“Rosa Parks inspired me to find

a way to get in the way, to get

“No man or woman who tries to pursue in trouble…good trouble,
an ideal in his or her own way is necessary trouble.”
without enemies.”
-John Lewis
-Daisy Bates
 This image showed the legendary
The Table of Contents gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
singing at the 1963 March on
1. Preamble Washington event.

2. The Prelude

3. Organizing and Building

4. The Beginning of the

March

5. Controversies

6. Dr. King’s I Have a

Dream Speech

7. Temporary Euphoria

8. The Aftermath

9. The Legacy of the 1963

March on Washington

10. Appendix A: The 2023

March on Washington
Continuation
 The museums of the Na onal African American Museum of History and Culture (on the le in
Washington, D.C.) and the Interna onal African American Museum (on the right in Charleston, South
Carolina) represent the greatness of black culture and black civiliza on.

It has been sixty years since the historic 1963 March on Washington existed. It was a major event of the
American Civil Rights Movement, of the black freedom struggle, and of the overall human rights movement
in general. Over two hundred thousand human beings came to Washington, D.C. from buses, planes, trains,
cars, and by other means to advocate for human justice. Speeches were made from John Lewis to Daisy Bates
(a civil rights activist from Little Rock, Arkansas), hope was widespread in the atmosphere, and there was a
contagious, stirring energy filled with inspiration. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic "I Have a Dream"
speech to not only have hope for racial justice, but Dr. King condemned American racism as contributing to
a society filled with nefarious, wicked injustices (like police brutality, racism, labor exploitation, and poverty).
He compared the corrupt system to false promissory note marked insufficient funds. The dream of the march
existed back during the 1940's. Back then, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin wanted the desegregation
of the wartime industries being caused by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt or there will be a march on
Washington. FDR conceded, because FDR didn't want more controversies to be made manifest during the
midst of World War II. Yet, A. Philip Randolph always wanted an actual March on Washington to happen in
confronting racial injustice and economic oppression. He had his wish by August of 1963. John Lewis, A. Philip
Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and other human beings organized the historic 1963
march. It has its problems like the march restricted many women voices unfairly, Malcolm X classified the
rally as a liberal establishment puppet show, and many speeches were whitewashed or sugarcoated to please
the Kennedy administration's politically correct sensibilities. The strengths of the March on Washington were
that it was very peaceful, it energized the crowds of people, and it was a major catalyst for the passage of
federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the United States of America. It took a team of men, women,
and children of every color to establish the 1963 March on Washington to be a great success. Likewise, we
have a long way to go to make the Dream real as we all know.

Black Love is Always Beautiful.

 The Prelude
The 1963 March on Washington, D.C. took place historically in various stages. It was decades in the making.
It took place on August 28, 1963, and the title of the march was "The March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom." It was the dream of A. Philip Randolph, who was the President of the Negro American Labor
Council and vice President of the AFL-CIO. Randolph was the President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters (or a powerful labor union involving black Americans porters in trains across America. He wanted a
civil rights march in 1941 (with about 100,000 black workers) with Bayard Rustin. Randolph was active in
socialist movements too. It was planned for July 1, 1941. Yet, it didn't happen after President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt wrote Executive Order 8802. This executive order forced equal opportunity in the defense industry,
which meant that all workers had to be treated the same, no matter what their race was. It was the first
major federal civil rights policy since the days of Reconstruction in America. Randolph allowed this to
happened after telling FDR that he will make a march in Washington, D.C. if he didn't ban discrimination in
the defense industry. African Americans were free from legalized slavery by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Yet, black Americans were still not free from Jim Crow apartheid,
rape, lynching, voting rights suppression, economic oppression, racism, sexism, and other evils (that were
permitted by the government, private racists, and the structures of society in general). Many people forget
that Jim Crow apartheid was legal which means that it was an unjust law. By the 19th and 20th centuries,
many African Americans grew organizations and institutions that were dedicated to fight for social change.

After 1941, Randolph and Rustin organized to promote a March on Washington. Their Prayer Pilgrimage for
Freedom, held at the Lincoln Memorial on May 17, 1957, featured key leaders including Adam Clayton Powell,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Roy Wilkins. Mahalia Jackson performed at the location. By 1963, the Civil
Rights Movement has grown to a new level. Civil rights activists used demonstrations, boycotts, nonviolent
direct action across the United States of America. 1963 was the 100th year anniversary of the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. This was a new time. The National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) put
aside their differences and united to promote the march. Black people, white people, Latino people, Asian
people, and people of every background came together to promote change the 1963 March in Washington.
1963 saw violent confrontations all over the South in places like: in Cambridge, Maryland; Pine Bluff,
Arkansas; Goldsboro, North Carolina; Somerville, Tennessee; Saint Augustine, Florida; and across Mississippi.
In most cases, white people attacked nonviolent demonstrators seeking civil rights. Many people wanted the
March on Washington to have civil disobedience, some wanted just a protest, and others wanted a complete
shutdown of the city. Many activists didn't want tokenism. Dr. King regularly criticized the Kennedy
administration for not going far enough on civil rights before 1963. We know Malcolm X criticized the
Kennedy administration overtly. The truth is that the Kennedy administration was light years more
progressive on civil rights than previous administrations, but it still had a lot of work to do on civil rights issues
too.
 Organizing and
Building
On May 24, 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited African-American novelist James Baldwin,
along with a large group of cultural leaders, to a meeting in New York to discuss race relations. Lorraine
Hansberry was at the meeting this. This event was one of the most unknown, unsung events of the Civil Rights
Movement. James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and other civil rights activists wanted Kennedy to have a true
understanding of the depth of racism in society. The Kennedy administration wanted primarily the law and
the court system to eliminate racism in society. James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and other leaders instead
wanted both the courts (and the law) along with active, direct social activism (even self-defense, not just
non-violence) to eliminate racism in society. I agree with James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and other civil
rights leaders in that meeting. This disagreement caused a debate in the meeting. It showed the divide
between Black America and the Washington political leaders. The murder of Medgar Evers changed
everything along with the 1963 Birmingham Civil Rights Movement. The callous murder of Medgar Evers (in
front of his home when Evers was a father and a man who risked his life for black freedom) inspired the
Kennedy administration to take things into the next level. The Baldwin Kennedy meeting also pushed the
Kennedy administration too. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy gave a notable civil rights address on
national television and radio, announcing that he would begin to push for civil rights legislation. That night
(early morning of June 12, 1963), Mississippi activist Medgar Evers was murdered in his own driveway, further
escalating national tension around the issue of racial inequality. After Kennedy's assassination, his proposal
was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The official planning and organization of the 1963 March on Washington started in December 1961 by A.
Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. They wanted 2 days of protests and sit ins plus lobbying. They wanted a
mass rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Both men wanted to focus on joblessness and to have a public works
program to employ black people. As early as the early 1960's, economists predicted an increase of
automation and deindustrialization (with the rise of the economies of West Germany and Japan), so a radical
economic policy was necessary to build up the economic futures of black Americans. They received help from
Stanley Aronowitz of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers; he gathered support from radical organizers who
could be trusted not to report their plans to the Kennedy administration. The unionists offered tentative
support for a march that would be focused on jobs. By May 15, 1963, Randolph said that he wanted an
October Emancipation March on Washington for Jobs. The NAACP and the Urban League didn't support the
march yet. Randolph won support from union leaders like the UAW's liberal Walter Reuther, but not of AFL–
CIO president George Meany (who was more conservative). Randolph and Rustin intended to focus the
March on economic inequality, stating in their original plan that "integration in the fields of education,
housing, transportation and public accommodations will be of limited extent and duration so long as
fundamental economic inequality along racial lines persists." As they negotiated with other leaders, they
expanded their stated objectives to "Jobs and Freedom", to acknowledge the agenda of groups that focused
more on civil rights.

By June of 1963, leaders from many organizations joined forces to establish the Council for Untied Civil
Rights Leadership. This group coordinated funds and the message. Its leaders were called the Big Six. It
included Randolph, chosen as titular head of the march; James Farmer, president of the Congress of Racial
Equality; John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Roy Wilkins, president of the NAACP; and
Whitney Young, president of the National Urban League. King in particular had become well known for his
role in the Birmingham campaign and for his Letter from Birmingham Jail. Wilkins and Young initially
objected to Rustin as a leader for the march, worried that he would attract the wrong attention because he
was a homosexual, a former Communist, and a draft resister. The irony is that Rustin would later be
adamantly anti-Communist later in his life, and Rustin even said that Dr. King went too far in his opposition
to the unjust Vietnam War. They eventually accepted Bayard Rustin as deputy organizer, on the condition
that Randolph act as lead organizer and manage any political fallout. About two months before the march,
the Big Six broadened their organizing coalition by bringing on board four white men who supported their
efforts: Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers; Eugene Carson Blake, former
president of the National Council of Churches; Mathew Ahmann, executive director of the National Catholic
Conference for Interracial Justice; and Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress. Together,
the Big Six plus four became known as the "Big Ten." John Lewis later recalled, "Somehow, some way, we
worked well together. The six of us, plus the four. We became like brothers."

President Kennedy feared at first that such a march would provoke violence and chaos on June 22, 1963. The
civil rights leaders wanted the march. Wilkins wanted people to rule out civil disobedience as a compromise.
Dr. King and Whitney Young agreed with this policy. Leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), who wanted to conduct direct actions against the
Department of Justice, endorsed the protest before they were informed that civil disobedience would not be
allowed. Finalized plans for the march were announced in a press conference on July 2. It is no secret that
SNCC and the SCLC disagreed on the tactics of finding justice but not on the overall goal. Bayard Rustin was
an expert organizer, so he mobilized and used logistics to make the march a success. Rustin was a civil rights
veteran and organizer of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, the first of the Freedom Rides to test the
Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin was a long-time associate
of both Randolph and Dr. King. With Randolph concentrating on building the march's political coalition, Rustin
built and led the team of two hundred activists and organizers who publicized the march and recruited the
marchers, coordinated the buses and trains, provided the marshals, and set up and administered all the
logistic details of a mass march in the nation's capital. During the days leading up to the march, these 200
volunteers used the ballroom of Washington DC radio station WUST as their operations headquarters. Even
some civil rights activists were worried about violence with the march. Malcolm X condemned the march as
the "farce on Washington." Malcolm X (then a member of the Nation of Islam) felt that the march was a
liberal establishment puppet show used to water down the progress of black revolutionary change. Some
organizers disagreed about the purpose or reason of the march.

The NAACP and Urban League saw it as a gesture of support for the civil rights bill that had been introduced
by the Kennedy Administration. Randolph, King, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
believed it could raise both civil rights and economic issues to national attention beyond the Kennedy bill.
CORE and SNCC believed the march could challenge and condemn the Kennedy administration's inaction and
lack of support for civil rights for African Americans. The organizations did ultimately unite for civil rights
legislation, ending school segregation, have a public works programs, a federal law banning public and private
discrimination, a higher minimum wage, enforce the 14th Amendment, expand the Fair Labor Standards Act,
and allow the Attorney General to have injunctive suits when constitutional rights of citizens were violated.
Although in years past, Randolph had supported "black only" marches, partly to reduce the impression that
the civil rights movement was dominated by white communists, organizers in 1963 agreed that white and
black people marching side by side would create a more powerful image. The Kennedy administration worked
with the organizers in planning the March. Chicago and New York City (as well as some corporations) agreed
to designate August 28 as "Freedom Day" and give workers the day off. Some far-right people including
Hoover claimed that the March was Communist inspired (which is a lie). Even FBI agent William C. Sullivan
had a large report on August 23 saying that Communists failed to infiltrate the civil rights movement. Far
right hypocrite Strom Thurmond (who committed adultery, supported segregation, and had a biracial child)
attacked the March as Communist.

Organizers worked hard at a building at West 130th St. and Lenox in Harlem, NYC. Activists sold buttons to
promote the march. The button featured two hands shaking with the words of "March on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom", a union bug, and the date August 28, 1963. By August 2, they had distributed 42,000 of
the buttons. Their goal was a crowd of at least 100,000 people. As the march was being planned, activists
across the country received bomb threats at their homes and in their offices. The Los Angeles Times received
a message saying its headquarters would be bombed unless it printed a message calling the president a
"N_____ Lover." Five airplanes were grounded on the morning of August 28 due to bomb threats. A man in
Kansas City telephoned the FBI to say he would put a hole between King's eyes; the FBI did not respond. Roy
Wilkins was threatened with assassination if he did not leave the country. Previously, Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. had a march in Detroit (called the Walk for Freedom on June 23, 1963) where he gave a similar I Have A
Dream speech about racial justice and economic justice.
By August 28, 1963, thousands of human beings came to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. They traveled by
road, rail, and air. Marchers from Boston traveled overnight and arrived in Washington at 7am after an eight-
hour trip, but others took much longer bus rides from cities such as Milwaukee, Little Rock, and St. Louis.
Organizers persuaded New York's MTA to run extra subway trains after midnight on August 28, and the New
York City bus terminal was busy throughout the night with peak crowds. A total of 450 buses left New York
City from Harlem. Maryland police reported that "by 8:00 a.m., 100 buses an hour were streaming through
the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel." The United Automobile Workers financed bus transportation for 5,000 of its
rank-and-file members, providing the largest single contingent from any organization. One reporter, Fred
Powledge, accompanied African Americans who boarded six buses in Birmingham, Alabama, for the 750-mile
trip to Washington. The people in the march prayed that violence wouldn't exist. It was unprecedented
during that time. Some participants who arrived early held an all-night vigil outside the Department of Justice,
claiming it had unfairly targeted civil rights activists and that it had been too lenient on white supremacists
who attacked them. Some people waited long hours. The federal government used D.C. police, 2,000 men
from the National Guard, and other soldiers to protect the marchers. The Pentagon had 19,000 troops in the
suburbs. This Operation Steep Hill plan was enacted. Liquor sales were banned in Washington, D.C. Hospitals
stockpiled blood plasma and cancelled elective surgeries. Many games were cancelled. The sound system
was formed. On August 28, more than 2,000 buses, 21 chartered trains, 10 chartered airliners, and uncounted
cars converged on Washington.

Marchers were not supposed to create their own signs, though this rule was not completely enforced by
marshals. Most of the demonstrators did carry pre-made signs, available in piles at the Washington
Monument. The UAW provided thousands of signs that, among other things, read: "There Is No Halfway
House on the Road to Freedom," "Equal Rights and Jobs NOW," "UAW Supports Freedom March," "in
Freedom we are Born, in Freedom we must Live," and "Before we'll be a Slave, we'll be Buried in our Grave.

About 50 members of the American Nazi Party staged a counter-protest and were quickly dispersed by police.
The rest of Washington was quiet during the march. Most non-participating workers stayed home. Jailers
allowed inmates to watch the March on TV. Representatives from sponsoring organizations addressed the
crowd from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial. Those speakers were from the Big Ten (that included the
Big Six too), religious leaders (Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders), and labor leader Walter Reuther.

The Beginning of the

March
The events of the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. were diverse. Representatives from the Big Ten groups
addressed the crowd. The big mistake in the march was that none of the official speeches was made by a
woman. Dancer, activist, and actress Josephine Baker gave a speech during the preliminary offerings, but
women were limited in the official program to a "tribute" led by Bayard Rustin, at which Daisy Bates also
spoke briefly. Sexism in the civil rights movement is wrong and evil. Floyd McKissick read James Farmer's
speech because Farmer had been arrested during a protest in Louisiana; Farmer wrote that the protests
would not stop "until the dogs stop biting us in the South and the rats stop biting us in the North." There
were more than 10 major speakers in the rally who were including A Philip Randolph (the March director),
Walter Reuther (UAW leader and leader of AFL-CIO), Roy Wilkins (from the NAACP), John Lewis (Chair of
SNCC), Daisy Bates (a leader from Little Rock, Arkansas), Dr. Eugene Carson Blake (part of the United
Presbyterian Church and the National Council of Church), CORE's Floyd McKissick, National Urban League
leader Whitney Young, Rabbi Joachim Prinz (of the American Jewish Congress), Mathew Ahmann (of the
National Catholic Conference), Josephine Baker, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The closing remarks were
made by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who were march organizers. The march led with the Pledge
and a list of progressive demands.
Iconic singer Marian Anderson was scheduled to lead the National Anthem. She was unable to arrive on time.
So, Camilla Williams performed in her place. The invocation was made by Washington's Roman Catholic
Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle. The opening remarks were given by march director A. Philip Randolph, followed
by Eugene Carson Blake. There was an ironic celebration of black women fighters for freedom, but black
women weren't allowed to speak massively in the march (which was wrong and a product of sexism). Daisy
Bates spoke briefly in place of Myrlie Evers, who had missed her flight. The tribute introduced Daisy Bates,
Diane Nash, Prince E. Lee, Rosa Parks, and Gloria Richardson.

Following that, speakers were SNCC chairman John Lewis, labor leader Walter Reuther, and CORE chairman
Floyd McKissick (substituting for arrested CORE director James Farmer). The Eva Jessye Choir sang, and Rabbi
Uri Miller (president of the Synagogue Council of America) offered a prayer. He was followed by National
Urban League director Whitney Young, NCCIJ director Mathew Ahmann, and NAACP leader Roy Wilkins. After
a performance by singer Mahalia Jackson, American Jewish Congress president Joachim Prinz spoke, followed
by SCLC president Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin read the March's official demands for the crowd's
approval, and Randolph led the crowd in a pledge to continue working for the March's goals. The program
was closed with a benediction by Morehouse College president Benjamin Mays.

Although one of the officially stated purposes of the march was to support the civil rights bill introduced by
the Kennedy Administration, several of the speakers criticized the proposed law as insufficient. Two
government agents stood by in a position to cut power to the microphone if necessary. Roy Wilkins
announced that legendary sociologist and activist W.E.B. DuBois had died in Ghana the previous night. DuBois
was in exile, and the crowd observed a moment of silence in his memory. Wilkins (who was a more moderate
civil rights leader. He called Black Power racist which isn't true. Also, he disagreed with Dr. King's opposition
to the Vietnam War. Wilkins only opposed the Vietnam War when Nixon was President) and didn't want to
announce the news, because he didn't agree with DuBois becoming a Communist. He did because Randolph
would have done it. Wilkins said: "Regardless of the fact that in his later years, Dr. Du Bois chose another
path, it is incontrovertible that at the dawn of the twentieth century, his was the voice that was calling you
to gather here today in this cause. If you want to read something that applies to 1963 go back and get a
volume of The Souls of Black Folk by Du Bois, published in 1903."

Controversies
John Lewis of SNCC was the youngest speaker at the event. He wanted to give a stronger speech to criticize
the Kennedy administration for the inadequacies of the Civil Rights Act of 1963 and not going far enough to
fight for racial justice. James Forman and other SNCC leaders contributed to the revision. They felt that
Kennedy didn't do enough to protect southern black human beings and civil rights workers from physical
violence by white racists in the Deep South. Many leaders in the march wanted his original speech to be
changed. John Lewis at first refused, but he did it out of respect for Randolph (who spent his whole life making
the march a reality). The following words of John Lewis's speech are parts that were deleted:

"...In good conscience, we cannot support wholeheartedly the administration's civil

rights bill, for it is too little and too late...I want to know, which side is the federal
government on?...The revolution is a serious one. Mr. Kennedy is trying to take the
revolution out of the streets and put it into the courts. Listen, Mr. Kennedy. Listen,
Mr. Congressman. Listen, fellow citizens. The black masses are on the march for jobs
and freedom, and we must say to the politicians that there won't be a "cooling-off"
 period...We will march through the South, through the heart of Dixie, the way
Sherman did. We shall pursue our own scorched earth policy and burn Jim Crow to
the ground—nonviolently..."

John Lewis's original speech was sent to organizers and the media. Reuther, O'Boyle, and others falsely
thought it was too divisive and militant, but these men didn't experience what black people have experienced
for centuries in America. O'Boyle from the Catholic delegation was about to leave the march at one point
before the Lewis original speech. Rustin informed Lewis at 2 A.M. on the day of the march that his speech
was unacceptable to key coalition members (Rustin also reportedly contacted Tom Kahn, mistakenly
believing that Kahn had edited the speech and inserted the line about Sherman's March to the Sea. Rustin
asked, "How could you do this? Do you know what Sherman did?" Rustin needed to know back then that the
Confederate terrorists weren't playing checkers. They were traitors). Yet, Lewis did not want to change the
speech. Other members of SNCC, including Kwame Ture, were also adamant that the speech is not censored.
The dispute continued until minutes before the speeches were scheduled to begin. Under threat of public
denouncement by the religious leaders, and under pressure from the rest of his coalition, Lewis agreed to
omit some of the passages. Many activists from SNCC, CORE, and SCLC were angry at what they considered
censorship of Lewis's speech. In the end, Lewis added a qualified endorsement of Kennedy's civil rights
legislation, saying: "It is true that we support the administration's Civil Rights Bill. We support it with great
reservation, however." Even after toning down his speech, Lewis called for activists to "get in and stay in the
streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes."

James Baldwin was prevented from giving his speech, because everybody knows that James Baldwin was too
militant and progressive. Baldwin said that the March was co-opted by interests from the establishment.
Despite the protests of organizer Anna Arnold Hedgeman, no women gave a speech at the March. Male
organizers attributed this omission to the "difficulty of finding a single woman to speak without causing
serious problems vis-à-vis other women and women's groups." We know that to be a total lie as tons of
women were leaders and activists in the movement. Although Gloria Richardson was on the program and
had been asked to give a two-minute speech, when she arrived at the stage her chair with her name on it
had been removed, and the event marshal took her microphone away after she said "hello." Richardson,
along with Rosa Parks and Lena Horne, was escorted away from the podium before Martin Luther King Jr.
spoke. Early plans for the march would have included an "Unemployed Worker" as one of the speakers. This
position was eliminated, furthering criticism of the March's middle-class bias. Singers like Mahalia Jackson,
Joan Baez, Boy Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Odetta performed. Some participants like Dick Gregory
wanted more groups to participate in the singing and more black people to be singing. Walter Reuther
wanted politicians to address injustices.
 Dr. King's I Have a Dream
Speech
Dr. Martin Luther Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech during the march. He gave his dream previously in
Detroit months before during the Walk for Freedom movement. The I Have a Dream was both a
condemnation of injustices in America and a call for a better future. Dr. Martin Luther King was an American
civil rights leader and a Baptist minister. In front of over 250,000 human beings, he gave his speech from the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was one of the greatest speeches in human history. In
the speech, Dr. King invoked the Emancipation Proclamation, the United States Constitution, and religious
themes to make the point that racism and oppression have no place in our world. There are two major parts
of the I Have a Dream speech. The first part was the condemnation of American racism, poverty, of injustice
in general, and the structural forms of evil harming black Americans. Dr. King wanted to use real language to
make a distinction between the American reality (filled with police brutality, racist terror, and economic
oppression) and the American dream. Dr. King said that "our federal government has also scarred the dream
through its apathy and hypocrisy, its betrayal of the cause of justice." King suggested that "It may well be
that the Negro is God's instrument to save the soul of America." Dr. King gave a similar I Have a Dream speech
on November 27, 1962, King gave a speech at Booker T. Washington High School in Rocky Mount, North
Carolina. The 1963 March on Washington I Have a Dream speech was drafted with the assistance of Stanley
Levison and Clarence Benjamin Jones in Riverdale, New York City. Jones has said that "the logistical
preparations for the march were so burdensome that the speech was not a priority for us" and that, "on the
evening of Tuesday, Aug. 27, [12 hours before the march] Martin still didn't know what he was going to say."
Dr. King, a student of American history, invoked the Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address too. He wanted to
have urgency in his words by saying "Now is the time."

Among the most quoted lines of the speech are "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!" According to US Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the president
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to
transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By
speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people
throughout America and unborn generations." King describes the promises made by America as a
"promissory note" on which America has defaulted. He says that "America has given the Negro people a bad
check", but that "we've come to cash this check" by marching in Washington, D.C. The style of old-school
black Christian speeches were found in the cadence of his words. Biblical phrases were found in his words
too.

Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on
the theme "I have a dream", prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" In
this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become it is most famous, King
described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. In the final parts of
the speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said these words:

"...I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will
be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With
this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into
a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work
together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up
for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day
when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, 'tis
of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of
the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom
ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the
mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies
of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let
freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let
freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout
 Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of
Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to
speed up that day when all of 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..."

Immediately, the crowd in Washington, D.C. experienced a sense of euphoria, joy, and happiness over the
speech. J. Edgar Hoover hated Dr. King because of jealousy. COINTELPRO head and FBI agent William C.
Sullivan considered Dr. King the "most dangerous" black man in the future of the nation after his I Have a
Dream speech. At the end of the speech, the crowd soared in joy and inspiration to find solutions. In the
wake of the speech and march, King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine for 1963, and in 1964 he
was the youngest man ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The 1963 March on Washington event featured many prominent celebrities in addition to singers on the
program. Josephine Baker, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, James Baldwin, Jackie Robinson, Sammy Davis,
Jr., Dick Gregory, Eartha Kitt, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Diahann Carroll, and Lena Horne were among the black
celebrities attending. There were also quite a few white and Latino celebrities who attended or helped fund
the March in support of the cause: Tony Curtis, James Garner, Robert Ryan, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman,
Joanne Woodward, Rita Moreno, Marlon Brando, Bobby Darin, and Burt Lancaster, among others. Judy
Garland was part of the planning committee and was also scheduled to perform but had to drop out at the
last minute due to commitment to her TV variety series.
 Temporary Euphoria
The 1963 March on Washington ended with a great sense of enthusiasm. President John F. Kennedy watched
the march on television and was pleased. The march wasn't perfect as it excluded many women speakers,
some speeches were watered down, and there was co-option by some establishment interests (as said by
Malcolm X and other critics. Malcolm X's Message to the Grass Roots speech criticized the march as a picnic
and a circus), but the crowd of people was inspired to fight for social change. The chances for the civil rights
bill increased. Kennedy met with the march leaders in the White House on August 28, 1963. The news media
covered the march massively. Randolph and Rustin abandoned their belief in the effectiveness of marching
on Washington. King maintained faith that action in Washington could work but determined that future
marchers would need to call greater attention to economic injustice.
 AS WE REACH FURTHER INTO 2020’S, WE HUMBLY ACKNOWLEDGE AN ICON OF FREEDOM
Recently, Sister Ruby Bridges-Hall
became 69 years old. She exemplified
courage in every sense of the world. She
was born in Tylertown, Mississippi.
When she was a child, she took care of
her younger siblings. Ruby Bridges loved
to play jump rope and softball plus
climbing trees. New Orleans, Louisiana
was the city where she moved to when
she was 4 years old. In 1960, her parents
responded to a request from the NAACP
(National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People) and
volunteered her to participate in the
integration of the New Orleans school
system, even though her father was
hesitant. Bridges went to the New
Orleans school after Brown v. Board of
Education banned school segregation in
public schools. Bridges went to a
segregated kindergarten in 1959.
By 1960, she went to the all-white William
Frantz Elementary School. Bridges went to
McDonogh No. 19. Federal marshals escorted
her to the school constantly. Cowardly
cowards of people used racial slurs and
profanity against a little girl, but Rudy Bridges
stood strong to get her education without
compromise. One teacher taught Bridges who
was from Boston, Massachusetts, and her
name was Barbara Henry. Ruby Bridges-Hall
loves her husband Malcolm Hall including
their four sons. Bridges worked as a travel
agent and became a full-time parent. She is
now chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation,
which she formed in 1999 to promote
tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all
differences. At the end of the day, everyone is
born equal and is entitled to fundamental
human rights that are unalienable or inborn.
Her life was shown in the 1998 made-
for-TV movie called Ruby Bridges
starring Lela Rochon, Michael Beach,
Penelope Ann Miller, etc. Bridges
fought to help the William Frantz
Elementary School to stay open after
the Katrina hurricane disaster. Bridges
met with President Barack Obama on
July 15, 2011, to look at the Norman
Rockwell painting of her. She earned an
honorary degree from Tulane
University on May 19, 2012, at the
annual graduation ceremony at the
Superdome. Rudy Bridges created her
own books like her 2022 book of I Am
Ruby Bridges: How One Six-Year-Old
Girl's March to School Changed the
World. Without the heroism and
profound God-inspired grace of Ruby
Bridges, I wouldn't be here now. I wish
Sister Ruby Bridges-Hall more
Blessings.
 This image above showed the 1968 Poor People's Campaign rally in
Washington D.C. at Lafayette Park and on Connecticut Avenue.

The Aftermath
From 1963 onward, the world has changed massively. In 1967–1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organized a
Poor People's Campaign to occupy the National Mall with a shantytown. Segregationists including William
Jennings Bryan Dorn criticized the government for cooperating with civil rights activists. Senator Olin D.
Johnston rejected an invitation to attend the 1963 March on Washington, because he was a white
segregationist. The march was not perfect, but it inspired grassroots activism that caused the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to exist. Anniversary marches existed in 1983, 1988, and in 2013.
Today, we have a long way to go. Kathleen Cleaver said that only revolution would cause American society
to have the real redistribution of wealth and power to end exclusion and inequalities. There was the 2020
Virtual March on Washington, D.C. because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It opposed racial injustice and police
brutality. On August 28, 2021, people marched for voting rights and for the statehood of Washington, D.C.
Among the speakers were Martin Luther King III, his wife and Drum Major Institute president Arndrea Waters
King, daughter Yolanda, National Action Network leader Rev. Al Sharpton and Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel
Bowser. Other speakers at the event included Democratic U.S. Representatives Joyce Beatty, of Ohio, Terri
Sewell, of Alabama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Al Green, both of Texas, and Mondaire Jones, of New York; NAACP
president Derrick Johnson; and Philonise Floyd, activist and brother of George Floyd.
 The Legacy of the 1963
March on Washington
August 1963 March on Washington was a historic display of organizing, effort, controversies, and a sense of
rededication for the fight for human liberation. Many speakers came, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
motivated and inspired the crowd with his "I Have a Dream" speech. Since 1963, we have seen the growth of
social activism, but racial injustice and economic inequality haven't been gone. The paradox of this time in
2023 is that the sacrifices of the civil rights movement decades ago are being opposed by not only the far-
right alt right movement (which is complicit in the terrorist murders at Charleston, South Carolina against
black people in 2015, the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, etc.) but by neoliberal moderates who
endorse Western imperialism, assassinations by drones, police state measures domestically, and military
aggression overseas. We see homeownership being a struggle for many in our communities, and we witness
corporate exploitation. It is no secret that the capitalist elites and their political agents wanted to contain
and co-opt the revolutionaries of the civil rights movement to promote compromising policies. The black
freedom struggle involved civil disobedience, self-defense, the Freedom Rides, the voter registration drive,
and the fight for jobs and being opposed to poverty. During the 1960’s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went beyond
trying to end Jim Crow segregation. He saw that eliminating inequality requires to look at political, social, and
class issues that caused him to be a strong opponent of the War in Vietnam (that caused Dr. King to conflict
with members of the NAACP and the administration of Lyndon Johnson).
Dr. King was right to say that, "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are
considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism, and economic exploitation
are incapable of being conquered." When Dr. King questioned capitalism and imperialism, the federal
government considered him a threat (the NSA, the FBI, and military Intelligence illegally monitored Dr. King
and his allies), and he was unjustly assassinated at Memphis on April 4, 1968. By 2013, the Economic Policy
Institute created many reports about the topic of "The Unfinished March." These reports studied the goals
of the original march and tried to find out how much progress was made. They promoted the views of
Randolph and Rustin that civil rights alone can't transform the people's quality of life without economic
justice. I agree with them on that issue. The reports said that the March's main goals (of housing, integrated
education, and widespread employment at living wages) wasn't accomplished. They mentioned that legal
advances were made. Yet, black people in many cases live in concentrated areas of poverty where many black
people have miseducation and unemployment. Dedrick Muhammad of the NAACP wrote that racial
inequality of income and homeownership has increased since 1963 and worsened during the recent Great
Recession. There is a distinction of the masses of black people and other human beings fighting for social
change and the moderate corporate heads who desire the status quo (the status quo system allows a few of
the African American population to be millionaires and billionaires while the capitalist system remains intact
to oppress everyone else). This must change. The reprehensive, xenophobic, racist, sexist, and reactionary
agenda of Trumpism (Trump now has four indictments made by dedicate prosecutors who seek
accountability without bias) should be exposed and opposed by us, and it is important to realize that
neoliberalism will not work to liberate humanity either. The 1963 March on Washington was a start of the
turning point in American history of the necessity to speak out and do action in creating a just world for us
and our descendants (in the realms of independence, justice, collective power, and freedom).

By Timothy

DANCE IS PART OF OUR

CULTURE TOO. For
millennia, human dance
has been used for
celebration, an expression
of love, and for other
reasons. Therefore, there is
nothing wrong with
legitimate dance period.
 Appendix A: The 2023
March on Washington
Continuation
The 60th anniversary of the March on Washington took place in Washington, D.C. Organizers of the march
included Mar n Luther King III, his wife and Drum Major Ins tute President Arndrea Waters King, daughter
Yolanda (or Dr. Mar n Luther King Jr.'s granddaughter), and Na onal Ac on Network Leader Rev. Al Sharpton.
We see a right-wing backlash so vicious that far-right MAGA extremists want to revert to the 1950's instead
of going forward in the 21st century. Jealous people in Georgia desire to target Fulton DA Fani Willis because
she is fulfilling her cons tu onal duty to make sure that Trump and 18 other indicted people face true
accountability. The 60th anniversary is a con nua on, not a commemora on. Many of the speakers in the
rally spoke up for jus ce and equality for all people in the human race. They spoke out against gun violence,
against racism, against sexism, and against an -Semi sm. It's our duty to not just speak up against evil. We
must be ac ve in developing construc ve ac ons in helping society to grow. We should always expose liars
like Ramaswamy who called Presley and Kendi as akin to the "Modern KKK." The KKK murdered people, raped
people, and burned down black churches to the ground for decades. This stuff from Ramaswamy shows his
racism and ignorance of history. Construc ve ac ons must be taken by us. These ac ons can be going on in
city councils, working in the school system, registering people to vote, running for office, volunteering,
mentoring kids, defending democra c rights, building up communi es, working in STEM to help humanity,
and being a light of wisdom for people. Each of us has a gi , and it is very important to be inspired by our
audacious ancestors in making sure that the Dream in the future will grow into total frui on.
A lot has changed since August 28, 1963, when the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom began.
Technology has massively evolved to include iPhones, Ne lix, Meta, and ar ficial intelligence. Yet, victory for
liberty and jus ce is not a reality yet. When vo ng rights are less now in 2023 than in 1965, then we have a
serious problem. Our outrage at the status quo is jus fied. Many human beings today face police brutality,
poverty, sexism, poverty (and other forms of economic oppression), xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry.
The 1963 March on Washington and the overall civil rights movement was about bringing diverse people
together to bring the federal government to fulfill its responsibili es to the people. The federal government
has the responsibility to ensure the general welfare and promote jus ce for all in an indivisible fashion. That
is not our reality now when various states disgracefully ban books, restrict vo ng rights, and seek to harm the
free speech rights of peaceful protesters.
The criminal jus ce system, the wealth gap, and health care
dispari es will not be solved by moderate prescrip ons or
MAGA rhetoric. These evils can only be solved by structural
and revolu onary change among all levels of government.
The deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the 3 black
people in Jacksonville, Florida show the epidemic of hate
crimes in America. It shows that racism is a reality that seeks
to destroy black lives literally. It's our just right to stand up for
black lives from the poor and the homeless to other human
beings of every background. It is important to realize that the
1963 March on Washington (which was organized by tons of
people like John Lewis, Dr. Mar n Luther King Jr., Cleveland
Robinson, Bayard Rusin, Daisy Bates, Ann Arnold Hedgeman,
A. Philip Randolph, etc.) wasn't just about the fight to end The intellectually powerful and
legalized Jim Crow apartheid. The march was about ending glorious Sister Susan L. Taylor was the
poverty, advancing a living wage, developing workers' rights, editor-in-chief of Essence from 1981
having fair educa on, developing housing, ending police
to 2000. She is one of the greatest
brutality, and desiring full ci zenship among black people.
journalists of all time.
Grassroots organizing is one major avenue where solu ons
are enacted, and the black freedom struggle overall has always been inspira onal. Reac onary poli cians like
Florida Governor Ron DeSan s (who advanced a shoot-on-sight policy against undocumented immigrants
which is abhorrent) and the four mes indicted Donald Trump may want to have a vende a against
progressives, but we seek the opposite in promo ng progressive values. It is not enough to end Jim Crow
apartheid which should be gone. We must also promote egalitarianism in making sure that economic and
racial equality is real via a radical redistribu on of economic and poli cal power. It's the reality that when Dr.
King promoted these aims including opposing imperialism (and the Vietnam War) via his Poor People's
Campaign, that he would be assassinated in 1968. So, we are boldly clear to unite with like-minded people to
defend democra c freedoms wholeheartedly.

By Timothy
 Congratulations to Sister Coco Gauff for winning her first Grand Slam in the U.S.
Open in 2023. She is 19 years old being the 2nd youngest American to win the U.S.
Open since Serena Williams did it when she was 17 years old (back in 1999). Coco
Gauff has a great family and tennis training team that inspired her on her journey.
Gauff earned her victory by merit, determination, and hard work. Coco Gauff is just
getting starting building on her own legacy as a professional tennis player. She prayed in
this moment as well.