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Petition for Integrated Schools, 1959.
In September 1958, Daisy Bates, Ralph Bunche, Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Wilkins launched the Youth March for Integrated Schools. Twelve thousand young people poured into Washington, D.C. on October 25 and marched down Constitution Avenue to the Lincoln Memorial where they pledged to return in 1959 bearing petitions to the President and Congress urging the speedy integration of schools. The petition call to youth asked that "wherever you may be...come to Washington on April 18, 1959, and join your presence and your voice in a mighty affirmation of equal rights and equal education." Photograph credit: George Meany Memorial Archives. |