WHAT WE DEMAND

Demands of the 1963 March on Washington, August 28, 1963 read by Bayard Rustin.

  

1. Comprehensive and effective civil rights legislationfrom the present Congress-without compromise or filibuster-to guarantee all Americans:

  • access to all public accommodations
  • decent housing
  • adequate and integrated education
  • the right to vote

2. Withholding of Federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.


3. Desegregation of all school districts in 1963.

4 . Enforcement of the fourteenth Amendment- reducing Congressional representation of states where citizens are disfranchised.

5 . A new Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds.

6. Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when any constitutional right is violated.

7. A massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers-Negro and white on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.

8. A national minimum wage act that· will give all Americans a decent standard of living. (Government surveys show that anything less than $2.00 on hour foils to do this.)

9 . A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to include all areas of employment, which are presently excluded.

10. A federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination by federal, state, and municipal governments, and by employers, contractors, employment agencies, and trade unions.