The March on Washington took place on August 28, 1963, exactly 100 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were free, but a century later, full freedom had not been achieved for African Americans. The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, and the acquittal of his killers, served as reminders of the second-class citizenship that African Americans still faced. Till's death was a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, which fought for racial equality.