Editing Lincoln Memorial (section)

===Following history ===
The Memorial has become a symbolically sacred venue, especially for the Civil Rights Movement. In 1939, the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] refused to allow the African-American [[Alto (voice)|contralto]] [[Marian Anderson]] to perform before an integrated audience at the organization's [[Constitution Hall]]. At the suggestion of [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], the wife of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Harold L. Ickes]], the Secretary of the Interior, arranged for a performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday of that year, to a live audience of 75,000 and a nationwide radio audience.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson |url=https://fdrlibrary.org/anderson |access-date=2018-05-28 |publisher=FDR Presidential Library & Museum |language=en-US |df=mdy-all}}</ref> On June 29, 1947, [[Harry Truman]] became the first president to address the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP).  The speech took place at the Lincoln Memorial during the NAACP convention and was carried nationally on radio.  In that speech, Truman laid out the need to end discrimination, which would be advanced by the first comprehensive, presidentially proposed civil rights legislation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Glass |first=Andrew |date=2018-06-29 |title=Truman addresses NAACP, June 29, 1947 |url=https://politi.co/2Mz2C4K |access-date=2021-07-27 |work=Politico |language=en}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align             = left
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| image1            = View_of_Crowd_at_1963_March_on_Washington.jpg
| caption1          = The [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]] in 1963 brought 250,000 people to the [[National Mall]] and is famous for [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech.
| image2            = I-have-a-dream-site_crop.jpg
| caption2          = The location on the steps where King delivered the speech is commemorated with this inscription.
}}

On August 28, 1963, the memorial grounds were the site of the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]], which proved to be a high point of the [[American Civil Rights Movement]]. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 people came to the event, where they heard [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], deliver his historic "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech before the memorial honoring the president who issued the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] 100 years earlier.  King's speech, with its language of patriotism and its evocation of Lincoln's [[Gettysburg Address]], was meant to match the symbolism of the Lincoln Memorial as a monument to national unity.<ref>Fairclough, Adam (1997) "Civil Rights and the Lincoln Memorial: The Censored Speeches of Robert R. Moton (1922) and John Lewis (1963)" ''[[Journal of Negro History]]'' v.82 pp.408–416.</ref> Labor leader [[Walter Reuther]], an organizer of the march, persuaded the other organizers to move the march to the Lincoln Memorial from the [[United States Capitol|Capitol Building]]. Reuther believed the location would be less threatening to Congress and that the occasion would be especially appropriate underneath the gaze of Abraham Lincoln's statue.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maraniss |first=David |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/894936463 |title=Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4767-4838-2 |location=New York |pages=236 |oclc=894936463}}</ref> The D.C. police also appreciated the location because it was surrounded on three sides by water, so that any incident could be easily contained.<ref>Jennings, Peter and Brewster, Todd (1998) ''The Century: A Chronicle of the 20th Century''. New York: Doubleday. {{isbn|9780385483278}}</ref>

The Memorial was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] on October 15, 1966.<ref name="nrhp6">NRHP Nomination, p. 6</ref>

At the memorial on May 9, 1970, President [[Richard Nixon]] had a [[Richard Nixon's visit to the Lincoln Memorial|middle-of-the-night impromptu, brief meeting with protesters]] who, just days after the [[Kent State shootings]], were preparing to [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|march against the Vietnam War]].<ref name="Nix Prez Rev3">{{cite video |title=Nixon a Presidency Revealed |date=2007-02-15 |medium=television |publisher=History Channel |people=Director: Joe Angio}}</ref>

On August 28, 1983, crowds gathered again to mark the 20th Anniversary Mobilization for Jobs, Peace and Freedom, to reflect on progress in gaining civil rights for African Americans and to commit to correcting continuing injustices. King's speech is such a part of the Lincoln Memorial story, that the spot on which King stood, on the landing eighteen steps below Lincoln's statue, was engraved in 2003 in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the event.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stand Where Martin Luther King, Jr. Gave the "I Have a Dream" Speech |url=https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/stand-where-martin-luther-king-jr-gave-the-i-have-a-dream-speech.htm |access-date=2018-05-28 |publisher=National Park Service |language=en |df=mdy-all}}</ref>