Newspaper+Article+2

Newspaper Article 2: New York Times, 1963

=200,000 March for Civil Rights in Orderly Washington Rally; President Sees Gain for Negro=

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES
Washington, Aug. 28 -- More than 200,000 Americans, most of them black but many of them white, demonstrated here today for a full and speedy program of civil rights and equal job opportunities. It was the greatest assembly for a redress of grievances that this capital has ever seen. One hundred years and 240 days after Abraham Lincoln enjoined the emancipated slaves to "abstain from all violence" and "labor faithfully for reasonable wages," this vast throng proclaimed in march and song and through the speeches of their leaders that they were still waiting for the freedom and the jobs.

There was no violence to mar the demonstration. In fact, at times there was an air of hootenanny about it as groups of schoolchildren clapped hands and swung into the familiar freedom songs. But if the crowd was good-natured, the underlying tone was one of dead seriousness. The emphasis was on "freedom" and "now." At the same time the leaders emphasized, paradoxically but realistically, that the struggle was just beginning. On Capitol Hill, opinion was divided about the impact of the demonstration in stimulating Congressional action on civil rights legislation. But at the White House, President Kennedy declared that the cause of 20,000,000 Negroes had been advanced by the march. The march leaders went from the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial to the White House to meet with the President for 75 minutes. Afterward, Mr. Kennedy issued a 400-word statement praising the marchers for the "deep fervor and the quiet dignity" that had characterized the demonstration.
 * Children Clap and Sing**

The nation, the President said, "can properly be proud of the demonstration that has occurred here today." The main target of the demonstration was Congress, where committees are now considering the Administration's civil rights bill. At the Lincoln Memorial this afternoon, some speakers, knowing little of the way of Congress, assumed that the passage of a strengthened civil rights bill had been assured by the moving events of the day. But from statements by Congressional leaders, after they had met with the march committee this morning, this did not seem certain at all. These statements came before the demonstration. Senator Mike Mansfield, of Montang, the Senate Democratic leader, said he could not say whether the mass protest would speed the legislation, which faces a filibuster by Southerners. Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois, the Republican leader, said he thought the demonstration would be neither an advantage nor a disadvantage to the prospects for the civil rights bill. The human tide that swept over the Mall between the shrines of Washington and Lincoln fell back faster than it came on As soon as the ceremony broke up this afternoon, the exodus began. With astounding speed, the last buses and trains cleared the city by midevening. At 9 P.M. the city was as calm as the waters of the Reflecting Pool between the two memorials. At the Lincoln Memorial early in the afternoon, in the midst of a songfest before the addresses, Josephine Baker, the singer, who had flown from her home in Paris, said to the thousands stretching down both sides of the Reflecting Pool: "You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you." Miss Baker said, as if she saw a dream coming true before her eyes, that "this is the happiest day of my life." But of all the 10 leaders of the march on Washington who followed her, only the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, saw that dream so hopefully. The other leaders, except for the three clergymen among the 10, concentrated on the struggle ahead and spoke in tough, even harsh, language. But paradoxically it was King--who had suffered perhaps most of all--who ignited the crowd with words that might have been written by the sad, brooding man enshrined within. As he arose, a great roar welled up from the crowd. When he started to speak, a hush fell. "Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream," he said. "It is a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
 * Says Nation Can Be Proud**

"I have a dream..." The vast throng listening intently to him roared. "...that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. "I have a dream..." The crowd roared. "...that one day even the State of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. "I have a dream..." The crowd roared. "...that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. "I have a dream..." The crowd roared. "...that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." As Dr. King concluded with a quotation from a Negro hymn- "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty"- the crowd, recognizing that he was finishing, roared once again and waved their signs and pennants. But the civil rights leaders, who knew the strength of the forces arrayed against them from past battles, knew also that a hard struggle lay ahead. The tone of their speeches was frequently militant. Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, made a plan that he and his colleagues thought the President's civil rights still did not go nearly far enough. He said: "The President's proposals represent so moderate an approach that if any one is weakened or eliminated, the remainder will be little more than sugar water. Indeed, the package needs strengthening." Harshest of all the speakers was John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. "My friends," he said, "Let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution. But by and large American politics is dominated by politicians who build their career on immoral compromising and ally themselves with open forums of political, economic and social exploitation." He concluded: "They're talking about slowdown and stop. We will not stop. "If we do not get meaningful legislation out of this Congress, the time will come when we will not confine our marching to Washington. We will march through the South, through the streets of Jackson, through the streets of Danville, through the streets of Cambridge, through the streets of Birmingham. "But we will march with the spirit of love and the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today." In the original text of the speech, distributed last night, Mr. Lewis said: "We will not wait for the President, the Justice Department, nor the 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 a victory." He also said in the original text that "we will march through the South, through the heart of Dixis, the way Sherman did." It was understood that at least the last of these statements was changed as a result of a protest by the Most Rev. Patrick J. O'Boyle, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, who refused to give the invocation if the offending words were spoken by Mr. Lewis.
 * Dream of Brotherhood**

Source: Kensworthy, E. (1963, August 28). '200, 000 March for Civil Rights in Orderly Washington Rally; President sees Gain for Negro'. //The New York Times//. Retrieved 10 September, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0828.html#article