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The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Dr. King gives 'I Have A Dream' speech: Aug. 28, 1963

By Andrew Glass

08/27/16 10:53 PM EDT

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Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on this day in 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to more than 250,000 people who had come to Washington to demonstrate on behalf of equal rights and, specifically, for passage of the civil rights bill, then languishing in Congress.

At the time, the peaceful interracial rally — officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom — was the largest assembly for a redress of grievances ever held in the nation’s capital. King gave the keynote speech.

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With the marble statue of Abraham Lincoln as a backdrop, King said, “I have a dream 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.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. ..."

"And when this happens, and when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, `Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

On June 22, six African-American leaders who were coordinating the march had met with President John F. Kennedy, who warned them against creating “an atmosphere of intimidation” by bringing a large crowd to Washington. The civil rights activists told Kennedy that the march would go ahead as planned. Roy Wilkins, then-president of the NAACP and one of the organizers, pressed successfully for his fellow sponsors to rule out civil disobedience.

The Kennedy administration subsequently cooperated with the organizers in planning the march; a high-level staffer at the U.S. Department of Justice was assigned as a full-time liaison. Organizers rejected support from Communist groups. Nevertheless, the FBI produced numerous reports alleging a link. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a Democrat at the time, launched an attack, claiming the march was Communist-inspired.

In the aftermath of the march, the requisite number of states ratified the 24th Amendment, abolishing the poll tax, and Congress enacted sweeping civil rights and voting rights legislation. On Oct. 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 4, 1968, King, 39, was fatally shot on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, later confessed to and was indicted in the shooting. He later tried unsuccessfully to recant his confession, and many people — including some of King's own family — do not believe he was guilty.

SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.COM