March on Washington Document Set Document A Photographs of the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: These were taken by various news organizations. Document B Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. By John Lewis. 1998 The day of the march we met for breakfast, then went as a group to Capital Hill to pay a call on congressional leaders. These were quick, cordial sessions, nothing substantial, simply courtesy calls arranged early in the morning so we would have plenty of time to make it over to the Lincoln Memorial for the beginning of the event. But while we were still at the Capital, word came that the march had begun without us. The crowds, we were told, had already begun surging up Independence and Constitution Avenues toward the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial. “My God, they’re going,” said Bayard Rustin, chief organizer of the March on Washington, as we stepped outside the Capital to see masses of people moving down the streets. “We’re supposed to be leading them!” We rushed down to join them. The cars that had carried us from the hotel attempted to get us over to the Lincoln Memorial, but the crowds were too thick. We were surrounded by a moving sea of humanity, tens of thousands of people pouring out of Union Station, filling Constitution Avenue from curb to curb. It was truly awesome, the most incredible thing I’d ever seen I my life. I remember thinking, “There goes America.” We were supposed to be the leaders of the march, but the march was all around us, already taking off, already gone. So we climbed out of the cars, joined hands and began walking. This was the classic pose of so many marches, the leadership walking hand in hand or arm in arm in front of the people. This was always interesting to see the jockeying that often took place, the push to be in the middle, to be next to this person or that. It’s natural, I guess. People want to bee seen, to be photographed. In this case, some people wanted to be as close as possible to A. Phillip Randolph, the head of the March on Washington, who was the focal point this day. Even Dr. King was pushed toward the side. As for me, I would end up at the end, which I’m sure made Jim Forman (the head of SNCC) furious. A spot was cleared so the photographers could shoot pictures, and some of those photos ran in the newspapers the next day as if we were in front of the march. But we couldn’t even see the front. As people turned and recognized us, they began clearing the way and sweeping us along from behind, and that’s how we came to the Lincoln Memorial, the leaders being pushed along by the people – as it should be. ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: John Lewis was a founding member of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee). He is currently a Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from Atlanta, Georgia Document C Photographs of the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: These were taken by various news organizations. Document C Photographs of the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: These were taken by various news organizations. Document D Program for the March on Washington ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: Thousands of these were made for the crowd that topped 250,000 people. Document E Speech by Malcolm X in Detroit, Michigan on November 10, 1963 The Negros were out there in the streets. They were talking about how they were going to march on Washington, march on the Senate, march on the White House, march on the Congress, and tie it up, bring it to a halt, not let the government proceed. They even said they were going out to the airport and lay down on the runway and not let any airplanes land. I’m telling you what they said. That was a revolution. It scared the white man to death, scared the white power structure in Washington, D.C. to death; I was there. When they found out that this black steamroller was going to come down on the capital, they called in these Negro leaders that you respect and told them, “Call it off,” President Kennedy said. “Look, you all are letting this go too far.” And Old Tom said, “Boss, I can’t stop it because I didn’t start it.” I’m telling you what they said. They said, “I’m not even in it, much less at the head of it. These Negros are doing things on their own. They’re running ahead of us.” Kennedy said, “If you all aren’t in it, I’ll put you in it. I’ll put you at the head of it. I’ll endorse it. I’ll welcome it. I’ll help it. I’ll join it.” This is what they did with the March on Washington. They joined it, became part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. It ceased to be angry, it ceased to be hot. No, it was a sellout. They controlled it so tight, they told those Negroes what time to hit town, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to sing, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make, and then told them to get out town by sundown. ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: While a member of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X promoted racial separatism rather than integration with whites. He also supported self-defense rather than nonviolence. Document F Secret tape-recorded meeting from the White House on August 28, 1963. President Kennedy, Roy Wilkins (Head of the NAACP), A. Philip Randolph (Head of March on Washington), Martin Luther King Jr. (head of SCLC), and others. Roy Wilkins: (talking to Kennedy) You made the difference. You gave us your blessing. We think it changed the character of it. It was one of the prime factors in turning it into an orderly protest to help our government rather than a protest against our government. And we – I think you’ll agree that was psychologically important. And the mood and attitude of the people there today pleased all of us without exception. [edit] We think today’s demonstration, if it did nothing else, and I think this was the principal thing it did, showed that people back home, from the small towns, big cities, the working people, men who gave up two-day’s pay, three-day’s pay, paid thiry and forty and fifty and a hundred dollars, who flew from Los Angeles at $300 round-trip to come here. It means that they and not Martin Luther King or Roy Wilkins or Whitney Young or Walther Reuther have dreamed up this civil rights business. They feel it in their hearts enough to come here and show, by their presence, to you and to the Congress that what they hope their government will do. It fell to my lot, sir, in this afternoon of superlative oratory [speeches], to be the one to deal rather pedantically and pedestrianly [dully and laboriously] with the hard business of legislation. And the other gentlemen were free to soar into the wild blue yonder and they did so soar. But I dealt with the legislation and, of course, this must be of concern to you. We would like to see included in your package, which is now being considered by the House Judiciary Committee, and FEPC [Fair Employment Practices Committee] bill for the reasons that all of us outlined in all of our speeches, more eloquently by Walther [Reuther] and by Philip Randolph because they are so familiar with the labor field. But all of us realize that the Negro is terribly underemployed, and while we do not hope and do not believe that an FEPC bill will correct all of this, it will help to relieve some of the tension. It will open up some opportunities, and best of all, it will arouse a hope that if they do qualify, race, and religion, and nationality will not act to bar them from the job. ______________________________________________________________________________ Source: The Kennedy Tapes were secret tape-recorded meetings in the White House. Thousands of hours of meetings were taped and only the President knew they were recorded. He most likely taped meetings in order to write his memoirs [autobiography] after he was President. Document G Speech by John Lewis at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. We march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of, for hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here. They have no money for their transportation, for they are receiving starvation wages, or no wages at all. In good conscience, we cannot support wholeheartedly the Kennedy administration’s civil rights bill. There’s not one thing in the bill that will protect our people from police brutality. The revolution is at hand, and we must free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery. The nonviolent revolution is saying, “We will not wait for the courts to act, for we have been waiting for hundreds of years. We will not wait for the President, Justice Department, nor Congress, but we will take matters into our own hands and create a source of power outside of any national structure, that could and would assure us victory.” To those who have said, “Be patient and wait,” we must say that “patience” is a dirty and nasty word.