godmother of the Movement,’ Organizer of the March
Known as the "godmother of the movement," the influential Dorothy Height is too often forgotten when talking about the March on Washington. Height was a lifelong educator, activist, and champion of civil rights. Her career began in 1929 when she enrolled at New York University (NYU) after she was not allowed to attend Barnard College because the institution did not accept African American students. Height graduated from NYU, earning a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in psychology. She went on to become a social worker for the Harlem Young Women's Christian Association, where she excelled, focusing the organization on integrating its facilities nationwide.
Height was inspired to get involved in the civil rights movement by Mary McLeod Bethune, another passionate civil rights activist. After meeting Bethune, Height began her work with the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), an organization founded to advance the quality of life for African American women, their families, and their communities. She became the organization's fourth president and served in her role for four decades. Height's ability to lead and mobilize shined bright as she focused on ending lynching, restructuring the criminal justice system, increasing voter registration in the South, and providing support to other civil rights activists.
Height's work with the NCNW and knowledge of organizing movements bolstered her to a prominent position in the civil rights movement. In preparing for the March on Washington, Height organized thousands of women volunteers. She arranged transportation to the March while lending her expertise on suffrage, segregation, and more topics. Despite her contributions, Height was never called to speak on the day of the March. Like the other women leaders who helped, she was instead only allowed to sit on the stage.
Anna Arnold Hedgeman: The Woman Who Spoke Up
Another influential woman in the March on Washington was Anna Arnold Hedgeman, a key figure in organizing the March and in the civil rights movement generally. Hedgeman grew up in Anoka, Minnesota, as part of the only Black family in the community. She became the first African American student to attend Hamline University in St. Paul, graduating in 1922 with a bachelor’s in English, determined to become a teacher. After briefly teaching and then working to develop educational programs, Hedgeman and her husband settled in Harlem in 1936.
In 1944, Hedgeman became the executive director of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), leading the fight against employment discrimination. She joined President Truman’s re-election campaign in 1948 before becoming the first Black woman in the New York mayoral cabinet in 1954. In the early 1960s, she ran for Congress to represent the East Bronx and then for New York City Council President. While both bids were unsuccessful, the experiences sharpened her political skills and gave her important expertise to plan for the March on Washington.
With her expertise on fair employment, Hedgeman was the only woman included on the March on Washington’s official planning committee. She used her position to fight for the inclusion of women in the day’s festivities. Hedgeman and two other women involved in the preparations, Corinne Smith and Geri Stark of the Negro American Labor Councils, crafted a statement asking Randolph and other male leaders to include women, but the request went unanswered. The men gave several excuses why women could not be included: "the list of speakers was already too long; it would be too difficult to select one woman; if they did choose one, others would be jealous," as The New Republic summarized it. Having more than one woman address the crowd was seemingly not an option. At the next planning meeting, Hedgeman decided to speak, saying in part:
"In light of the role of Negro women in the struggle for freedom and especially in light of the extra burden they have carried because of the castration of our Negro man in this culture, it is incredible that no woman should appear as a speaker at the historic March on Washington Meeting at the Lincoln Memorial."
After Hedgeman spoke, Roy Williams supported her idea, and one woman, Myrlie Evers, was added to the program as a speaker. But despite Hedgeman’s efforts, women were excluded almost entirely from speaking opportunities on the day of the March.
Remembering the March on Washington, 60 Years Later
Height and Hedgeman are just two of the women whose stories are neglected by history. There are so many others whose stories and contributions are buried beneath the admiration of male activists and planners, largely because the role of women at the March was restricted to ceremonious acknowledgments or performative elements. Actress Ruby Dee co-emceed the event with her husband; Joan Baez performed "We Shall Overcome"; Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates gave short addresses; Lena Horne was only permitted to say one word: "Freedom!"; Mahalia Jackson performed the National Anthem. After traffic delays prevented other speakers from prompt arrival, Josephine Baker was allowed to speak for two minutes; Daisy Bates was able to speak in place of Myrlie Evers.
None of these small program pieces gave proper acknowledgment or visibility to the thousands of women who helped plan the March on Washington or progress the civil rights movement.
This August marks the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. To commemorate the anniversary, The National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, GA will focus on uplifting women of the movement and preserving the legacy of the March on Washington.
The Center also partnered with the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr., Collection to host papers from Dr. King's Journal in the Voice to the Voiceless Gallery. This year's exhibit, "Now Is the Time: Remembering the Legacy of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," gives viewers a glimpse into that historic day. The cases include pages from Dr. King's journal documenting March sponsors, demands, planning and logistics information, and the original concept for his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech titled "Normalcy Never Again."
Missing from these pages but essential to the story are the contributions of countless women who shaped the civil rights movement and made the March on Washington possible. To truly commemorate the March on Washington, these stories must be told too.
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