(CIVIL RIGHTS.) March for Freedom Now . . . Assemble Opposite the White House. Printed handbill, 8½ x 5½ inches; minimal wear and light toning. Washington, 14 June 1963
Two months before the larger and more famous March on Washington, this event drew about 3,000 marchers from the White House to the Department of Justice. Participants included members of the NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and several white religious groups. Many marchers wore armbands for Medgar Evers, who had been assassinated just two days earlier. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy addressed the crowd at the Justice Department, and Malcolm X was in attendance with some skepticism, telling a reporter: "Whenever the sheep try to integrate among the wolves, that's a step forward for the wolves." The next day's Washington Daily News described it as "the first mass protest of racial discrimination in the District."
This handbill lists six demands, including "No federal funds for apartheid states," a fair housing ordinance, and an end to "blatant job discrimination in the Justice Department." It is one from a cache of about a dozen which had been saved in the family of one of the event organizers.
