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The First Wave

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The First Wave seeds of liberation " ... the first ",ave" At 9 a.m., on August 28th, TV and The night beforehand, Randolph had news reporters still could not believe announced that the basic objective of that the March on Washington would the March had already been achieved: achieve the historic proportions pre• "It has focused the attention of the dicted. The questions most frequently country on the problems of human put to Bayard Rustin, organizer of the dignity and freedom for Negroes. It March, were: "Where are all the peo• has reached the heart, mind, and con• ple ? Aren't you disappointed?" "Not a science of America." He pointed out' bit," Rustin replied. "They will be that there was more news coverage on here." Eight hours later, as the last hand than there had ever been for a speech ended and the crowd of over Presidential inauguration. At the time, two hundred thousand (about a third this fact was impressive, but 24 hours of them white) began to move home• later it faded into insignificance com• ward, one of the "Big 6" Negro leaders pared to the impact of the day on those turned to him and exclaimed: "Rus• who had taken part (and, undoubtedly, tin, I have to hand it to you. You're a to a lesser extent, on millions who had genius." viewed it on television). There are two ways in which a social revolution can But the chief reason for the success be made respectable: the false way of of the March was not the genius of any toning down its demands to meet cur• one man or group of men. It was the rent standards, and the more difficult fact that all over the country Negroes . way of changing the public's conception have reached the point where they are of what is urgently called for. The saying, from the depth of their being, March carried the Negroes' struggle for what John Lewis, of S.N.C.C., said on human rights a long way in the latter the speakers' platform : "We want our direction. freedom and we want it now!" All other questions of program and philos• Some of the speeches would have ophy were subordinated, on August been dull, under ordinary circum• 28th, to the immediacy of this cry, a stances; others would have been preg• cry which, because of the accomplish• nant with meaning wherever they were ments of the March, will be heard with delivered. All were given additional increasing urgency throughout the poignancy by the occasion. This was country. especially true of the pointed words of "We have taken our struggle into the Rabbi Joachim Prinz, president of the streets," said A. Philip Randolph. "Un• American Jewish Congress, words that til we did so, the government was indif• have been largely overlooked in the ferent to our demands. All of us general reportage but bear repeating should be prepared to take to the here: streets. This is only the first wave. "When I was the rabbi of the Jewish We will carry the civil rights revolution Community in Berlin under the Hitler home with us into every nook and regime, I learned many things. The cranny of the land." And few who felt most important thing that I learned in the surging, irrepressible spirit of the my life and under those tragic circum• crowd could doubt that he was right. stances is that bigotry and hatred are 6 Liberation From top: A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, John Lewis, James Farmer not the most urgent problem. The most dogs stop biting us in the South, and the urgent, the most disgraceful, the most rats stop biting us in the North." shameful and the most tragic problem Farmer's message also included some is silence. profoundly instructive words for those "A great people which had created who are concerned lest integration of a great civilization had become a na• whites and blacks be followed (or per• tion of silent onlookers. They remained haps preceded) by the atomic disinte• silent in the face of hate, in the face of gration of all of us: brutality and in the face of mass "If we can solve our problems and re• murder. America must not remain move the heavy heel of oppression from silent. Not merely black America, but our necks with our nonviolent methods, all of America. It must speak up and then man has no problem anywhere in act, from the President down to the the world which cannot be solved with• humblest of us." out death." The other leader who offset any If there was a danger that the ugly possible tendency to lose sight of the realities of police brutality, grim eco• grim realities of the struggle was John nomic suffering, and political hypocrisy Lewis. The first draft of his speech was would be overlooked in the general eu• so searing in its indictment of the Ken• phoria of the occasion (abetted by the nedy administration that Archbishop cooperation of Washington officialdom) Patrick O'Boyle, of Washi.ngton, said he two of the leaders, in particular, less-. would withdraw from the program un• ened this danger. The first was James less the text was revised. Other leaders Farmer, of CORE, arrested a week felt that parts of the speech, particularly earlier in Plaquemine, Louisiana, He a reference to marching through the sent a message, which was read by South "the way Sherman did . and Floyd B. McKissick, national chairman burn Jim Crow to the ground-nonvio• of CORE. It read, in part: lently" would be misunderstood by "From a south Louisiana parish jail, those less practiced in nonviolence than I salute the march on Washington for Lewis. After hasty conferences (the first jobs and freedom. Two hundred and at 3 a.m. and the second while the thirty-two freedom fighters jailed with crowd was waiting impatiently for the me in Plaquemine, La., also send their program to begin), Lewis made minor greetings. revisions, none of which significantly "I wanted to be with you with all my altered the content. Because Lewis is heart on this great day. My imprisoned one of the younger leaders closest to brothers and sisters wanted to be there the day-to-day struggle which made the too. I cannot come out of jail while they March possible, we are reprinting the are still in ; for their crime was the same original text of his speech on the fol• as mine-demanding freedom now. lowing page, to help LIBERATION readers "Some of us may die, like William understand the temper of an important L. Moore and Medgar Evers, but our segment of the movement: the militant war is for life, not for death, and we students whose, heroic and often un• will not stop our demand for 'FREE• known sacrifices are the cutting edge DOM NOW.' We will not stop till the of the struggle for human rights. D.D. September 1963 7 Top three photos by Walter Lide .
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