The Children's Crusade: When school-aged children in Birmingham catalyzed the March on Washington

A sculpture dedicated to the Foot Soldiers of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement in Kelly Ingram Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. (Lisa Rayam/WABE)

It’s been 60 years since the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Nearly 300,000 people flocked to the Lincoln Memorial on a hot August day to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech.

An event takes place on Saturday in Washington to commemorate the ideals and events that fueled that 1963 demonstration. One of those events was the Birmingham Children’s Crusade that took place a few months prior.