The March on Washington BY GENE CASH
The following text has been adapted from a talk given on February 26, 2012.
1963,
IT WAS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS BY DICKENS. IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES. IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES. THE BEST OF TIMES: THE UNITED STATES HAD A CATHOLIC PRESIDENT.
THE WORST OF TIMES: THE CATHOLIC PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WAS KILLED. THE WORST OF TIMES: FOUR LITTLE GIRLS WERE KILLED AT CHURCH AND WHAT MADE ME GO TO THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON? I grew up in Philadelphia. My grandparents and my father are from the South. My mother was born in Cuba. In those times, growing up in Philadelphia, I did not see discrimination. However, when I went to visit my grandparents, there were only certain places where I could use the restroom. I couldn’t eat in restaurants—I had to eat on the bus. When I went downtown, there were only certain drinking fountains I could drink from. As a senior in high school I joined the organization called CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). They had planned on taking the train to Washington DC for the March on Washington. There was a great deal of planning. I went to meetings for weeks. We talked about logistics: What about water? The hot weather? Would the movement be ruined if there was any type of violence? And a big march was being planned. In the 1940s, Philip Randolph planned a big march in DC, but it never took off. There were all types of marches. In the United States around that time there were a thousand different cities that had small marches. By the end of 1963, approximately 20,000 people had been arrested. Most of those who had been arrested were middle school students. The number of high-school students arrested was higher than adults. Before the March on Washington Martin Luther King visited India in 1959. And of course, being a minister, Jesus was
Philip Randolph and other civil rights leaders on their way to Congress during the March on Washington, 1963, Trikosko, Marion S., photographer, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
his number one prophet, but he picked up a lot from Gandhi. Gandhi’s philosophy, like that of Jesus, was non-violence. When King came back to the United States in March 1959, he was disappointed because many Protestant ministers and Catholic priests were not behind him before the March. When Dr. King was put in jail he wrote letters to the priests. He wrote letters to the Protestant ministers asking for help. Dr. King got out of jail 1 in Spring 1963—that summer was the March. Dr. King’s ideas of anti-violence began to trickle down to Catholic bishops. The bishops started talking about how segregation and discrimination went against the human dignity of the person, and was not to be allowed in the Catholic Church. On the day of the March on Washington, the Archbishop of Washington D.C., the Most Rev. Patrick O’Boyle, gave the invocation before Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech. When we got off the train on Wednesday, August 28, 1963, the day of the March, I had never seen so many people in my life. There were thousands of people of all colors. There were also many, many speakers there, not just Dr. King. There are two speeches every American probably knows: the Gettysburg Address—“four score and seven years ago” and the “I have a dream” speech. It was hot, but when Dr. King gave his speech, you had chills as you sat there. And it was celebration! But, it should have been a celebration for everyone with action—next steps. That’s why he talked about poverty and, of course, called for equality in all schools, for equal access to facilities, for fair 1
Author is referring to King imprisoned and writing “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” A M AT T E R O F S P I R IT
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