NCHGS’s Museum and a Movie series showcases independent, international, and historical short films relevant to our museum exhibits and the communities we serve.
August 2024’s feature is The March (1963, Restored), a documentary film by James Blue that chronicles the historic civil rights march on Washington, DC in August of 1963.
Known more formally as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the goals of the march were to advocate for the economic and civil rights of African Americans and culminated in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, calling for an end to racial segregation. Organized by A. Phillip Randolph, a trailblazing labor union organizer, and Bayard Rustin, a tireless political activist, the march brought together countless civil rights, labor, and religious organizations under the banner of “jobs and freedom.” It is considered one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history, and is credited with helping pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
The March was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and the original has been digitized and made available via the National Archives in Washington. The film is approximately 30 minutes in length and will be shown at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 PM in the John R. Austen Auditorium of the Sigal Museum.