A Peaceful Protest
This colorized image of the 1963 March on Washington is a reminder that in the not-so-distant past, we were peacefully protesting. The march culminated with Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech, an inspirational conclusion to this march for civil rights, and a reminder of the power of peaceful protest.
The March on Washington, August 28th, 1963
Every country in the world struggles with equality. Creating a society that allows for people of all creeds, colors, and religions to feel equal and accepted remains, for now, beyond us. In America, a country many citizens claim to be “the greatest country in the world,” the fight for equality still rages. Almost 60 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and 250,000 other citizens fighting for change marched on Washington. They hoped the unprecedented gathering would bring attention to the massive disparities and difficulties people of color faced then and still face to this day.
A Long Time Coming
The largest march in United States history to that point. (NPR)
More than 20 years before that historic March on Washington, A. Phillip Randolph organized a mass march on Washington. His march was aimed at protesting black soldiers, who fought in World War II, exclusion from defense jobs, and New Deal programs. A day before the march, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Randolph and agreed to right the wrongs of black heroes’ removal from government jobs and programs. President Roosevelt issued an executive order forbidding discrimination and creating the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) to investigate charges of discrimination.
Promises Made, Promises Forgotten
The march was organized by the “Big Six†leaders of the civil rights movement: A. Philip Randolph, Whitney M. Young Jr., Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, Roy Wilkins and John Lewis. Bayard Rustin was chief organizer of the march.
As often the case with racial progress, the government failed to follow through on their word. Less than 10 years later, funding for the Fair Employment Practice Committee was cut. Worse, it took two decades for the Fair Employment Practice Committee to replace the promised program.
Fast forward to 1963. The police were using fire hoses and siccing their dogs on black people with impunity. After a rash of violence against civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama went unpunished, civil right leaders banded together and decided to go ahead with their mass March on Washington.
A Giant Undertaking
Over 250,000 people Marched on Washington to support change. (Wikipedia Commons)
Naturally, President John F. Kennedy scrambled to nix the march, worrying about potential violence. The President described the march as “ill-timed,” arguing, “We want success in the Congress, not just a big show at the Capitol. If you bring all these people to Washington, won’t there be violence and chaos and disorder and we will never get a civil rights bill through Congress?” Mr. Randolph responded, “Mr. President, this will be an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent protest.”
No Pleasant Protests
The event was officially titled the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.â€(Wikipedia Commons)
Martin Luther King Jr. also calmly took apart Kennedy’s assertion, saying, “Frankly, I have never engaged in any direct-action movement which did not seem ill-timed.” Kennedy begrudgingly endorsed the march but entrusted his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to coordinate security with the organizers.
In preparation, volunteers made 80,000 50-cent box lunches made up of cheese sandwiches, a slice of pound cake, and an apple. They also made arrangements for 2,200 chartered buses, 40 special trains, 22 first-aid stations, eight 2,500-gallon water-storage tank trucks, and 21 portable water fountains.
High Tensions
Martin Luther King Jr. (second from left in front row) leads the March On Washington. (Wikipedia Commons)
The media at the time and many white people feared widespread violence and mayhem. A headline in the Washington Daily News read: “The general feeling is that the Vandals are coming to sack Rome.” Black gay activist Bayard Rustin became the chief organizer and, sadly, received endless threats and attacks from white people, ranging from your garden variety racists to sitting senators.
Nevertheless, the civil rights leaders closed ranks, supported Rustin, and continued their work despite the vitriol. The entire peaceful march that swelled to over 250,000 people was planned in under two months. Only four arrests were made by the 5,000 law enforcement officials present that day. All four were white people and not a part of the march.
I Have A Dream
The slow march to equality still carries on. (wikipediacommons)
People from all over the country made the pilgrimage to Washington to participate in a changing of the guard. Celebrities from Charles Heston to Marlon Brando made public appearances and spoke with the more than 4,000 members of the media in attendance. Fittingly, the man who started it all, A. Phillip Randolph, kicked off the speeches.
His words set the tone for a day of empowerment, “We here today are only the first wave. When we leave, it will be to carry the civil rights revolution home with us into every nook and cranny of the land, and we shall return again and again to Washington in ever growing numbers until total freedom is ours.”
Free At Last
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech that echos in history. (KSAT)
Martin Luther King Jr. agreed to speak last as other presenters clamored to go first, worrying the assembled media would depart by mid-day. He originally planned to speak for four minutes, powerfully orating his carefully crafted words. However, in the midst of his speech he departed from his prepared words and spoke from the heart. At one point gospel star, Mahalia Jackson stood and beseeched Luther, “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin, tell ‘em about the dream!”
From there Martin Luther King Jr. launched into one of the most powerful sermons ever spoken. His words that day earned him Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963 and won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. It was also voted the top public address of the 20th century by 137 academics.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Address To The Nation
MLK Jr. one of the great orators in American history. (KSAT)
“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification,” one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today. And when this happens…we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.“
