60 years ago today, thousands marched in the 1963 March on Washington, marking a flashpoint for the civil rights movement.

The march was the largest civil rights rally in US history: 250K+ marched to demand civil rights for Black Americans. (SM)

The march was organized by a coalition of six civil rights leaders led by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. (SM)

The group organized the march in wake of several violent attacks on civil rights demonstrators across the South. (NPR)

Organizers also wanted to hold the march in 1963 to mark 100 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

What were their goals? (NPR) •The passage of federal civil rights legislation •A $2/hr minimum wage •Desegregation

The march culminated in a three-hour long rally at the Lincoln Memorial featuring speeches from several leaders.

Contralto opera singer Marian Anderson opened the program singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

Then-SNCC chairman John Lewis delivered a searing speech on Congress's refusal to pass civil rights legislation.

At 23, Lewis was the youngest of the "Big Six" civil rights leaders who organized the march.

In 1961, Lewis rode through the Jim Crow South as one of the 13 original Freedom Riders protesting segregation. (NYT)

Lewis put his life on the line and was the "first Freedom Rider to be assaulted" during the protests. (Smithsonian)

Lewis: "We must...protect the Mississippi sharecropper who is put off of his farm because he dares to register to vote."

Rabbi Uri Miller, the president of the Synagogue Council of America, delivered a prayer for the march.

Miller: "Enable us...to sensitize all Americans—and especially those in positions of power...to this concept of equality."

Miller: "Enable us to understand that our society, the American people, is of one piece."

Miller: "May we never forfeit our liberties, nor condone cowardice, prejudice, and self-indulgence."

NAACP president Roy Wilkins was the third of the "Big Six" leaders to speak after Lewis and Randolph.

Wilkins called on Congress to empower the Department of Justice to desegregate schools in the North and South.

Wilkins: "We expect the passage of an effective civil rights bill."

American Jewish Council president Rabbi Joachim Prinz, one of the "Big Ten" leaders behind the march, also spoke.

Prinz served as a rabbi to the Jewish community in Berlin during Hitler's reign. He emigrated to the US in 1937. (AP)

Prinz: "Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept."

Prinz: "It means our collective responsibility for the preservation of man's dignity and integrity."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. closed the program with his now-famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

King: "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low."

King: "This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with."

King: "With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."

King: "From every mountainside, let freedom ring."