1958

Youth March for Integrated Schools — Washington, DC (Oct)

As part of their "Massive Resistance" to school integration, Southern racists label integration a "communist plot." Billboards falsely claiming to show Dr. King at a "Communist Training Camp" are put up across the South. In September, Governor Faubus of Arkansas closes high schools in Little Rock to maintain segregation, and asserts that the only people who support school desegregation are the NAACP and other "Communist-inspired" groups.

To counter this racist propoganda campaign, Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, Dr. King, Daisy Bates, Ralph Bunche, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Wilkins send letters to youth organizations, church groups, and labor organizations calling for a Youth March for Integrated Schools in Washington DC to show that students from across the nation support integrated schools. They hope for 1,000 students. On October 25, more than 10,000 march down Constitution Avenue and rally at the Lincoln Memorial. The march includes delegations from most of the main universities and colleges, church, labor, and civic organizations, and from as far away as California.

Still recovering from a near-fatal stab wound, Dr. King is unable to attend, and his wife Coretta reads his address to the marchers.

Harry Belafonte leads a delegation of student leaders to the White House to meet with President Eisenhower. They are turned away, neither the President nor any of his assistants or aides are willing to meet with pro-integration students.

A second, follow-up, Youth March for Integrated Schools is held on April 18, 1959 and draws over 25,000 participants.

For more information:
Web: Youth March For Integrated Schools

1957

1959