The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in August 1963 and was the setting for the celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. A. Philip Randolph, a labor leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, proposed a large march on the capital as a way of prodding Congress and the administration of President John F. Kennedy to act on civil rights. Others involved in its planning included King himself, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Roy Wilkins, and John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The march was entirely peaceful, and drew an estimated 200,000-300,000 people. It is widely credited with helping to pass breakthrough civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965. Shown here on the day of the march are King and Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice.