FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON - DOUBLY BLESSED

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON - DOUBLY BLESSED

     Two notable pivotal points in American History can be considered those marked by the March on Washington in 1963, and also the one that has just passed fifty years later in 2013.   The first was doubly significant because it also was set to commemorate the year of the Emancipation Proclamation a hundred years prior. [1]  After the first March came the Civil Rights legislation of the Sixties, which ensured social and political freedoms that had been sought over the years.   [Many credit the March with passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).]

        The second March on Washington of 2013 is also doubly significant because it represents not only how far American society has come in the present day, but also sends up a flare signal exposing how the system appears to be retrogressing toward pre-Civil Rights era days -- if we are not vigilant.  Such a new commemorative occasion can and should serve to galvanize the activist community into organizing more fervently to reach their collective goals.   So it is not only a way of honoring the past, it becomes also a “wake up call”; to spur us forward into the future to regain our status -- now slipping ground.   Dr. Lowery, a contemporary of Dr. King, recently remarked about an old sermon he found still appropriate today that suggested the more things change, the more they stay the same.    For regardless of our excellent progress, it is astounding that we as a people appear to be facing the same Racism today that we have faced for centuries.   It is just in a different form or format, but the end result is the same.   Why anyone would consider this a “post-racial” society -- simply because we have the first Black President -- is a mystery to those who know better.   In fact that achievement seemed to only “bring out the crazies”.  Some say that instead of “Jim Crow”, we are now confronted with “Mr. James Crow, Esq.” these days.   (But I do not wish to digress.)

            It may be considered somewhat incredulous that though we are at a more “equalized” point in our society, the thrust of the March of 2013 is the same as that of 1963.  The theme of the 1963 March was for “Jobs and Freedom”, and it is the same for the March of 2013.  It is perplexing that what we need in this country for our people and for all people today is still MORE JOBS.  In the Sixties, President Johnson's resolution was to institute the programs of the “Great Society” legislation which helped to elevate many more people through jobs and training that was provided by the government.   There is no chance of that currently with the Ultra-Conservative, Anti-Government, Regressive, Recalcitrant Republican Congress of today.   Never mind that with Government-backed Green and Infrastructure jobs that could be provided by the Government, all people within the society would be able to bring up the standard of living as well as the national economy with their financial contributions.   It would simply be an investment in our collective economic future.

           Dr. King came to the realization later in his career that the real issue in this country -- outside of the unjust war --, was that there is undue poverty in America.   Hence he planned his “Poor People's Campaign” just before his untimely death.   Here we are fifty years later and while politicians and corporations are trying to “bust” the unions, workers have begun to take up the gauntlet to call for a higher and more decent wage against the elitist corporations, which constantly make their billions on the backs of the impoverished with no concern for the circumstance of their fellow man.  

            This is not the way of Dr. King, who left us with many truths to contemplate and to be inspired by. [2]  We have to learn to apply his wisdom in this world.   For he taught:   “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.   Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”   He also taught that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”   Dr. King also warned us that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”  More ominously he predicted a truism that as a nation “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.  We have guided missiles and misguided men.”   He also left us with this unequaled challenge:   “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”   That is tantamount to the piercing observation he presents in “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”  

         We love Dr. King and we love his words now that he is an inactive martyr we can admire from afar.  Many in his time did not accept nor ascribe to his advocacy.  Yet he teaches us even today that “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”   “Dedicated individuals”, King points to.  As quiet as it’s kept, that is actually needed even more today than yesterday. 

           As much as we revere Dr. King, many people who were not involved nor who are students of history will erroneously credit him with the organization of the first March on Washington.  However, research will show that the March was the brainchild of the leader of the Pullman Porter’s Union, known as A. Phillip Randolph, but was masterminded by the political genius, Bayard Rustin, a social activist with vast experience.  They had organized a march thirty years earlier to confront racism which was called off under the FDR administration after he made concessions.  However, their continued activism led to the end of racial discrimination in the armed services, among other things.  This time, at the last resort, Rustin was removed from visible participation the actual March due to pressure placed on the Movement by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and others who feared that word of Rustin’s homosexual orientation would become a blemish on the Civil Rights Movement.

            Although formal alliances with the LGBT community were not obvious at the first March, concern about their rights has risen visibly in place of the mandates produced for the second March.  This would actually be a fitting tribute and credit to the man who fought so hard for the freedom of the many, Bayard Rustin.  What is more President Obama’s office has announced that the highest award of distinction in this country will be given to Rustin and others within the month. 

President Obama’s presence at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington this year was a strict departure from presidential involvement of the first March, because President Kennedy remained at the White House.  Yet he met with leaders of the March ahead of time and even attempted to insinuate some of his own demands of them.  The first March involved speeches by male representatives of Civil Rights, Union leaders, Church leadership and Pacifist groups, along with musical renditions from Peace Movement singers and gospel greats.  The only woman scheduled to speak was Myrlie Evers; but when her flight was delayed, Daisy Bates took her place. 

            Women were always the backbone of many of the Movement matters, but were often relegated to lesser positions in the public eye.  That’s another reason that the Second March was so different.  Linda Johnson Robb spoke in representation of her father, President Johnson.  Caroline Kennedy spoke to represent President Kennedy.  Two prior presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were among the speakers the second time around.  Republican political figures who were invited all declined to attend.  There were also many more people of note from the cinema and media community who stood out this time, such as Forrest Whittaker, Jamie Fox, Ed Shultz, Oprah Winfrey, Al Sharpton and others.

        The only living speaker from the first March, who was then a leader in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who is now a U.S. Congressman, the Honorable John Lewis finally got a chance to say what he wanted to say.  During the first March, his intended remarks were thought to be too radical for the situation, and he was forced to make modifications.  Mrs. Myrlie Evers, who missed the first March, was able to be a prominent speaker at the Second March on Washington.  Two children of Dr. King, who were very young during the first March, were powerful speakers during the Fiftieth Anniversary.  In fact, the Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington was largely planned by the Rev. Dr. Bernice King, SCLC and the typical Civil Rights and Peace Movement organizations of today.  It is unusual how history tends to repeat itself.

              Precisely at 3:00 p.m. not only were bells to be ringing in Washington, D.C. and across the nation, but it was also at that time fifty years ago that Dr. King gave his extemporaneous, famous “I Have A Dream” speech, which replaced his written one.  Fifty years later it was fitting that the first African-American President, President Barak Obama would be giving the headline speech of the day.  While Obama would not -- nor could not -- be a match for the inimitable oratory of a Dr. King, he did rise

to the occasion in his own right.  We can only hope that the spirit of Dr. King permeated the atmosphere and settled on the consciousness of President Barak Obama. For this President could certainly use some influence in understanding the importance of diplomatic action in foreign affairs.  If Dr. King were alive today, he would have assuredly protested the recent war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the continued use of drone strikes in Pakistan during the present administration.  I think he would descry the killing of Osama Bin Laden instead of capturing him live and leaning the truth of the reason he had such a vendetta against the United States.  That way we could more assuredly combat the real problem.  I also think Dr. King would not have condoned the air strikes in Libya which had to have also killed innocent people.  He might have chosen other methods other than routing out Quadaffi like a dog.  I also think Dr. King would have suggested many other unusual means of creating the peace and still achieving the kind of world we all would want to live in.  I think he would have the courage to call out the oil industry for their complicity in the wars that have wrecked our country. 

         Perhaps that short time in the presence of the spirit of Dr. King at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington and King’s “I Have a Dream” speech may have positively affected President Obama.  For we do attest that it was only after participating in this event that President Obama conceded to wait for the sanction of Congress before he declared war on Syria -- as he seemed intent upon doing.  We can only hope this gives him time to think about how to pursue other peaceful means of approaching the situation and work through the United Nations.  For as Dr. King has said, “True Leaders work for Peace” – not surreptitiously go to “War” for Peace.

         What is more, if he had lived, I believe Dr. King would have spoken out against the one percent of the population who  have little or no concern about the 99 percent, which the Occupy Movement brought to the forefront of the conscience of the nation only a couple of years ago.  I believe Dr. King would have led the charge against the Banking industry and Wall Street for creating a situation where U.S. citizens -- Black, White, and otherwise -- would be at the mercy of the system that steals their homes away from them, and steel-mindedly refuse to renegotiate unjustly raised mortgages --all the while destroying the Housing Market in this country --, while callously putting families out on the street without regard to conscience.  I believe that Dr. King would be calling to conscience corporations who have reaped billions for their investors while carelessly eliminating or even raiding the retirement funds of their employees.  Dr. King would have called into judgment the shortening of the work week hours so that businesses would not have to pay their workers the benefits they deserve.  He would have shouted out against the business world that refuses to pay its employers a decent wage and those who ship their jobs to foreign lands for cheap labor while their own country fails financially all around.  Dr. King would have been a voice crying out into the wilderness of the prison system in this country which incarcerates Black and Brown men many times over that which they do for White men in the New Jim Crow of privatized prisons.  He would be blasting out against what is now known as the Crib to Prison Pipeline for Black boys in this country.  He would expose the payola that the Koch Brothers with ALEC are involved in with most Congressmen of this country.  Today more than ever, we as a people and as a nation need a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We need a Jeremiah (maybe even a Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright once again), an Isaiah, an Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea or Amos today.  We need true inspired moral leadership to bring this country from the brink of disaster where it seems to be heading.  With a Dr. King as our guide, this country would indeed become “Doubly Blessed.”

           Considering “Double Blessings” bring up the fact that on this Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington, this country was blessed to have double commemorations:  One was held on Saturday, August 24^th led by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and other activists or rights groups.  The second one we learn was largely planned by Dr. Bernice King and other Civil Rights and Labor organizations as well on Wednesday August 28^th, the actual date of the 50^th anniversary.  We as a country were doubly blessed that both events were well attended and filled up the mall along the reflecting pool just as it did fifty years earlier.  This not only doubled our delight but doubled the overall count in attendance as well.  Aside from the King children, Rev. Al Sharpton, John Lewis and a few others who spoke at both, the major participants and invited guests of the two programs were completely different.  This doubled the pleasure of the nation of history lovers.  It has become a time that dually will long last in the minds of all Americans who revere Dr. King and what he stood for.  With these two celebratory events to take place at this crucial time in our lives, our world has indeed truly been “Doubly Blessed.”

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Interracial crowd around the Reflecting Pool at the 1963 March on Washington.

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

 “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

 “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

M. White, August 31, 2013

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[1] The National Museum of American History current exhibit has this statement which corroborates this fact:  In 2013 the country will commemorate two events that changed the course of the nation – the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1963 March on Washington. Standing as milestone moments in the grand sweep of American history, these achievements were the culmination of decades of struggles by individuals – both famous and unknown – who believed in the American promise that this nation was dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal." Separated by 100 years, they are linked together in a larger story of freedom and the American experience.

[2] The Museum of American History also records these words by Dr. King:   On August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. began his speech by declaring, "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity ... In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check."