Every year, we pay tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with school assemblies, community programs and – to the delight of students and teachers alike – a national holiday. Yet how many of us directly connect Dr. King?s heroism and accomplishments to his faith in – and use of – the five freedoms of the First Amendment?

Consider the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the iconic rally that introduced King?s ?I Have a Dream? speech to white America – he had delivered those lines to black audiences many times before – and produced the most memorable petition for a redress of grievances in the nation?s history. Nearly every American is familiar with King?s speech that day. Many of us were asked to memorize it as students. But few if any of us were also taught about that day – and the Civil Rights Movement – in the specific context of our founding principles as a nation.

At the time, Congress was wrestling with whether or not to pass President John F. Kennedy?s civil rights legislation, and young and old people across the country were being jailed for peacefully assembling to protest the South?s policies of institutional racism. And although African American leaders had talked for more than twenty years about staging a national march for civil rights in Washington, one that could harness all the energy and persuasive power of the movement thus far, the decision to have the march on August 28, 1963, was not finalized until July 2 that meant march officials had less than two months to coordinate, transport, organize, and prepare for the thousands – maybe even tens of thousands – of marchers they expected.

The organizers rushed to plan the march so it could occur while Congress was still debating the president?s civil rights program. They also wanted the march to coincide with the centennial celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, the January 1, 1863 declaration by President Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the nation?s third bloody year of civil war, ?that all persons held as slaves? within the Southern states ?are, and henceforward shall be free.?

Almost a hundred years since that war?s end, African Americans were still waiting for Lincoln?s words to be fulfilled. Indeed, although the formal institution of slavery had long since passed, laws discriminating against African Americans had immediately replaced it. In response, march spokesmen promised that the event would be a mass demonstration for freedom, and that the protesters would, peacefully, assemble at and around the Lincoln Memorial. The goal was to pressure Congress to pass Kennedy?s proposed civil rights legislation and to establish 1963 as the year racial discrimination in America ended for good.

Concerned about a backlash in Congress, Kennedy administration officials expressed reservations. Speaking to a Washington Post reporter, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sympathized fully with the cause and supported the marchers? right to petition the government, but wondered if the march would achieve its desired result. ?I certainly think at the present time Congress should have the right to debate and discuss legislation without that kind of pressure,? he said. Meanwhile, President Kennedy met privately with the leaders of the march to express his concern that it might damage the chances for passage of the civil rights bill.

According to John Lewis, the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and, at 25, the youngest of the civil rights leaders , the President said: ?We want success in Congress, not just a big show at the Capitol.? Publicly, however, the President praised the planned march as a ?peaceful assembly for the redress of grievances?–with strong emphasis on the word ?peaceful.?