March on Washington 1963: Operation Steep Hill and a Sabotaged Sound System

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On the morning of August 28, 1963, Washington, D.C., prepared for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom as if for a riot. Hospitals canceled elective surgeries to stockpile blood plasma, liquor sales were banned for the first time since Prohibition and baseball games were called off. The idea dated to 1941, when labor leader A. Philip Randolph of the sleeping car porters' union threatened a march over defense industry hiring and Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order banning that discrimination. Randolph revived the plan two decades later with organizer Bayard Rustin, who coordinated buses, charter trains, portable toilets and security by phone, mail and index cards. The original focus on jobs and a federal public works program expanded to include civil rights to draw larger crowds.

The coalition grew from the Big Six civil rights leaders to the Big Ten, adding religious figures and union leaders such as UAW president Walter Reuther, whose union paid for thousands of bus tickets, and moderates clashed with student activists from the Deep South. The government staged Operation Steep Hill with police, National Guard and active duty troops, and the FBI urged celebrities to withdraw. About 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. Afterward, leaders met President Kennedy and warned of riots if reform stalled. The episode notes the march helped carry the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, while its demands for a higher minimum wage, guaranteed jobs and housing integration went unmet.

• When the sound system was sabotaged the night before, organizers warned the Justice Department of an uncontrollable crowd, and the Army Signal Corps rebuilt it overnight.
• Thousands of trained volunteer marshals, many of them off duty Black police officers, kept order from inside the crowd.
• Marchers set off on their own, and leaders had to link arms and push to the front so photographers could capture them leading.
• No woman delivered a major address, and women were limited to a brief tribute in the program.
• Under threat of a boycott by religious leaders, the youngest speaker was made to rewrite his speech behind the Lincoln Memorial minutes before going on.