“I have a dream that one day...little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Oh God! Is there no redress, no peace, no justice in this land for us. You have always fought the battles of the weak and oppressed. Come to my aid at this moment and teach me what to do .... Show us the way." ~Ida B. Well-Barnett
How I Got Over~Mahalia Jackson~1963 March On Washington
Bob Dylan & Joan Baez~1963 March On Washington
Joan Baez~We Shall Overcome/1963
Peter, Paul & Mary~Blowin’ In the Wind/March on Washington
Marian Anderson~He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands [She performed this at the March on Washington in 1963]
Martin Luther King, Jr.~I Have A Dream Speech/August 28, 1963
Fifty years ago today, on a warm summer’s Wednesday, perhaps one of the most important and memorable historical events of MY life took place in Washington, D.C.: The March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom. I was only two weeks old then. As I listen to the anniversary celebration on C-SPAN today, I am reminded what it must have been like for those 250,000 people who descended upon our nation’s capitol on that day in the year of my birth, who had gone there to take a stand and make a point and let the world know that though 100 years had come and gone since Abraham Lincoln had emancipated black men and women from the chains of slavery, still they were treated as nothing more than second class citizens. How long? How long? How long must that injustice endure? How long must African-American people be shackled by the bonds of segregation and discrimination?
It seems inconceivable to me that people have to fight for basic human rights of equality, justice, and fairness. We are all God’s children! Each and every one of us. I was taught as a child that God loves us all the same, as the words of that gospel song I was raised on proclaim, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Back in 1963, the list of goals was relatively small for what those who had gathered in Washington sought to achieve:
• Passage of a meaningful civil rights legislation.
• Immediate elimination of school segregation.
• A program of public works, including job training, for the unemployed.
• A Federal law prohibiting discrimination in public or private hiring.
• A $2-an-hour minimum wage nationwide.
• Withholding Federal funds from programs that tolerate discrimination.
• Enforcement of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by reducing congressional representation from States that disenfranchise citizens.
•A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to currently excluded employment areas
•Authority for the Attorney General to institute injunctive suits when constitutional rights are violated.
It doesn’t seem like an unreasonable list, does it? I remember when I was a young girl, my grandmother told me once to always put myself in the shoes of another person to understand where they were coming from with regard to a position they were taking on an issue. It was a great pearl of wisdom that she bestowed upon me, and one that I try to do no matter what the issue. It is a humanizing exercise. It is an exercise in compassion as well.
I remember these words that I learned in school from The Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...”
Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. There is a moral imperative contained in those words. They do not contain a qualifier beyond the word “all”. It was penned that way for a reason. It’s important to remember what was and was not added to those few lines as it pertains to race.
Fifty years have come and gone and we have made many, many positive strides since the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom. We DO have a Civil Rights Act; a Voting Rights Act; a Fair Housing Act; schools were desegregated in the 70's; it is no longer illegal for black and white people to get married; the signs that said “white” and “colored” are no longer hanging by water fountains and booths in restaurants or seats on buses, et all. So many changes....
Still, so much work left to do.
It has been disheartening to see the ugly head of racism raise itself up so clearly in the last few years from the brazen attempts of Congress to thwart each and every attempt of our president to improve and repair a broken economy teetering our Nation on the brink of bankruptcy that he inherited from the previous administration, to every other proposal he has put forward that has been met with vitriolic discourse, to the recent decision in the Trayvon Martin case, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It is clear that we still have work to do before we can honestly say that Dr. King’s dream has been realized.
We have to keep raising our voices for freedom. We must continue to let ourselves be heard about those things that matter. Once again, we must pick up the mantle that A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Cleveland Robinson, John Lewis, Dr. King and so many others carved out on that historic summer’s day 50 years ago.
It is a noble thing to act — to take a stand for something you believe in. I lived in the DelMarVa area of our country for 17 years, which surrounds Washington, D.C.; I have marched several times during the course of my life for causes/issues which I believed strongly in. There is a sense of empowerment that comes when one takes such a stand. Your voice gets stronger. Trust me when I tell you that each voice counts! One voice added to another and another and another builds a mighty choir that cannot be denied.
Our country, once again, is faced with a dire need for jobs. It is faced with a need for a renewed sense of security regarding the hard-fought freedoms that the men and women who marched in defense of those basic civil rights 50 years ago --- with each step they took, for EVERY American then and now, remain in place. Today, on the 50th anniversary of that momentous march, we must continue to fight. Because, if we fail to do so, in the words of Dr. King: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter...”
Black and White~Three Dog Night
“Black and White” is a song written in 1954 by David I. Arkin and Earl Robinson. The most successful recording of the song was the pop version by Three Dog Night in 1972, when it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song was inspired by the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed racial segregation of public schools. The original folk song was first recorded by Sammy Davis Jr. in 1957. The original lyrics of the song opened with this verse, in reference to the court: “Their robes were black, Their heads were white, The schoolhouse doors were closed so tight, Nine judges all set down their names, To end the years and years of shame.”
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