I do remember some tv coverage, but I didn't understand why so much was made of a sermon because that is what it sounded like to me. The radical sounding guy was John Lewis. I learned today he was the same soft spoken John Lewis who is in congress. I say radical because I had never heard a black man talk that way about 'not standing for this and not standing for that anymore.' [summation].When my uncle earl was visiting and MLK was on the tv news he walked over and turned the channel or maybe he turned it off. I thought that was rude because he didn't live there and a few of us were watching the news.
He (Uncle Earl) told us that that man was dangerous. Uncle Earl lived in Alabama.
I thought the movement was to riot and tear things a part. I didn't know they were peaceful marches met with violence.
I really never heard the entire speech until I was grown. It was even more poignant as I recalled the vitriol against this man from the white community.
Today I have heard that was probably due to fear and guilt and I agree. They were afraid that these people would rise up and do to "us" what was done to them for so long.
But they didn't.
They were met with violence and in my hometown alone, Dr. King was jailed along with a congressman's wife.
Here is just a microcosm of the white violence against blacks in my hometown.
1960s Civil Rights Movement St Augustine, Fla
But that is what non violence in social change is all about and what makes it so powerful.
What was so doubly great about the march and the entire movement was it opened a door for Asian Americans and women and gays ...
50 years later much has changed and much has not.
The struggle continues.
50th Anniversary of the March on Washington
It retraces the route of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech. Martin Luther King, III, Rev. Al Sharpton and others will be in Washington to lead today's ceremony.
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