Most of us remember the 1963 March on Washington for one thing only—Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. If you’re like me, you went to school assemblies about this as a kid. You heard the speech, or at least some of the famous lines from it, about King’s dream for America. You might’ve seen video of King speaking at the Lincoln Memorial. The speech deserves its status as an iconic oration in American history. It’s easy to forget, however, that others spoke that day. This blog post will introduce a few of those others. Several were major figures in the Civil Rights Movement in their own right.
Start with the two women who sang for the crowd, Mahalia Jackson and Marian Anderson. The March on Washington was not Marian Anderson’s first appearance singing at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1939, she’d made headlines when the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to let her sing at Constitution Hall on account of her color. Eleanor Roosevelt was a member of the DAR. Furious, she resigned and used her influence to arrange for Anderson to give an outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial instead. A mixed audience of about 75,000 attended.
Click Here to Follow Rob’s History Blog!
A. Phillip Randolph, a primary organizer of the March on Washington, also spoke. This man, largely forgotten today, was a legendary organizer. Like Anderson, this wasn’t his first March on Washington, either. It was Randolph who organized the 1941 March on Washington that resulted in President Franklin Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 8802. This order banned hiring discrimination in defense industries.
The March on Washington Featured Diverse Speakers
John Lewis, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), took to the podium as well. This is the same John Lewis who went on to become a congressman from Georgia. The same man clubbed by Selma police at Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. SNCC was a direct action organization. Its members protested frequently. Just as frequently, Southern law enforcement beat SNCC members before taking them to jail. Lewis was angry. He was tired of beatings and jailings. Lewis planned to give a fiery speech denouncing the Kennedy Administration for not upholding civil rights in the South. King’s advisors talked him out of it. Whether they should have is an open question.
All the people mentioned so far were African Americans. But not every speaker was. White Roman Catholics, including Rev. Patrick O’Boyle, Archbishop of Washington, made remarks. Walter Reuther did, too. Reuther was the head of the United Auto Workers. You might find it surprising that a labor leader spoke at a civil rights event. But the labor movement often supported civil rights in the 1960s. This is also a good time to remind the reader that the March on Washington is a shorthand name. The full name of the event was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Jobs and freedom. Yes, even in 1963 people knew economic independence and political rights were inseparable.
Other noteworthy people appeared as well, but I’ll mention just one more, Roy Wilkins, head the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP had been around for decades by 1963. It favored a legal approach to civil rights over demonstrating and protest in most cases. The organization sometimes disagreed with more direct protest tactics. This time, however, even the NAACP realized the magnitude of this march and got on board.
Now we know a little more about the supporting cast for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. King’s oratory stole the show, as it often did. But we should not forget that August 28, 1963, was a major gathering of other luminaries of the Civil Rights Movement, too.
Please Subscribe!
If you enjoyed this blog, please sign up to follow it by scrolling down or clicking here, and recommending it to your friends. I’d love to have you aboard! You can also follow me on Facebook by clicking here.
As always, I welcome constructive and polite discussion in the comments section. Thank you!
I was not yet 8 when this incredible march took place. Being white, and living in a pretty white neighborhood, I had never yet witnessed anything “bad” happening to people of other races. I obviously didn’t really understand what it was all about, but I remember the emotions it created. The power. The voice. It was on TV everywhere. I knew it was something important, I just didn’t quite understand just how important it was at the time.
Thanks for sharing these memories, Sue. The equivalent for me growing up was Cold War stuff. I didn’t exactly know why everything was such a big deal, I just knew that it was important.